My name is Eugenia Lee, and I’m a transfer student at Tufts University. I will be beginning my junior year in Fall 2009 after spending three semesters at the University of Iowa. I also recently returned from a semester abroad in Nairobi, Kenya, where I studied development, health, and society through SIT and worked with women entrepreneurs in the Kibera slums.
As a transfer student, I hope to be able to record my experiences in transitioning from a Midwestern public state school to living at the border of the slums in Kibera to attending a top Northeastern private school like Tufts- all in less than a year! Besides for this, I hope that, with my different experiences, I will be able to provide a different perspective of Tufts life, for both current students and applicants alike.
I am majoring in anthropology, and hope to work in international development when I grow up. My interests lie in social entrepreneurship, Africa, grassroots movements, and traveling. Besides for being a full-time student, I am currently the Director of Publicity and Community Relations with Travel for Change. I was born in Queens, New York and grew up in Morganville, New Jersey where I indulge in all things Jersey such as jug handles, eating at diners, and going to the shore. In my spare time I like running, photography, obsessively reading my Google Reader feeds (63 and counting!), and going on random adventures.
I am thinking of transfering to tufts as a sophomore next year. I was wondering how housing works for sophomore transfers or if you ever felt that it was difficult to make friends, since everyone already knew each other
Hi Hannah!
The transfers were kind of all over the place in terms of housing this year- but they make an effort to make sure you aren’t the only transfer in a dorm or house. For example, the building I’m in has a TON of transfers that I met my orientation week. I know people in Carmichael Hall, Wilson, McCollester, Hillsides- and they all have fellow transfers they’re either living with or are in the same building with. I can assure you that you definitely won’t feel isolated in the least
I haven’t found it difficult to make friends, largely because of the events planned for transfer students during orientation week- it gave us a lot of time to bond! In addition, all you really have to do is join a lot of different clubs, try different things. People are realllyy nice here and, especially when you’re only going to be in your soph year, will be pretty excited about meeting different people still. It could be that I’m absurdly lucky in meeting awesome people, but I doubt it- you’ll be fine if you come here
Hi Eugenia! First of all, great blog! It’s been really helpful as I’ve been considering Tufts as a transfer option more and more each day
My main question is this: how do you feel about the anthro department so far? Are your classes pretty interesting? As a fellow anthropology major, these are things I must consider, ha.
Thanks a lot!
Hey Jesse! It makes me really really REALLY happy to know that my blog has been helpful!
The anthro department is pretty small compared to my last school- which is understandable considering that my last school was 4x bigger. I absolutely ADORE my classes, however; love the major in general! I’m taking a great one called “Food, Nutrition, and Culture” that’s completely changing the way I look at food every time I eat!
It really depends on what you’re interested in- unfortunately, there’s no one on the faculty who has specialized experience in east Africa, which is what I want. There are a lot of faculty who have experience in Latin America and Asia. You can read more about the faculty here: http://ase.tufts.edu/anthropology/faculty.html
What I would advise would be to look at the anthro courses that are offered at all the schools you’re considering. You can see Tufts’ here: http://ase.tufts.edu/anthropology/academics.html
Let me know if you have any more questions!
I remember this factoring into my decision about what schools to apply to- some had anthropology classes I felt passionate about, some offered classes that felt flat and boring. Hopefully you’ll find Tufts classes interesting
Great, thanks a lot! Some of the classes do look really interesting, not only in the anthro department but some others as well! Tufts is definitely high on my list of potential schools
I actually do have one more question. I know that competition for transfer admission to Tufts is intense, and I’m sort of wondering what my chances are. Basically, do you think you were an “above average” student at your formal school?
The competition to transfer into any school is, in general, rather intense. I will say this: I was pretty depressed my first semester of college and my grades were subpar, but had straight A’s for the three semesters after that along with a summer semester. I did do a lot of things at Iowa that could be considered exceptional- mostly because there weren’t that many people who were seizing those opportunities. At the risk of sounding like a resume, here’s a small list of things I did:
1. Interned for the Obama campaign before the Iowa caucuses
2. Interned and was later hired to a paid position with two nonprofits (about a year total working with the two simultaneously)
3. Was one of 7 undergrads on the University Lecture Committee, which brought a lot of speakers like Alice Sebold, Karl Rove, etc etc. and organized every last detail (this is something I wish Tufts has, but doesn’t really!)
4. Served on the Dean’s Student Advisory Committee and met with the dean once a month to discuss student issues.
Perhaps it’s tacky of me to say this, but it always makes me a little crazy to not know the numbers… even if that might not be the biggest factor. If it helps to know this, my GPA was a 3.76 when I transferred (largely due to my first semester). I’ve had a few other transfer students tell me their GPA, and they actually range from 3.2-3.9+. This can be attributed to differences in schools, etc so that’s important to keep in mind. I would hesitate to refer to myself as an “above average” student so much as lucky to fall into some of the things I did. Anyway, I’m planning on writing more about this in an upcoming blog entry (dirty details and all) so I’ll try to get that done soon. Hope this helped
That helps a lot, actually. Thanks again, I look forward to your next entry!
KIBERA