Tufts University

Essay prompts (5)

1. why us2026-27150 words

   Please describe how you have learned about and engaged with Tufts during your college search process (75-150 words).

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2. academic interest2026-27200 words

   Tell us about one of your favorite school assignments in the past two years. What was the assignment and why did you enjoy it?

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3. academic interest2026-27200 words

   Tell us about an engineering or science-related project that you have helped build, design, create, or iterate in the past two years. What was the project and what was your role?

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4. portfolio2026-27200 words

   Tell us more about a specific piece in your portfolio. What were the ideas you intended to explore, and how did those ideas inform the process of making the piece?

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5. portfolio2026-27200 words

   Tell us more about a specific piece in your portfolio. How did an academic course, project, or interest inspire the ideas that you explored in this piece? Or, how did making this piece influence your academic interests?

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Tufts Admissions strongly discourages the use of generative AI for writing college admissions essays and short-answer responses, saying it often produces formulaic responses that are less creative, distinctive, and persuasive than an applicant's own writing; the Admissions Committee expects an applicant's original ideas in their own words.

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When you request a review for a Tufts Universitysupplement, the feedback is grounded in exactly what you see here: the prompt itself, its word limit, and what the school publishes about its values and programs. That's the whole claim — calibrated to the prompt and the school's own published guidance, scored against a consistent rubric. Not insider knowledge, and never a rewrite: Second Read is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It flags weaknesses and tells you what to fix and why; it never writes a sentence of your essay.

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