Tufts University is located in Medford, Massachusetts (near Boston). In 1852, Charles Tufts founded Tufts College, and donated the land for the campus on Walnut Hill, the highest point in Medford. Tufts said that he wanted to set a "light on the hill." Originally affiliated with the Unitarian Church, Tufts is now non-sectarian. The name changed to "Tufts University" in 1954, although the corporate name remains "the Trustees of Tufts College."

As of 2003, Tufts University enrolls nearly 9,000 full-time students on three campuses. The Medford/Somerville campus is the main campus, home to the School of Arts and Sciences (including the College of Liberal Arts and Jackson College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Summer Session); the School of Engineering; and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

The Boston campus emphasizes medical and life sciences, with the School of Medicine; the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences; the School of Dental Medicine; the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy; and the USDA Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging. At the Grafton campus west of Boston, Tufts runs the only veterinary school in New England.

Summer programs in Europe are coordinated through the a satellite campus in Talloires, France. Tufts has dual degree programs with Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and the New England Conservatory of Music.

In 1910, the Jackson College for Women was established as a "coordinate" college adjacent to the Tufts campus. Jackson College was later integrated with Tufts College, but is recognized in the name of the undergraduate arts and sciences division, the "College of Liberal Arts and Jackson College." The campus land that was Jackson College is in the city of Somerville.

The Tufts school mascot is Jumbo the elephant, in honor of a major donation from circus owner P.T. Barnum in 1882. The stuffed remains of Barnum's Jumbo the elephant were on display in the basement of Barnum Hall, until the building burned down in 1974.

External link

Official website: http://www.tufts.edu/
Student Life Website: http://www.tuftslife.com