More effective than glossy photos of smiling students served up in a pamphlet at the admissions office, Tufts' retention rate of nearly 96 percent serves as a tangible representation of most Jumbos' satisfaction with their university.
But what about the four percent that detract from Tufts' perfect score? What made these former students choose to leave Tufts in favor of other institutions? The Daily spoke to several ex-Jumbos who cited a variety of factors that led them to transfer.
For Jasmine Lister, a former Tufts student who is now a sophomore at the College of William and Mary, the main problem with Tufts was financial.
"For the experience I was getting there [at Tufts] I felt that it was too expensive," Lister said. As a native of Virginia, Lister is much more comfortable with her parents paying in-state tuition at William and Mary. According to her, her new school is not only cheaper, but also has better facilities.
"The gym [at Tufts] is old and small; some of the dorms have rats and are falling apart," she said. "The public state school I'm going to has much better facilities than Tufts."
Lister has also found the academic experience to be more rewarding in her new school. "I feel like the advisors are much more helpful here. My academic advisor sat down with me and helped plan out every class I will be taking from now until senior year. At Tufts, I didn't get a lot of advice from the administration."
Samir Kapadia, former Tufts student and current sophomore at Georgetown University, shared Lister's concerns about an improved academic experience. For Kapadia, however, the problem was more about location than the quality of the institution itself.
"The main reason I transferred from Tufts was because of my major," Kapadia said. "Studying government, I felt that transferring to Georgetown would not only give me the opportunity to be closer to Washington D.C., but give me the chance to fulfill an internship in the House of Representatives."
Otherwise, Kapadia said, Tufts would have been great. "Looking back on my freshman year at Tufts, there was nothing that I disliked about the school," Kapadia said. "In fact, being a transfer, I've realized how good of a school Tufts really is - when I tell people that I transferred from Tufts, they raise an eyebrow."
Current Duke sophomore and ex-Jumbo Greg Tung agreed that the academic offerings at Tufts were excellent, but said the poor social life on campus had a negative effect on his life at college.
"I transferred because the social life at Tufts was very limited, and then when I joined a frat and finally found a social scene that I really liked, our frat was suspended and put on probation," Tung said in an e-mail. "One of the best things about my new school is that there is a lot more unity among the student body and the school helps provide you with things to do. You don't have to always create your own fun."
Assistant Director of Admissions Matthew Hyde, who is a member of the transfer admissions team at Tufts, said he finds that people often transfer from an institution because they want to be closer to home or because the institution hasn't met their academic expectations.
For Lister and Kapadia, both of these reasons were factors in their decisions to leave.
"Being that my family lives in the Washington D.C. area, it was definitely convenient for me to transfer to a school that was closer to home, but was by no means the reason I left," Kapadia said.
For Lister, a variety of personal dissatisfactions with Tufts pushed her over the edge.
"I didn't have the best experience with my roommate," Lister said. "I was living in South Hall and there was a ton of construction going on. It was tough to adjust to New England culture and the cold weather." Lister said that while the weather improved when she moved, she does miss the diversity of the Tufts student body because, according to her, this diversity is increasingly lacking as one goes further south.
According to Hyde, "When the admissions office admits students, it is their hope that students have done their research on the school." With this in mind, he said, it is the responsibility of students to make a well-informed decision about the institution they attend, rather than assuming that the school will automatically meet their expectations.
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said most students who transfer from Tufts do so for a simple reason: they arrived at the beginning of their freshman year not committed to the institution.
"The most common reason for people to leave Tufts was that it wasn't their first choice, and that they always had their eyes on another place," he said.
Reitman said most students enjoy their time at Tufts, and he regrets the fact that people leave simply because other schools have greater name recognition. For the students that struggle academically or socially at Tufts, he said, the administration will gladly try to provide them with the resources they need.
"We are here to make the place work for the students," he said.
