Tufts 2025-2026 (c/o 2030 hopefuls)

Started by supershorty
Veterinary Science Graduate Programs from U. of I.
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Browse articles Compare schools My application plan Read Interview Feedback
Practice for interviews Ask an Advisor
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Hey all! Current first-year here. If you have any questions while sitting and waiting to hear back (the worst part of the application cycle), feel free to message me (or just ask here)
 
Concat265 said:
Hey all! Current first-year here. If you have any questions while sitting and waiting to hear back (the worst part of the application cycle), feel free to message me (or just ask here)
Click to expand...
Thanks! How are you liking your first year? I only applied to Tufts so I have nothing to break up the waiting and it’s been rough! Please let us know if you hear anything about decision timing!
 
sabza said:
Thanks! How are you liking your first year? I only applied to Tufts so I have nothing to break up the waiting and it’s been rough! Please let us know if you hear anything about decision timing!
Click to expand...
I am enjoying first year. I won't lie, its really hard but it still feels fulfilling. The new curriculum can be frustrating at times because they are still figuring things out so not everything is running smoothly. They are also starting in on some new construction at the moment which I was anticipating to be more disrupting than it actually has been. Let me know if you have any particular questions!

I have not heard anything about the timing for the decision release. Last year I hear back mid-afternoon on February 20
 
Concat265 said:
Hey all! Current first-year here. If you have any questions while sitting and waiting to hear back (the worst part of the application cycle), feel free to message me (or just ask here)
Click to expand...
Hello! the waiting is excruciating, especially since, like Sabza, I applied solely to Tufts. I’ve been reviewing the first two years of the new curriculum and I am curious: do you find that the coursework revisits the foundational science concepts from your undergraduate studies, albeit in a more advanced and accelerated manner? To be honest, I feel as though I could go a lifetime without hearing the terms "ETC" or "Lac Operon" again!

Furthermore, when you say it is "really hard", - is it due to the amount of lectures/material or the actual content?


Also, thank you for volunteering to be tribute to those of us waiting in purgatory!
 
Snickerpedias said:
Hello! the waiting is excruciating, especially since, like Sabza, I applied solely to Tufts. I’ve been reviewing the first two years of the new curriculum and I am curious: do you find that the coursework revisits the foundational science concepts from your undergraduate studies, albeit in a more advanced and accelerated manner? To be honest, I feel as though I could go a lifetime without hearing the terms "ETC" or "Lac Operon" again!

Furthermore, when you say it is "really hard", - is it due to the amount of lectures/material or the actual content?


Also, thank you for volunteering to be tribute to those of us waiting in purgatory!
Click to expand...
Tbh, currently just procrastinating studying for parasitology, but more than happy serve as tribute to help with this time period.

I think that the coursework does a good job of revisiting the fundamentals so that everyone is on the same page, but this does mean that for some people, a particular unit is going to be really easy but to another person the same unit is really difficult. Up to this point, we have not revisited the Lac Operon, but we did to the TCA cycle (gag). The faculty have also been working really hard to coordinate the course content between courses so that when we are learning about nematodes in parasitology, we work through a case about Haemonchus contortus in our Clinical Relevance Thread.

When I saw it is really hard, I mean that there is just so much information being thrown at us that it is nearly impossible to memorize it all. Some people manage it and to them I tip my hat. We also have exams nearly every week which can be hard to stay on top of, but my time management skills have definitely improved lol.
 
I am also a first-year and agree with Concat265 on everything they said. The weekly exams are rough but all the professors clearly are passionate about what they teach and it shows in their lectures. They continuously ask for feedback even throughout the courses and try to implement what we suggest mid-course.

Regarding difficulty, I say if we had this material in undergrad over a semester, we probably would have done well so it is really the timing that is difficult. It is also tiring since you can have up to 6 hours of lecture for a single course over one week so it is very easy to fall behind since concepts of course tend to build on one another. Our days are now roughly 8-4pm with a lunch hour in between so it can be mentally tiring and hard to study when you get home (I'm sure this is the same for all schools). The afternoon is reserved for light classes (P/F courses), labs, and other various group work. All the intense lectures are normally not required to show up in person and are always held in the morning. Professors hold review sessions before an exam. I have enjoyed that the week of an Anatomy exam, for example, they won't schedule any Anatomy content for the week except a lab.


I thought breaking down the schedule would be helpful as that was something I wish I knew more about when choosing a school. However, Tufts is still adjusting and the next year may be tweaked a bit.

Hope this helps some more and feel free to ask me some more questions as well 🙂
 
kaybear said:
I am also a first-year and agree with Concat265 on everything they said. The weekly exams are rough but all the professors clearly are passionate about what they teach and it shows in their lectures. They continuously ask for feedback even throughout the courses and try to implement what we suggest mid-course.

Regarding difficulty, I say if we had this material in undergrad over a semester, we probably would have done well so it is really the timing that is difficult. It is also tiring since you can have up to 6 hours of lecture for a single course over one week so it is very easy to fall behind since concepts of course tend to build on one another. Our days are now roughly 8-4pm with a lunch hour in between so it can be mentally tiring and hard to study when you get home (I'm sure this is the same for all schools). The afternoon is reserved for light classes (P/F courses), labs, and other various group work. All the intense lectures are normally not required to show up in person and are always held in the morning. Professors hold review sessions before an exam. I have enjoyed that the week of an Anatomy exam, for example, they won't schedule any Anatomy content for the week except a lab.


I thought breaking down the schedule would be helpful as that was something I wish I knew more about when choosing a school. However, Tufts is still adjusting and the next year may be tweaked a bit.

Hope this helps some more and feel free to ask me some more questions as well 🙂
Click to expand...
Thanks for the extra detail! When you say that the intense lectures don’t normally require in person attendance, is that because they are streamable and/or recorded?
 
Fishy_Applicant said:
Hey there. I'm a first year student. I can try and give some insight. A little disclaimer, obviously I don't know what the old curriculum was because I wasn't there so this is me speculating a bit.

So, I Think the changes were more of a reorganizing of the same content more or less. I.e., what was taught in the old corriculum is roughly the same as what is still being taught, they just moved stuff around a bit and reorganized it along some big picture themes. They call them "Threads".

THe V28s had it a bit rough because the school hadn't fine tuned the new schedule yet. They ended up having several very important and large exams stacked on top of each other. Having taken these exams NOT stacked on each other, I can only imagine how rough that must have been.

To the schools credit, they are absolutely evolving to not make the same mistakes and the powers-that-be take feedback pretty well I believe. For instance they did not stack massive exams on us, they figured out how to spread them out better.

I wouldn't be super concerned about the new curriculum being a negative FWIW. The material is great and the whole experience is pretty enjoyable. Hard, but enjoyable. If you've got some more questions, I don't mind trying to help where I can.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this! Would you say Tufts has exams super frequently or is it more like a finals week at the end of the semester? And did the hands on/clinical experience change at all with the new curriculum?
 
pexigirl said:
Thank you for this! Would you say Tufts has exams super frequently or is it more like a finals week at the end of the semester? And did the hands on/clinical experience change at all with the new curriculum?
Click to expand...
We have exams almost every week starting about four(ish) weeks into the semester. There will be some weeks that we will have off, but they are relatively few. There is also a finals week at the end of the semester, but not all courses will have an exam during that week. There is typically only one exam per week. Last semester there was a week that we had two exams, a practical dissection exam and a practical clinical skills exam. That sucked.

I don't believe the overall clinical experience changed much. I think there are actually more opportunities to get into the hospital. We have selectives (fancy electives) which can you into the large or small animal hospital, along with some other really cool opportunities.

sabza said:
Thanks for the extra detail! When you say that the intense lectures don’t normally require in person attendance, is that because they are streamable and/or recorded?
Click to expand...
All of the non-required lectures are recorded and accessible on Canvas. There have been times that the recording system malfunctioned for whatever reason, in which case professors will usually post their own recording of the lecture.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
pexigirl said:
Thank you for this! Would you say Tufts has exams super frequently or is it more like a finals week at the end of the semester? And did the hands on/clinical experience change at all with the new curriculum?
Click to expand...
Like Concat, I don't think there was a change in curriculum for hands-on classes. The clubs here are extensive and have are connected to interesting doctors/shelters/facilities who enjoy hosting student experiences. I also work in the campus hospital as a student technician and started September of my first year. I had no previous experience in this specific department so it was pretty cool to me that I was able to do that basically as soon as I got here. I know several other first and second year students who are volunteers or student technicians in the hospital as well.

I think whatever effort you put into gaining hands-on experiences, you will get if that makes sense.
 
sometimes the page glitches and takes me to a new page thats different from the portal. but usually when i refresh or login again, it takes me back to the original page with all the links. hope that helps
 
Checked last years thread and it looks like the links disappearing happens to everyone eventually and doesn’t mean much. What is strange though is last year it happened after the MPH app deadline whereas this year it happened before?
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
notliterally said:
Are we sure that the link disappearances don't mean anything?
Click to expand...
I read through the ‘29 forum and it happened to students in waves over a few days and decisions were released soon after, but there didn’t seem to be any correlation between when your links disappeared and if you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected etc
 
the results will probably come out tomorrow or friday so best of luck everyone!!! we waited so long and proud of everyone for sticking it out this far. good luckkkk <3
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Can someone be honest with me about my chances of getting in? I’ve gotten one rejection and two waitlists so far so I’m getting nervous. I have a 3.8 GPA, 1,400 hours of vet experience including exotics and ER, 6,000 hours of animal experience including horses, 50 hours of research, 5,000 hours of other employment experience, I was a peer mentor and was on leadership in a few clubs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
Clemson University 2025-2026 (c/o 2030 Hopefuls)
2
Replies
54
Views
12K
ktmac.12
K
C
Arkansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine 2025-2026 (c/o 2030 hopefuls)
3 4 5 6 7
Replies
323
Views
52K
meg.eli.c
meg.eli.c
supershorty
Tufts 2026-2027 (c/o 2031 hopefuls)
Replies
3
Views
1K
WonderingStudent
WonderingStudent
supershorty
University of Arizona 2026-2027 (c/o 2030 hopefuls)
Replies
22
Views
3K
cardamom23
cardamom23
thunder27104
Waitlist C/O 2030 hopefuls!
2 3
Replies
145
Views
35K
muffyish
muffyish