Enrolled Students

Tufts is situated in a prime location, atop a hill with views overlooking downtown Boston. At just five miles northwest of the city, the Tufts campus is far enough away that it enjoys a relaxed campus environment, yet close enough that the city and all its resources are within reach. Tufts combines the benefits of easy access to the facilities of a top-ranked university with the excitement of city life. Most of our programs offer the opportunity to explore Boston in the evening or during weekend excursions. 

Explore our campus virtually by taking our  Interactive Virtual Tour.

There is a ton to do on the Tufts campus, but if you’re looking for some fun off campus, nearby Davis Square offers a great student-oriented experience. Somerville Theater is an economical way to catch a movie and if you’d like to grab a bite to eat off-campus, there are several opportunities for a meal out or just a great dessert. Davis Square is about a 20-minute walk away from Houston Hall, one of our summer residence halls. Davis Square also has a subway stop, called the “T” in Boston, where the red line runs through Cambridge and Boston!  

If you’re looking for a T stop closer to campus – how about a T stop on campus? The Medford/Tufts Green Line stop is just outside the Joyce Cummings Center, at the corner of Boston Ave and College Ave. The Green Line runs through Medford and Sommerville before stopping at some of the most iconic parts of Boston.  

As a Tufts Pre-College student, you will have access to the state of the art Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center. The Center also has a swimming pool, cardio and weight-training equipment, racquet and basketball courts. There are plenty of opportunities to keep moving aside from the gym: not only will you walk between your classes, residence halls, the dining halls, and other spots to hang out on campus, but there are many outdoor spaces that are great for a game of soccer, kickball, or even a shady spot to read! 

As soon as your travel plans are confirmed, log into your student portal and complete the travel form. We will use this to plan for pick-up/drop-off at Boston Logan, South Station, or North Station and to ensure we know who is leaving by car. Additional information will be provided as we get closer to the summer. 

Your arrival date and departure date will depend on your program, please take note of your program dates below as you read through the travel information. 

Air & Train Travel 

For students arriving from outside a driving distance, Boston is easily accessible by plane, train, and bus. Once you have arrived at one of the three transportation hubs listed below, staff will be waiting to transport you by shuttle to Tufts University’s Medford campus, which is approximately a 20-minute drive. Parents and guardians will be provided with an on-call number during the day in case issues arise. 

Please take note of the arrival and departure day for the program to which you were admitted. We are unable to accommodate early arrivals or late departures in any scenario.  

Tufts Pre-College Program staff will pick up students who are arriving on their program’s arrival date to the following transit hubs:  

• Boston Logan Airport (Airport Code: BOS) – domestic and international flights  

• North Station (Station Code: BON) – Amtrak, private bus, and MBTA subway, bus lines, and Commuter Rail station  

• South Station (Station Code BOS) - Amtrak, private bus, and MBTA subway, bus lines, and Commuter Rail station  

Note for Children 15 and under: Many airlines require that children traveling alone agree to travel as an “unaccompanied minor,” which is a service that is purchased separately from the student’s airfare. The age requirements for these programs vary by airline, but sometimes include children as old as 14 or 15 years at the time of travel. Please check with your airline to find out if this service is required for your student. If the service is optional for your student’s itinerary, we discourage you from taking it, as in our experience it can be more cumbersome than valuable. If you purchased unaccompanied minor services for your student’s flight, please note the following:  

• Please contact Residential Team using precollege@tufts.edu to alert us of purchased unaccompanied minor status.  

• We will provide the name and contact details of the assigned staff person at least one week prior to the start of the program. If you need to provide a name at the time of booking, please contact precollege@tufts.edu.  

• The person greeting you on arrival and escorting you on departure may be different.  

Car Travel 

For students who will arrive to the Medford campus by car, check-in will begin at Carmichael Hall. The best address to navigate to Carmichael Hall is 10 Winthrop Street, Medford, MA; once on campus, please follow traffic signs directing you to the unloading area. Parking is not permitted in unloading zones and a driver must remain with the vehicle at all times in the event the vehicle must be moved.   

If there is interest in remaining on campus after unloading the student's belongings, please proceed to the Dowling Hall Garage; the best address to use to navigate to Dowling Hall Garage is 419 Boston Ave, Medford, MA. Parking permits are required when parking in the Dowling Hall Garage and are available for purchase at kiosks within the garage or by scanning the QR code on signs posted throughout the garage.  

Take note that residential Pre-College Program students are not permitted to have a vehicle on campus or to operate a vehicle at any time during the program. 

Departure Day 

All programs and their Closing Ceremonies will conclude by 2PM on departure day. Parents, guardians, and family members will be invited to their student’s Closing Ceremony.  

We recommend that your student’s departure flight, bus, or train be scheduled to depart between 5PM-9PM on their program’s departure day so that they can fully participate in their program’s Closing Ceremony. Our departure day shuttles will be available to students departing via flight, bus, or train between 9AM-9PM and will be assigned to give your student plenty of time to get to their transit hub and board their flight, bus, or train. Students are responsible for being at the shuttle pick-up point on time. Any student whose transit will depart after 9PM will be taken to their transit hub during the last shuttle of the evening, which may lead to your student waiting for a period of time prior to their departure.   

Tufts Pre-College Programs is unable to provide transportation to or from transit hubs/airports for parents, guardians, or family members. If family members plan to attend Closing Ceremonies and then depart campus with their student, transportation will need to be arranged independently. Please contact our team with any questions about this prior to making travel arrangements.  

Students who are being picked up by car must depart by 5PM on departure day. After 5PM on departure day, any students leaving by private vehicle will not be under the supervision of Tufts Pre-College Program staff. All students departing by private vehicle must be signed out prior to departure. If your student is intending to depart via public transportation or other private transit, you must contact the residential team and request a sign out authorization form to be completed before departure day.  

As a residential Pre-College student, you will live in one of four residence halls on campus: Carmichael Hall, Houston Hall, Miller Hall, or Wren Hall. Situated on Upper Campus, these buildings make up the Residential Quad on campus. To get a sense of your where your summer home is on campus, click here for the map! 

In these buildings, most students can expect to live in a double room, all with a temporary air conditioning unit installed, and share the room with one roommate. There are a limited number of single rooms available in our residence halls and students with documented accommodations are prioritized for single rooms. Any single rooms left after students with documented accommodations have been housed will be assigned to students who request to be considered for a single room on the Residential Survey. 

Each student will have one Twin XL bed, one desk and chair, one set of drawers, and one closet. Students will share bathrooms and showers with others on their floor; we recommend bringing a pair of flip-flops, a bathrobe, and something to carry toiletries between your bedroom and the bathroom.  

Tufts Pre-College Programs provides sheets, towels, blankets, and one pillow per bed.  

While living on campus, Pre-College students are supervised by the Residential Team, a staff of carefully trained Residential Counselors and Head Residential Counselors who work to ensure all members of the residential community are safe and able to engage in all that the programs have to offer.  

Pre-College students will complete check-ins with their Residential Counselors multiple times per day; they will also have the opportunity to attend a variety of extracurricular programs hosted by the Residential Team. On the weekends, the Residential Team plan and accompany students on a variety of field trips to popular destinations throughout the greater Boston area.  

The Residential Team is available to support students living on campus 24/7 while programs are running. Students and families will be provided emergency contact phone numbers via email approximately one week before the student’s scheduled arrival day. 

Our Residential Survey, which can be found on your Student Status page, has been developed to collect information to help match each student with a compatible roommate. This Survey, available in your Student Portal, is a required post-enrollment form.  

We match roommates by area of study, age, self-identified gender, and responses to questions on the Residential Survey. It is important that all students take time to reflect on the questions on the Residential Survey, as the questions ask about things like daily routines, preferences for students’ living space, and how they’d like to engage with the program. The Residential Team will make roommate matches according to answers from the Survey.  

The Residential Survey provides space for students to request a specific roommate. Students and families should be aware that roommate requests can only be honored if the request is mutual, meaning both students request each other as roommates. Roommate requests that are not mutual will not be honored.  

If you or your family have any questions about the Residential Survey, the roommate matching process, or living on campus during your program, please email us at precollege@tufts.edu and we’re happy to provide additional information. 

Residential students are given a meal plan that includes three meals per day, Monday-Saturday, and brunch/dinner on Sundays.  

Dining hall hours during the summer are: 

Monday-Saturday 

Breakfast: 7AM-9AM | Lunch: 11AM-2PM | Dinner: 5PM-8PM 

Sunday 

Brunch: 11AM-2PM | 5PM-8PM 

Tufts University’s dining facilities provide meals that meet a variety of dietary requirements, including vegetarian, vegan, kosher, and halal needs. There are no formal accommodations needed to access these options. 

Do you have a serious food allergy? The specially trained culinary staff at Dewick will make you hot meals, to go if requested, using dedicated equipment and utensils. Tufts dining is able to accommodate most dietary restrictions and preferences. If you would like to coordinate an Alternative Meal Plan with our Nutrition Specialist, please reach out to the Pre-College Program team at precollege@tufts.edu to be connected. 

Please review the Packing List to learn more about what you will need for your Tufts Pre College Program experience. Linens (towels, sheets, blankets, pillows) will be provided to all residential students. 

Each residence hall has a laundry room that students can use at their discretion. We will supply detergent for the laundry. Students can pay for laundry using JumboCash. Each cycle costs $1.50.  

As soon as you know how you are planning on commuting to campus, log into your student portal and complete the travel form. We will use this to ensure we know how you will be getting to campus. 

Your arrival date and closing date will depend on your program, please take note of your program dates below as you read through the travel information. 

Getting to/from Tufts University 

Commuter students and their parents are responsible for ensuring that their student travels to and from campus safely and on time for each class or activity. Detailed information about traveling to each of our campuses, including details on parking, can be found here. 

Please note that students who are being picked up by car will be released only to a parent or guardian listed on the application. A note is required if an unlisted individual will be picking you up. 

Campus Hours (Academic Year) 

During our academic year programs, students are only permitted to be on campus during their scheduled course or lab times, as determined by the professor or the lab with which the student is working.  

• Attendance is mandatory; you must notify us if you are late or will miss a day for any reason 

• There is no programming on the weekends 

• We do not offer supervision for commuter students outside of scheduled course or lab times 

Campus Hours (Summer) 

Each weekday, for students participating in our intensive programs, you should plan to arrive to their program location by 8:45am to check-in before programming begins for the day. The exact location and schedule will be posted to the program’s Canvas page in June. Programming will end no later than 6pm each day. When you are finished for the day, you will check out with program staff and depart campus.  

Please note: on the final day of the program, there will be a Closing Ceremony. Parents and/or guardians will be invited to the Closing Ceremony. Commuting students are expected to depart campus, and will not be under the supervision of Tufts Pre-College Program staff, after the conclusion of the last event of their program.  

Students participating in the Courses at Tufts for High Schoolers program are permitted to be on campus during the hours of their courses, workshops, labs, and recitations, and generally, between 9am and 6pm. 

Important Information  

• Attendance is mandatory; you must notify us if you are late or will miss a day for any reason. 

• There is no programming on the weekends. 

• We do not offer supervision for commuter students after 6PM on weekdays, during the weekends, and on holidays. 

• July 4th is a holiday and students should not report to campus on this day.  

• As a reminder, commuting students are not permitted to enter any of the residence halls on campus for safety reasons. 

  How to get your photo ID:

1. Activate your Tufts account: In order to get your photo ID, you must first log in and activate your Tufts email account (you must do this regardless of whether you plan to forward your Tufts account to another email account you have)

2. Go to Picasso site: Once you have activated your account, proceed to Tufts' Picasso website to upload your photo.

3. Load your photo: Please carefully review the guidelines below and upload a passport-style photo to the Picasso portal.

Photo Guidelines:

• The image must be in color and feature a clear, full-face view of only you
• You must be wearing normal street attire
• You may not wear a hat or dark glasses
• The background must be plain white or off-white
• The photo must sufficiently recent to be of a to be a good likeness; normally within the last 6 months
• Image files must be in JPEG format and must be no larger than 6MB
• It's okay to smile - after all, you’ve just joined the Tufts community!

The meal plan for commuter students provides one meal swipe per day at lunch time, Monday-Friday. Commuter students who would like to go to the dining hall for breakfast or dinner will need to pay the door price for each meal; accepted payment methods include JumboCash, debit/credit card, and cash. See the Tufts Dining Services website for up-to-date prices for individual meals.  All student meal plans end on the last day of classes for their program. 

Do you have a serious food allergy? The specially trained culinary staff at Dewick will make you hot meals, to go if requested, using dedicated equipment and utensils. Tufts dining is able to accommodate most dietary restrictions and preferences. If you would like to coordinate an Alternative Meal Plan with our Nutrition Specialist, please reach out to the Pre-College Program team at precollege@tufts.edu to be connected.

Students enrolled in College Courses & Seminars for High School Students do not receive a meal plan, but are welcome to purchase their own meal plan separately or pay for meals at the door price.