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Tufts University - Index

Tufts University - Arts and Sciences Case Statement Tufts University - Index

PRIORITIES FOR THE
SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
FINANCIAL AID: $160M
A commitment to access to Tufts for students from a
wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds has long
been a critically important mission for Arts and
Sciences, as it is for the entire university. It is a goal
Tufts has embraced since its founding in 1852.
Today, such broadly defined diversity in the
undergraduate community is at risk: rising tuition
costs place a Tufts education out of reach for many
middle- and lower-income families. Compounding
this issue of access, Tufts’ financial aid resources
are finite, as the university balances its goal of
access against other pressing institutional priorities.
To maintain fiscal balance, the university is not, at
present, “need-blind” with respect to its admission
decisions.
Currently, Tufts is committed to meeting 100 percent
of each admitted student’s demonstrated need.
This approach has inherent limits, as financial need
increasingly exceeds our resources. Each year, talented
and promising applicants of limited means are
turned away simply because of their inability to pay.
Now, with the visionary financial help of our alumni
and friends, Tufts is poised to make a critical leap:
we aim to join the ranks of institutions that practice
“need blind” admissions. It is a prestigious group
of fewer than 40 colleges and universities—the Ivy
League universities, Duke, MIT, Wash ington
University, Wesleyan, Williams, and Amherst, to
name a few—and it is a critical group that includes
each of our primary overlap institutions for undergraduate
admissions. Each selects its freshman
class without considering an applicant’s ability
to pay; Tufts aspires to do so as well. Need blind
admissions is an obvious moral imperative for a
place like Tufts, and it is of vital competitive
importance.
Financially, practicing need blind admissions is
an audacious goal for Tufts, but it is also an imperative
one. Achieving this objective will dramatically
improve and preserve the socioeconomic depth and
breadth of our student body and fuel the vibrant
intellectual diversity of our classrooms.
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