Tufts University
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Music
Minor: None
Student Self Identifies as: White Heterosexual Male
Summary
I’m in both the Chamber and Symphony Orchestras, and I get half credit for them. I’m in the Klezmer Music Ensemble, and I do intramural basketball.
Background
Gender Identity: Male
Race/Ethnicity: White
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
High School Experience: Public school in Medford, Massachusetts with a graduating class of about 300 people. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: No
Major: Music
Minor: None
Extracurricular Activities: I’m in both the Chamber and Symphony Orchestras, and I get half credit for them. I’m in the Klezmer Music Ensemble, and I do intramural basketball. Outside of Tufts, I’m in the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, which is a big reason I came to Tufts.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience?
The Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra is quite good, it’s one of the best youth orchestras in the county. When I came, I was skeptical about joining the college orchestra, but I’m glad I did because it’s not about being the best or playing all music perfectly like my orchestra in Boston. It’s an unbelievable social experience and I’ve gotten really close with everyone I’ve met in the orchestra. We have a lot of bonding activities. We have parties, go watch the Boston Symphony, and go skating or bowling together. Most of my friends come from the music community at Tufts.
Academic Experience
Can you describe the weekly coursework for your major?
There are different aspects of the major, and you can concentrate on different things. I’m a classical musician, so there’s a performance aspect. I’m in two Chamber groups, one quartet, and one trio. I take private cello lessons, and in terms of other courses, I take a lot of theory or music analysis research. [We learn how] to analyze the music of Beethoven or Mozart in different ways. I’m often looking at real music that’s been written, actually analyzing it myself, and handing that in as an assignment. This is really cool because it’s not just a problem a teacher came up with, it’s actually a real composer who wrote this a hundred years ago.
Is there anything you feel the Music department does especially well or especially poorly?
I had the opportunity to go to a conservatory when I was looking at schools, and I’m really glad I didn’t. What the Music department here does really well is it emphasizes all types of music, and that’s important to me. Had I gone to a conservatory, I’d be studying only the music the teachers told me to study. Here, you study the music you want to do, and Tufts offers the openness to try whatever you want within a given field.
Can you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s competitive or collaborative?
It’s super collaborative I’d say. I think almost every major at Tufts could say there’s not that much feeling of cutthroat competition, which is good because I don’t thrive in those environments. There’s competition without the desire to win, it’s good competition. Most people here appreciate it. You can collaborate with your peers, work with them across different fields, and all have a greater understanding of what it’s like to be a Tufts student.
How accessible are your professors?
Super accessible. I can walk into my advisor’s office anytime, and we can sit there and talk for hours about all sorts of music. He has come to see my concerts before, and we’ve gone to see other concerts together. We talk all the time, and that’s just one professor. I’m very close with all of my professors, last week I went out for barbecue with a different one.
Why did you choose your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I want to go to a conservatory for graduate school because that’s important if you want to be a classical musician these days. I chose Music because I felt like the Music department here is very academic. A lot of conservatories are very performance-based, but I felt here the professors are very intelligent and that took me by surprise. They think about music in such an academic way that [it influences me to also] think about music that way. They gave me the confidence to know I can be successful and happy with when I walk out of this institution and approach music the way they did, without anything to fall back on.
How is managing your coursework with all of your outside music commitments?
That’s been tough and is actually why I’m just a Music major. I originally came in wanting to do Political Science as well, and I was taking some classes. I found it to be stretching myself a little too thin because I enjoyed political science and the idea of it, but the level of how specific we were getting into certain text and theory, I wanted to get that in music. I feel like I couldn’t get it in either because I had to dig too deep in both fields. I dropped my Political Science major to focus on music, and I’ve been able to focus on it this semester in a really great way. I will say that the course load is a lot and you definitely have to have a good understanding of what you want to do. You have to know how to balance your time.
Reasons to Attend
1) Students with many different interests come together here, and you can learn so much from all of them.
2) The professors are super knowledgeable and very impressive in how willing they are to interact one on one with the students.
3) The amount of non-course related things Tufts has to offer is [very strong], and that’s really cool and something you can’t get in many places.
4) I think Tufts students learn to think in a very critical way, and can apply it in a lot of fields where they normally wouldn’t.
Reasons Not to Attend
None
Around Campus
Where have you lived on campus?
Freshman: Miller Hall with one random roommate.
Sophomore: Wren Hall in a suite of ten boys, and I have my own roommate.
How do you like going to school in your hometown?
I didn’t expect to be going here, but I really like it. I don’t feel like I’m in my hometown at all. I feel like I’m in a bubble where I can go anywhere I want. I can go to Boston, Cambridge, Harvard, or back home, but I don’t feel like I’m in the place I grew up in. It’s a really interesting feeling, and I do love that I know where everything is. There are so many interesting places in the world, and I enjoy traveling, but I’m definitely a person who loves the idea of knowing what he has. I know and love Boston, and looking back I don’t think I could’ve gone to a place where Boston wasn’t right in my backyard.
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
I go to concerts a lot, and that’s what I spend most of my time and money on. By this, I mean the Boston Symphony, the Boston Philharmonic, or whatever orchestra or classical music I see. When I’m not doing that, I haven’t done much this semester except sit in my room and watch movies. That’s mostly because my girlfriend is abroad right now. We would usually go out on the weekends to a party. We don’t go to any random frat party, we usually go to the houses of our friends to see people and socialize. The only musical parties are if the orchestras have one, which is only two or three times a semester.
What’s an alternative to going to a party or a bar that you like for a night out?
There’s so much it’s great. Tufts University Social Collective (TUSC) provides awesome non-alcoholic activities for people to bond and do great things. Last Thursday at midnight, they bussed a lot of people who bought tickets to go see Captain Marvel. There are also a ton of student performance groups whether it be standup comedy, dance, or music groups. You can always go to events or plays. There are also things to do in Boston, like great concert acts that come in, and places to out and have a nice dinner.
How happy are you with the weekend activities or nightlife at Tufts? Is there anything you would change if you could?
I’m happy with the weekend options, but I probably party less than most people I know. I’m fine because I love going to concerts, doing things in Boston, or going to shows and seeing my friends perform. But, I know that people sometimes complain about the party life at Tufts.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
I met my girlfriend in the orchestra in the first week of school. My other close friend, I met at the freshman orientation talent show. She won playing the viola. I talked to her because she was someone else who played a string instrument, and we became good friends. I met a lot of my other friends through the orchestra. I’m also close to kids in my Chinese class, and I met my current roommate through a class freshman year.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Tufts?
I think people are very social, and that has to do with the whole collaborative aspect of the university. People joke that everyone at Tufts has their quirk. As much as we joke about that, people are interested in finding out what everyone’s thing is. In terms of going out and doing things, I would also say it’s very social. You can always find people in the library on the weekend, but it’s definitely a social place.
To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
That’s something I was surprised about when I came to Tufts. They brand themselves as a very diverse school, and I came in to find that it actually wasn’t as diverse as I thought it would be. This is probably because I came from a very diverse high school. Not only do I pretty much see White people all the time, if I see minorities they are generally only hanging out with each other. It’s always been a little weird that I have no Black friends at Tufts, and that kind of blows my mind because in high school that’s something I wouldn’t even question. It seems kind of seems separate if I’m being honest. In terms of sexual orientation, I think this is a very liberal place, and people of various sexual orientations interact with each other all the time. That’s something nice, and people are super open with who they are and who you can be. [In Fall 2018, 11% of undergraduates were international students and 55% of students were White.]
How would you describe the student body?
Generally, when I think about Tufts, I think everyone has a passion. Sometimes it’s weird and oddly specific or niche, and sometimes it’s not. Everyone has something that if you get them started talking about, they aren’t going to stop. Everyone has something that their friends roll their eyes at when it’s brought up because they know they can talk about it forever. I wouldn’t say it’s a very rushed or crunchy environment, but it’s quirky.
How do you like the size of Tufts in terms of undergraduate enrollment? [There are about 5,500 undergraduates.]
I think it’s a perfect size. Any bigger and I wouldn’t be able to recognize people walking from class to class, which I like. Any smaller and it might seem too much like a high school where everyone knows each other. I like the idea that you can go into the dining hall and there may be a sea of faces, but some of the faces you know from different areas of your life.
Careers
What have you used the career office for? How helpful have they been?
I’ve used them to look over my resume and cover letter, and they’ve been very helpful with that. It’s not something you’re really taught in high school, and they can be very honest with you about what you need to put, what looks great, and what you’re doing well.
Have you learned any computer programs or computer languages that will be helpful professionally?
I took Intro to Computer Science, and I learned C++ which is not necessarily related to music.