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Ariesathena thank you for answering all my previous questions, I really appreciated it. I have a couple of more questions about admissions to Tufts and general questions. Tufts has this program with its pre-med students, allowing to have a early gurantee to med school in their sophomore year. How competetive is this program among the pre-med students, and what are the basic requirements? What are the percentage who get into this, does everyone who meets the requirements? Does Tufts have a major or minor in sanskript? Up to how many minors can you do in Tufts? I want to major in physics, and want to minor in subjects like anthropology,mathematics, sanskript, etc... Thank you again, I will always be grateful to you!

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Friday, November 28, 2003 - 07:55 pm: Edit

Horseman:

I do not know much about the early acceptance into med school for Tufts... here is the website:

http://www.tufts.edu/med/admissions/BA_MD.html

Here is an excerpt:

To be eligible to apply, candidates for this program must be sophomores at either Tufts, Brandeis, or Boston College and must have demonstrated academic excellence in their freshman and sophomore course work, particularly in the premedical science courses.

Eligible candidates will have attained a Science GPA (calculated on grades earned in courses offered by the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Math) and a Total GPA (calculated on grades earned in all course work) equal to or greater than 3.5. By the end of the sophomore year (which in some cases may include the summer term between the sophomore and junior years), eligible candidates will have taken two semesters of biology, two semesters of general chemistry, and at least one semester of organic chemistry. (See FAQ below for more information regarding eligibility issues).

The most competitive candidates will have had some volunteer or employment experience in a health care setting.

~~ which answers most of your questions, and

Over the last several years, we have typically received between two and three dozen applications for this program each year. Of the applicants who meet the minimum eligibility requirements, a large majority (>70%) are invited to interview. Of those who are interviewed, a large majority (>70%) are admitted to the BA/MD Early Acceptance Program.

~~ should answer the part regarding admission rates. Note that admission to TUSM is usually around 7% (yes, that is a one digit number!).

Tufts does not have a Sanskrit major or minor. You can cross-register for credit at Boston College or Brandeis; check to see if they have Sanskrit classes. Harvard is about fifteen minutes away from Tufts, and they do have extensive Sanskrit.

You can take one, two, or three majors at Tufts. You can major and minor; you might be able to double major and minor (you weren't allowed to up through my junior year... I think they changed it, I realized that if I were class of 2004 I could have gotten a minor in math). You cannot double minor. You are certainly allowed to take extensive classes which would compromise two minors and a major, but you only get credit for one minor. I don't think you can minor in anthropology. You could always major in physics, and then design your own major (if you can argue that anthro and Sanskrit are close enough and find a way to make it work). I would recommend the latter route. Many professors will do independent studies with you if you would like to study Sanskirt (anthro, classics, or Ex College departments would be great for this).

One last thing: if you major in physics, you will need to take up through multivariable calculus. You are also allowed to apply a bunch of math courses towards the physics major. So, you could do something like a physics major with emphasis on math, and then do an anthro/sociology/language as your own major or as a minor/concentration.

Good luck!

By Horseman (Horseman) on Friday, November 28, 2003 - 10:13 pm: Edit

Ariesathena (Ariesathena), are Tufts students' eligible to take courses at Harvard University and how would we? Have you or any of your friends ever done this? Thank you

By Horseman (Horseman) on Saturday, November 29, 2003 - 09:36 am: Edit

bumpity bump

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Saturday, November 29, 2003 - 06:47 pm: Edit

I took a course at Harvard over the summer for credit; some of my friends have done likewise. Now, when you are doing a transfer of credit, you have to get permission beforehand from the department chair (which is rarely denied - I mean, you would have to be asking for something really strange for them to not approve). Then, you sign up through the Harvard Extension School (if you see the Harvard website, it's under the Continuing Education page) for whatever class you want to take. Afterwards, you submit your transcript to the registrar, and you get a pass/fail grade on your Tufts transcript. That's the actual mechanics of it. Harvard's Extension School is pretty large; you can take a bunch of classes through it. I think that classes during the school year are only $550, but check on that. Many meet at night, so you can arrange your Tufts courses around them. The only thing to be cautious of is that the Harvard calendar is remarkably different from the Tufts one; Tufts does semesters from Sept through Dec, then mid January through the beginning of May. Harvard's first semester ends in the middle of January, when they have finals. Their second semester ends a few weeks after Tufts' does.

Marite is the person on this board to talk to about this, as her son has taken many HES courses.

By Horseman (Horseman) on Sunday, November 30, 2003 - 09:44 pm: Edit

Ariesathena, the courses that you cross register with Brandeis and Boston College, is that part of the tution of Tufts University or extra? I found Sanskript in Boston College! When you said I can major in physics, I can also have a concentration on math, does that mean its sort of a combined degree? Alos when you said I can major or minor in anthropology/sanskript... The professors would willingly do independent research with me (are you serious?), this place sounds amazing.If they do research with me on sanskript that means I can can a concentrated degree in anthropology/sanskript or classics/sanskript? Thank you for answering my questions, and like always i will be grateful to you! I like to learn and I want a university that gives me this sort of environment, as you know Tufts is my first choice and I thank you for answering all the given questions that I give to you!

By Horseman (Horseman) on Sunday, November 30, 2003 - 09:48 pm: Edit

Sorry there are some gramatical/word choice/sentence structure errors, I didn't proof read!

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Monday, December 01, 2003 - 12:16 pm: Edit

Hi... sorry, not online often.

Okay, I think when you cross-register with BC or Brandeis, it's free. Not entirely sure about that, and you should double-check.

Now, regarding independent studies: if a professor knows Sanskrit, he or she may be willing to let you do an independent study, in which you would meet with the professor once a week and go over your work during that week.

Regarding the "related fields" option. Most majors require ten classes in the department. Some of them, such as physics and classics, allow you to take courses in related fields to satisfy the ten credits. So, as a classics major, you could take a course in philosophy or drama and have it count. With physics, up to four courses can be in the math department, so you could get a degree in physics which is very focused on math. I think anthro lets you do courses in related fields as well. The biggest challenge will be justifying how it is related to your major... so if you are studying a lot of Greek and Latin, it would make perfect sense to take Sanskrit as well (considering they are all Indo-European languages, right?). Likewise, if you are in physics, you can have your math credits count towards the physics major, especially when they are in courses that relate to physics.

Now, you will have a certain number of free electives... so you can take courses in whatever you want, like yoga, and they will count towards the credits you need for graduation. In your case though, it may make more sense to organize your courses so that they will count for more than one thing (i.e. satisfy your math love and count towards physics) so you don't end up taking ten million courses.

Tufts does require six semesters of foreign language for the liberal arts school. It's complicated to explain, but some of the courses can be in culture areas (up to three). So, you could do something like take three semesters of one language and three of Sanskrit.

You may want to email or call the anthro department chair/head, as the people in that department will be able to tell you much better than I can what you can and need to do for the major.