2024-2025 Tufts

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CheeesyBoi said:

1. Do you wish to share a specific reason why have you chosen to apply to Tufts University School of Medicine? (Yes/No)​

2. Please briefly describe your plans for the coming year. Will you be a student, working, conducting research, volunteering, or other activities?​

3. Please tell us about your journey to medical school and how your background and experiences will positively impact your future as a medical student and physician. If you have experienced personal circumstances or hardships that have helped you develop qualities that you believe will allow you to better serve your future patients and the medical community as a whole, please share those experiences in your response.​

4. Which of your experiences with clinical medicine or healthcare has best prepared you for a future career as a physician, and why? Please tell us about the specific experience, the skills you acquired, and the insights you gained about the profession of medicine.​

5. Tufts University School of Medicine is committed to social responsibility, and to serve and advocate for all people. Have you done substantial work or service that has contributed to societal good, or addressed social determinants of health, health equity, or social justice? (Yes/No)​

6. Do you have any withdrawals or repeated coursework listed on your transcript(s).​

7. Did you take any leaves of absence or significant breaks from your undergraduate education? (Do not include time off after graduation.)​

8. Because your academics (grades and MCAT scores) will not be shared with interviewers until after you complete your interview, we encourage you to use this space to elaborate on any academic challenges you have overcome since completing high school. We understand that many applicants encounter academic hardships along the way. We believe that such difficulties offer an opportunity for growth and would appreciate learning how your experiences have affected your approach to academics. If you have not encountered any difficulties, you may answer 'No.'​


@wysdoc @chilly_md
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how are people answering #8? also, if I have one No Credit grade, should I answer #6?
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Agape_ornis said:
should I answer question 8? I have a 4.0 gpa and the only thing I can think of is when I was struggling with studying for the mcat because my family came to live with me and my responsibilities shifted and had to study at night. not sure if that is enough? i dont want to answer for answering.
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My advice is no. If you have a 4.0 gpa and the academic hardship you want to describe is a struggle to fit in MCAT studying with other responsibilities, it won't add anything to your application and might be detrimental if your application reviewer is in an impatient mood.
 
Would you advise to answer #8 if my GPA has a trend upwards (from ~3.5 in freshman/sophomore year to 4.0 in junior/senior year) as I improved my study methods?
 
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Agape_ornis said:
what does tufts values in an applicant? especially one out of state. Do you have any tips for the secondaries? thank you
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I don’t think tufts is looking for any specific applicant, but the school itself seems to emphasize public health (they have a 4 year MD/MPH), health equity, social justice. I wouldn’t say they are a service or social justice heavy school but they seem to really value your volunteering experiences with underserved communities, but tbh I think they value everything as a whole.

My general secondaries advice is that if you can tie your experiences to something the school offers that’s always nice. Tufts seems to have added a few secondary prompts but have short character counts but I don’t think there’s a specific thing they are looking for or trying to trick you on, just answer with what you’re most passionate about bc my interviewer and I talked a lot about my secondary.
 
For the question "Tufts values include a commitment to social responsibility; to serve and advocate for all people, especially underserved and vulnerable patients and populations, by addressing social determinants of health, health equity, social justice, and stewardship of social resources. Have you done substantial work or volunteer service in such communities?", does being a personal care aide for those with advanced dementia count? I wouldn't assume so, but patients with advanced dementia face lack of care and the ones that I care for are often kicked out of nursing homes. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Also wondering about question 8, can I write my reasoning for why I had an unbalanced MCAT score?
 
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D3FishOil said:
Also wondering about question 8, can I write my reasoning for why I had an unbalanced MCAT score?
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I think the perspective you take + reflection is important esp bc it asks about how you’ve grown. If you were to write about it make sure you’re not just explaining why it happened but also how you’ve changed since then. Otherwise it’s not worth bringing attention to it.

I personally felt it was unnecessary to write this but I still wrote about retaking MCAT from mid 500s to 510s and how I changed my study habits + learned to rely on support from others and it came up positively in my interview which I was surprised they cared about
 
Is there any current student who can answer a question about whether or not a specific program still exists? Pls message me! Thank u!
 
cdonlon said:
For the question "Tufts values include a commitment to social responsibility; to serve and advocate for all people, especially underserved and vulnerable patients and populations, by addressing social determinants of health, health equity, social justice, and stewardship of social resources. Have you done substantial work or volunteer service in such communities?", does being a personal care aide for those with advanced dementia count? I wouldn't assume so, but patients with advanced dementia face lack of care and the ones that I care for are often kicked out of nursing homes. Any help would be appreciated.
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I can totally see that patient population facing barriers of care. Especially considering they often cannot advocate for themselves. In my opinion, I'd go for it! 🙂
 
anybody filling out #9? don't know if i should since there technically is a why tufts essay and a diversity essay already...but they're only 1000 char.
 
altftwelve said:
anybody filling out #9? don't know if i should since there technically is a why tufts essay and a diversity essay already...but they're only 1000 char.
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I didn’t. Between the other questions I was able to cover why tufts, diversity, and challenge so I really didn’t have anything else
 
"Tufts University School of Medicine is committed to social responsibility, and to serve and advocate for all people. Have you done substantial work or service that has contributed to societal good, or addressed social determinants of health, health equity, or social justice? (Yes/No)"

Chat what are we considering as substantial?

I have some service activities I'm very passionate about, but my service in them is normal and the hours aren't crazy... so idk if it would be considered 'substantial'
 
robot_soup said:
"Tufts University School of Medicine is committed to social responsibility, and to serve and advocate for all people. Have you done substantial work or service that has contributed to societal good, or addressed social determinants of health, health equity, or social justice? (Yes/No)"

Chat what are we considering as substantial?

I have some service activities I'm very passionate about, but my service in them is normal and the hours aren't crazy... so idk if it would be considered 'substantial'
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Meh, it's somewhat vague. Personally I would say 1 year+ commitment and at least a couple hundred hours. But you could also take the "substantial" to mean IMPACT rather than time/dedication. Like, maybe you spent two months doing habitat for humanity building houses or something.

Hard to say if your service is substantial without knowing what it is/how much time you spent. But if you feel like you have more to say about it, and it would add to your app, then I say go for it!
 
robot_soup said:
"Tufts University School of Medicine is committed to social responsibility, and to serve and advocate for all people. Have you done substantial work or service that has contributed to societal good, or addressed social determinants of health, health equity, or social justice? (Yes/No)"

Chat what are we considering as substantial?

I have some service activities I'm very passionate about, but my service in them is normal and the hours aren't crazy... so idk if it would be considered 'substantial'
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I had low hours for the service activities I used for this prompt, and the one I had the least hours in (<50) I was the most passionate about. I did have 1-2 years commitment and but it only happened once a month. I think they can tell through your writing how impactful an experience is to you. I was really doubting whether they would consider mine substantial but it came up during both interviews in a positive way
 
scampi said:
Incoming student here! Happy to answer any questions about the secondary or Tufts application process as I was just in your shoes 🙂
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What has been your favorite course or aspect of Tufts so far?
 
ankaraMessi said:
What has been your favorite course or aspect of Tufts so far?
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Haven’t started yet, but I’m prob most excited about the selective courses early first year which are completely optional but meant for specialty exploration. We get to do 4 diff ones (4 sessions each I think?) and it’s mostly shadowing but there are other types and you can create your own. I think they happen at the same time as MPH courses so if you are doing the dual degree you won’t be able to, but otherwise I think ~40%-80% do some in a given year.

We also have a students-as-teachers requirement that seems chill/low stress but they want you to have a teaching/mentoring experience before graduating, they have a big list of options (~50 maybe?) or you can create your own. Unfortunately I don’t have access to the list yet but they gave us a breakdown
 
@wysdoc definitely minor but for question 5, once you click yes, the prompt that pops up is "Please describe the work or service, and how it has influenced your perspective on the role of a physician in society."
 
For the english competency, do we just say "I graduated from an english speaking university" or should we list english/writing classes if we took them?
 
beanie12 said:
For the english competency, do we just say "I graduated from an english speaking university" or should we list english/writing classes if we took them?
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I just said I graduated from an english speaking university
 
beanie12 said:
For the english competency, do we just say "I graduated from an english speaking university" or should we list english/writing classes if we took them?
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It says graduating from an english language college is all that's necessary, so no need for extra info.
 
What is everyone doing for the "ask you to indicate how you have met these prerequisites" part of this? Are you just listing the courses or are you writing a blurb describing how they met the requirement too??

In the sections that follow, we list our prerequisites and ask you to indicate how you have met these prerequisites or their equivalent.
 
robot_soup said:
What is everyone doing for the "ask you to indicate how you have met these prerequisites" part of this? Are you just listing the courses or are you writing a blurb describing how they met the requirement too??

In the sections that follow, we list our prerequisites and ask you to indicate how you have met these prerequisites or their equivalent.
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If it's a course that qualifies you, just list it.
If you have some other means of meeting the requirement, i.e. lab work, then briefly explain.
(Is how I interpret it.)
 
I submitted my secondary a while ago and realized I only listed 2 courses with lab components for the laboratory competency box. I misread “2 year” as “2 courses” so I did not list the other 2 lab courses I took.

Should I email them to update this? They have my full course list from AMCAS so I don’t know if I need to call into attention this mistake I made. Please advise!
 
viking_lama said:
How competitive is the Maine-track program? If you are from Maine - is the Maine track comparable to a school with an in-state preference?
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I think possibly? Especially since Maine doesn't have an in-state MD school
 
Hanako-kun said:
I submitted my secondary a while ago and realized I only listed 2 courses with lab components for the laboratory competency box. I misread “2 year” as “2 courses” so I did not list the other 2 lab courses I took.

Should I email them to update this? They have my full course list from AMCAS so I don’t know if I need to call into attention this mistake I made. Please advise!
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I would email them. Better safe than sorry
 
acetylcola said:
I think possibly? Especially since Maine doesn't have an in-state MD school
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They def have in state preference but you don’t have to be a Maine resident to apply + get in. They are rural health focused so p diff from Boston track, I would choose based on what you prefer.
 
My primary application was processed on 7/18/24 and I still haven't received my secondary application. Has anyone else been experiencing delays?
 
ClashRoyaleKing said:
You got a complete email? I never got one but the portal says my app is ready.
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Screenshot 2024-08-16 104342.png

Yup! With this email header
 
Congrats to everyone getting II's!! Have there been any Maine Track II's or only Boston?
 
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