Welcome to the Hill, most coveted incoming freshmen; let the seduction of the Class of 2011 begin!
That's right, first-years, over the next six days, you will be bombarded with fliers, pamphlets, e-mails and sidewalk chalk messages, all of which will entice you to join one, two or 67 of the gazillion student organizations Tufts has to offer. These advertising gimmicks will range from clever to inane to emotionally traumatizing, but they will all aim to satisfy the innate first-year desire to find one's place in the broad Tufts universe.
Ours is by no means one of those vast, 40,000-person campuses where your own roommate wouldn't even notice if you went missing for a week. But Tufts is an incredibly vibrant, lively community where you will inevitably feel guilty if your name isn't on least three groups' mailing lists by the time orientation wraps up on Monday. Jumbos tend to push themselves to extremes-and usually far beyond-when it comes to their collegiate lives, whether socially, academically, or even physically-hey, that hill is steep.
But here's an insider secret that will save you a lot of time, anxiety and discarded fliers littering your dorm room floor: College isn't about getting your name onto as many mailing lists as possible. Instead, the goal of your Tufts experience should be to find a niche that allows you to hone your skills and interests or introduce you to new ones you didn't even know you had. It should be about finding the most valuable things you've got inside you and using them to shape our student body into a dynamic, intensely interesting environment, one that will produce equally dynamic, intensely interesting individuals to line up for diplomas four years from now.
The Tufts Daily attempts to do this five times a week, every time we publish an issue. Our News, Features, Arts and Sports departments give students with a flair for writing and an inquiring mind an outlet through which they are able to communicate vital, relevant, engaging information to their classmates. Our Viewpoints section provides a public forum wherein all members of our community can opine on and debate important campus issues. And our Production and Photo departments utilize their members' creative and technological talents to bring you our content in the most creative and effective ways possible, both in print and on our Web site.
If you read that description of our organization and felt an overwhelming desire to be a part of it, please send us an e-mail, visit our table at the Activities Fair on Sept. 10, or attend our general interest meeting that same week. Give us your time and your effort, and we will give you a truly enriching experience that makes your years at Tufts incredibly worthwhile.
And if student journalism (or production, or photography) isn't your thing, that's fine, too. Pick up a copy of our paper in the academic buildings or dining halls and let it inform and entertain you. More importantly, get out there and devote yourself to the club or group that does pique your interest and give us something amazing to report on.
After all, every one of you received a letter last spring inviting you to come to this school, presumably because you have some wonderful talents that the admissions office felt Tufts simply couldn't live without. So now that you're here, don't waste those precious talents putting your John Hancock on every sign-up sheet you pass and attending all the general interest meetings listed on TuftsLife.com just to ensure yourself a month's worth of free pizza.
Find something you love, throw yourself into it, and reap all the benefits it has to offer. There is no surer way to successfully navigate your way through college than to firmly embed yourself in one special aspect of the Tufts culture and help to change and improve it.
Hey, it worked for me.
