Two campuses are better than one for combined-degree students
SMFA and NEC programs allow Tufts students to explore both academic and artistic interests
Meredith Hassett
Issue date: 4/15/08 Section: Features
This article is the first in a two-part series examining students who pursue a combined degree while at Tufts. The first installment will take a look at the experience of juggling courses at multiple schools; the second will discuss friction between students at Tufts and its partner schools.
Trudging through the snow on a blustery day in winter, the walk from Carmichael to Anderson may seem like miles for the average Tufts student. But to the students who also take classes at Boston's School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) and the New England Conservatory (NEC), this commute is nothing compared to the trek they make routinely to downtown Boston.
For students who pursue combined degrees with the SMFA or NEC, the benefits of incorporating paintbrushes or instruments into their undergraduate educations seem to outweigh the scheduling and extracurricular sacrifices that come with their decisions.
In addition to taking classes at Tufts, students in the combined-degree programs with the SMFA and NEC take at least one class a week at another campus, and students pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the SMFA are required to commute to Tufts to take courses for their Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree.
The combined-degree programs allow students to complete two degrees - which would require a total of eight years to finish - in only five years.
The program with NEC awards students a Bachelor of Music degree from NEC and a Bachelor of Arts or Sciences from Tufts, while the SMFA program awards a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree along with the Bachelor of Arts or Sciences from Tufts.
To participate in the programs, a student must first apply to Tufts and either SMFA or NEC independently. Once the student has been accepted to both of the schools, the admissions teams of both institutions meet and determine whether the student can be accepted into the combined-degree program.
Although most students who are accepted to both schools are also accepted to the program, there have been a few rare cases in which a student was rejected from the combined-degree program even after being accepted to both institutions.
Trudging through the snow on a blustery day in winter, the walk from Carmichael to Anderson may seem like miles for the average Tufts student. But to the students who also take classes at Boston's School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) and the New England Conservatory (NEC), this commute is nothing compared to the trek they make routinely to downtown Boston.
For students who pursue combined degrees with the SMFA or NEC, the benefits of incorporating paintbrushes or instruments into their undergraduate educations seem to outweigh the scheduling and extracurricular sacrifices that come with their decisions.
In addition to taking classes at Tufts, students in the combined-degree programs with the SMFA and NEC take at least one class a week at another campus, and students pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the SMFA are required to commute to Tufts to take courses for their Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree.
The combined-degree programs allow students to complete two degrees - which would require a total of eight years to finish - in only five years.
The program with NEC awards students a Bachelor of Music degree from NEC and a Bachelor of Arts or Sciences from Tufts, while the SMFA program awards a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree along with the Bachelor of Arts or Sciences from Tufts.
To participate in the programs, a student must first apply to Tufts and either SMFA or NEC independently. Once the student has been accepted to both of the schools, the admissions teams of both institutions meet and determine whether the student can be accepted into the combined-degree program.
Although most students who are accepted to both schools are also accepted to the program, there have been a few rare cases in which a student was rejected from the combined-degree program even after being accepted to both institutions.
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