The Office of Undergraduate Admissions earlier this month launched a revamped website and magazine in order to improve communications with prospective students.
The redesigned website, planned over an 18-month period, combines traditional admissions information with new multimedia and social media features, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin explained.
"The hope is that students bookmark this page and come back to it regularly because they like the conversation that Tufts is having with them about applying to college," he said.
The reconstructed website is designed to appeal to high school students at each stage of their college search, according to Admissions Counselor Justin Pike.
"I think it's certainly an easier site to navigate," Pike said. "Visually, it's more compelling."
The website contains Tufts Blogs, a compilation of blog posts from current students about life at Tufts. Roughly 20 student bloggers, differing in age, background and academic interests contribute regularly, Pike said.
"Inside Admissions," a blog boasting posts authored by nine admissions counselors, offers prospective students a look at what goes on behind the closed doors of Bendetson Hall.
Another prominent feature of the new site is an interactive virtual tour of the campus, which allows viewers to learn about interesting classes to take, common activities in which to take part and campus locations to visit. Pike noted that this multimedia facet of the website will help fully immerse viewers in the campus environment.
"You could make your way to the virtual tour and suddenly find yourself looking at a very rich visual experience," he said.
The remodeled site also allows prospective students to get to know Tufts academia through a series of featured articles highlighting research conducted by professors in a variety of fields.
The admissions office also created a new admissions magazine titled Jumbo, which will be published three times a year and mailed to interested students' homes, according to Coffin. It will also be available to viewers online.
Jumbo will replace the Tufts viewbook as the primary publication for prospective students, he said, promising that there will be no other traditional mailings sent to prospective students.
The admissions office made the switch in response to their high school focus group research.
"Every focus group said the same thing, that colleges send students too much stuff," Coffin said. "There's no reason to develop publications that arrive in someone's mailbox and then get thrown out."
The magazine will feature content geared specifically toward high school students, Coffin explained.
"The idea behind the magazine was to get students information that's pertinent to them at the time that they're reading the magazine," Pike said.
Jumbo is designed to give interested students a real feel for life on the Hill, according to Leslie McCracken, one of the nine freshmen hired for the Tufts Undergraduate Admissions Editorial Board.
"We really want to show that the Tufts student body is fun, trendy, intellectual, and quirky," she said.
Student involvement has been integral to both the renovation of the website and the creation of Jumbo, according to Pike.
"Students are sort of woven into everything we do. They're the ones that make this whole process authentic," he said.
The student editorial board is largely responsible for generating fresh content for the magazine and the website, Coffin explained.
"Our charge to them was, ‘Keep it real,'" he said.
Coffin has high hopes that the new magazine and website will help foster constructive dialogue between Tufts and prospective students.
"Conversation is really the theme of all these new pieces of communication. It's not just a one-way dialogue," Coffin remarked. "We hope it will preserve and enhance the growth we've had over the last several years."
--Corinne Segal contributed reporting to this article.
