A University in your backyard

Though Tufts is no longer the commuter school it was in the past, local students from the Medford and Somerville communities continue to enroll at high rates.

Tufts receives between fifteen and twenty-five applications from Medford and Somerville High Schools each year, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin said. Students also apply from several private and parochial schools in the area.

Administrators said there is a comparative advantage to being from a local community. University President Larry Bacow said local students tend to "do far better in the admissions process," than the total applicant pool. Bacow also said local students sometimes receive some bonus financial aid.

"Like legacies, we know our local communities have a special relationship with the University, and that counts for something in the admissions process," Coffin said.

This year, Tufts enrolled six freshmen from Somerville High School and five freshmen from Medford High. With an enrollment rate of over fifty percent, accepted local students who attend Tufts far exceed the average enrollment rate of 8.7 percent for other University applicants.

"In a most-selective admission process like Tufts', these types of matriculation levels are substantial," Coffin said.

Despite the high rates of admissions, Director of Community Relations Barbara Rubel said there are no guarantees in the process. "I would never characterize it as an expectation," she said. "Historically, [local] kids have applied and been admitted to Tufts."

Tufts draws many local applicants partly because of its involvement in the community, said Rubel.

"Students who grew up here form a connection between the University and the community, and that makes us seem like part of their real life environment," she said.

This year, the University hosted the first annual Community Day, an outdoor carnival for local children with free catering from the University. The Leonard Carmichael Society hosts Kids Day and Read by the River each spring for local children. Another LCS Group called Kids for Colleges, and the CHANCE program educates sixth graders about the advantages of high level learning.

The University also allows some high school seniors to audit courses on a space available basis. Rubel said between two and eight students take advantage of the free class. All local residents, including local students, are allowed to use Tufts' libraries.

Such programs are common across the country. Renesslaer Polytechnic Institute offers selected free classes to students through its Young Scholars Program. If a student completes the program with a GPA of above 3.0, they are automatically admitted to the school.

Rubel said the programs were not done with admissions in mind. "They are not done as a recruitment tool, she said. "They are just done [as] community relations."

Somerville High School Guidance Counselor Frank Howard said these programs, along with many traditional factors make Tufts a popular choice at the school. He said students weigh the selectivity of the school, programs offered, the climate and atmosphere of a school when deciding. This year, although no one has applied yet, Howard said one student was showing interest.

One advantage local students do not receive is additional recruitment efforts. This year, no admission officers have visited Somerville High. Howard said Somerville's small size has convinced many recruitment officers to stay away.

"Most colleges don't send representatives like they did ten years ago," Howard said. The school now has to rely on word of mouth, websites, and mailings to draw new students.

He said while other students are drawn by the close location, others are repelled.

Sophomore Tim Manning, a Medford resident, applied to Tufts, along with several schools outside of the Boston area. "I was familiar with the campus, I knew the Boston area, it's easy for me to get home and back," he said.

Ultimately he chose to attend Tufts despite concerns that the University was too close to his home. He described his process of coming to Tufts as similar to other students, in that his knowledge of the school came through tours, flyers, and his sibling's experiences. Two of Manning's older brothers graduated from Tufts in 1998 and 2002.

Massachusetts, and especially the Boston area, has always been a large part of the student body. Last year, 1,015 students, or twenty-four percent of the student body was from the state. The percentage was even higher in decades past, when Tufts was a smaller liberal arts school with a commuter base.

"In the early days of Tufts tradition, everyone who came from Tufts was local. Rubel said, "There were no real dorms on campus."