Content for Tufts.Edu

Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. A charter member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), Tufts College was founded in 1852 by Christian universalists who worked for years to open a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. It was a small New England liberal arts college until its transformation into a larger research university in the 1970s. The university emphasizes active citizenship and public service in all its disciplines, and is known for its internationalism and study abroad programs. Tufts is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate degree programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in the Boston metropolitan area and the French Alps. Among its schools is the United States' oldest graduate school of international relations, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Tufts' largest school is the School of Arts and Sciences, which offers undergraduate and graduate degrees and includes both the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (SMFA at Tufts) which is affiliated with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The School of Engineering has an entrepreneurial focus with the Gordon Institute and maintains close connections with the original college. The university has a campus in Downtown Boston that houses the medical, dental, and nutrition schools, affiliated with several medical centers in the area. The university offers joint undergraduate degree programs with the New England Conservatory, and the Sciences Po Paris with additional programs with the University of Paris, University of Oxford and constituents of the University of London. Several of its programs have affiliations with the nearby institutions of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.