I have a vivid memory of the first time my six-year-old cousin told me he loved me. For most, this would not be a significant event. After all, family members are generally obligated to love one another. But for (name), expressing his love was difficult, at least in the conventional way, so the first time he came up to me and pressed his mouth to the palm of my hand and held it there was a memory that will always...

Tufts is a place where the two pillars of nerdiness—passion and intellectualism—collide. At Tufts, it’s the norm to talk about everything from politics to Harry Potter to religion (and how all three of those intersect) in the span of one conversation. At Tufts, “it’s cool to be smart,” as every admissions officer and student insists in the oh-so-witty, down-to-earth Tufts blogs (which I admit to obsessively checking daily). Simply put, I know Tufts is a place...

"Let Your Life Speak" I was raised in a town where, if you’re not Baptist or Church of Christ, you might risk being identified with a cult; it’s commonplace to be passed by a pick-up truck with a confederate flag hoisted in the bed; and people might give you weird looks when you say you want to go to college outside of Tennessee – and really weird looks when you say you want to go to college in Boston. ...

"Celebrate the Role of Sports in Your Life" If you look back at my athletic career, you will not find a laundry list of championships or medals. I’m not an athletic superstar, and I was never even close to being the best player on the team. In fact, if I had gone back to 7th grade and my school did not have a sports requirement, I probably would not have played soccer. That would have been a mistake. A...

Having grown up in a small, suburban southern town, I long for diversity and a completely opposite atmosphere in college. A vibrant city like Boston can provide me with those things. But Boston University is more than just another college in Boston. It stands out to me as a globally minded school with a big picture approach that can offer me exactly what I’m looking for in a college. At BU, I can sit around a table with twenty...