Answers

Material

• Grandfather Arne's stroke (March 2025) and running his speech-therapy homework four afternoons a week It's the thread that ties your intended major, your volunteering and your schedule together, so it gives a stranger a starting point.
• Weekend breakfast shifts at Hartley's Diner, dish to prep cook, $4,200 saved Shows who you are on an ordinary Saturday, not just in class.
• Intended major: Cognitive and Brain Sciences, plus Community Health and Linguistics The alum usually knows only your name and major, so connect yourself to it early.

The angle

An interviewer with an empty file needs a map: where you live, who you live with, and what you keep thinking about. Your map is Duluth, a house with your mom and sister, a grandfather two blocks away, and a question about how people get meaning across when the usual route is blocked. Ravi built caregiver software and ran community health programs, so the caregiving side of your story will land, but keep it to a sketch he can ask about.

Talking points

1. Place yourself: Duluth, Lester River High, mom, sister (14), grandfather Arne two blocks away
2. Name your three weekly commitments: Hartley's shifts, Spirit Mountain adaptive ski, kitchen-table speech drills
3. Name the question you keep circling: how a mind makes meaning, and why Cognitive and Brain Sciences fits it
4. Leave a door open: mention the aphasia café or Psychology Club in a few words so he can pick one to ask about

Avoid: Don't retell the whole 'boat' essay in the first two minutes. Give a short outline and let him ask follow-up questions.

Material

• Why Tufts essay: CBS as one interdisciplinary major (psych, linguistics, neuroscience, computation) It's the core reason, and it ties straight to the questions you already keep asking.
• Community Health interest: stroke recovery depends on rides, insurance and caregivers It shows you picked Tufts for a pairing of fields, not just one department.
• Psychology Club replication night (60 students, Stroop test) It explains why you want a real research lab rather than a pretend one.

The angle

Your reason for Tufts is a question, how a mind makes meaning when the usual route is blocked, and Tufts lets you chase it across CBS, linguistics and Community Health at once. Ravi studied Community Health and builds caregiver tools, so the rides-and-insurance side of your grandfather's recovery will matter to him as much as the neuroscience.

Talking points

1. Open with the narrow-channel question from your grandfather's 'boat' moment, in a sentence, not the whole story
2. Name CBS as one interdisciplinary major and why combining linguistics and neuroscience fits that question
3. Add Community Health: driving Arne to appointments taught you recovery isn't only neurons
4. Say what a research lab would give you that replication night couldn't
5. Ask yourself: what did you find when you looked at Tufts beyond the program list?

To think about

Beyond the major, what about Tufts itself (the people, how students argue about ideas, the size) did you notice firsthand, and where did you notice it?

Avoid: Reciting your 150-word essay word for word; it should sound like thinking out loud, not reading.

Material

• The Norwegian hymn Arne could sing on days he couldn't say your name It's the exact puzzle that sent you looking for your first scientific paper.
• Senior courses: AP Psychology, AP Statistics, Anatomy & Physiology These show you're already building toward CBS.
• Linguistics interest plus Spanish 4 Honors and a few hundred Norwegian words These show the range around the major.

The angle

Your path into Cognitive and Brain Sciences came from one odd fact: singing and speaking use partly different brain areas. Lead with that curiosity, then show your range in Linguistics and Community Health as different angles on the same question.

Talking points

1. Start with the hymn fact and what you went to read afterward
2. Name what you'd want to know next about aphasia or language in the brain
3. Link AP Stats and Anatomy to the science side of CBS
4. Linguistics: tie it to the diner shorthand ('2 OE WW, hash X') and your Spanish
5. Community Health as the possible second field, and why

To think about

What paper or source did you actually read, and what in it surprised you?

Avoid: Pretending the AP Chem 2 isn't there. If science comes up, own it briefly with Thursday office hours and your A- now.

Material

• Lakehead Aphasia Café, summer 2026 It points to the volunteering you'd look for near Medford.
• Wish for a research lab with real data Research from first year is a Tufts feature you can picture yourself using.
• Hartley's Diner: 16 hrs/wk, $4,200 saved It's realistic that you'd keep working, and that's part of picturing yourself there.

The angle

Picture an ordinary week: a lab helping with language data, a weekly shift with stroke survivors like at the Aphasia Café, ski weekends. The weekly partner work you did at the café is the bridge between your coursework and helping people.

Talking points

1. Describe a first-year research goal: what kind of lab, and what you'd do in it
2. Aphasia Café: what partnering with one member a week taught you, and how you'd keep doing it
3. Mention whether you'd take a campus job, given your diner hours
4. Weekends: Mountain Club trips to New Hampshire
5. Ask yourself: is Civic Semester or the EMT course something you'd actually want?

To think about

What did you look up about labs or community programs near Tufts?

Avoid: Listing everything at Tufts; pick three that link back to your own life.

Material

• Psychology Club co-president: revived a dormant club, 11 members, Stroop replication night with 60 students The one school club you built yourself, and it leads straight to your intended major.
• Nordic ski team, 7th varsity skier and wax-room captain for 40 pairs of skis Shows commitment over four years and a behind-the-scenes job that earned the Coaches' Award.
• Writing Center peer tutor with 9th graders Rounds out the picture and connects to your interest in how people get meaning across.

The angle

Whatever you name first is what the listener will ask about, so pick the order on purpose. Lead with Psychology Club and Nordic, because they open doors to the ski collective, the diner and Cognitive and Brain Sciences without you having to force them. Ravi skis classic in Minneapolis and listens to brain podcasts, so both are natural hooks for him.

Talking points

1. Start with reviving Psychology Club: from dormant to 11 members, one study a month
2. Mention the Stroop night with 60 students as the thing to ask you about
3. Nordic: three years JV, then 7th varsity skier; explain what a wax-room captain actually does with 40 pairs of skis
4. Name the Writing Center briefly: 9th graders and their first research papers
5. Flag that your biggest commitments are outside school (Hartley's, the ski collective) and let him pick

To think about

What did you actually do to revive Psychology Club? Who did you recruit, and how did you pick the studies?

Avoid: Reading your activity list top to bottom. Pick two to tell properly, and don't oversell 7th varsity skier. Your essay calls you an average skier, so keep that honesty.

Material

• Nordic skiing and waxing skis Something you do because you like it, not to fix a problem.
• Your grandfather Arne's Norwegian: a few hundred words and the hymn A personal, family side of you that isn't about therapy homework.
• Diner shorthand like '2 OE WW, hash X' A fun, concrete detail about your everyday life.

The angle

A lot of your time goes to work and caregiving, so this question is your chance to show you're a person who enjoys things. Nordic trails around Duluth and picking up Norwegian from Arne show curiosity without a resume angle, and Ravi skis classic himself.

Talking points

1. Name Nordic skiing as the real fun: what you like about a long ski on Duluth trails
2. Talk about the wax room as a nerdy hobby, not only a job
3. Bring in learning Norwegian words from Arne, two blocks away
4. Ask yourself: what do you do on a free evening that's on no list?

To think about

What do you do purely for fun, with no schedule or duty attached: music, books, cooking, games?

Avoid: Turning fun into another service story about the stroke or the ski collective. Let it be light.

Material

• Wax-room captain, Nordic team: 40 pairs of skis, Coaches' Award 2026 Shows reliability and care with unglamorous work, a strength proven by others, not just claimed.
• Hartley's Diner: dish to prep in fall 2025, trained 3 new dishwashers A promotion and training role are outside evidence that you learn fast and can teach.
• Reviving Psychology Club to 11 members and the 60-student Stroop replication night Shows you can start something from nothing, a different strength from patience.

The angle

Your essay already sells patience, so use this question for strengths the essay only hints at: being dependable with boring, necessary work (40 pairs of skis, weekend breakfast shifts) and teaching others (3 dishwashers, 9th graders at the Writing Center). Pick two strengths and back each with a fact someone else noticed, like the Coaches' Award or your promotion. Ravi builds tools for busy clinicians, so he'd value someone who keeps systems running.

Talking points

1. Name strength one: steady reliability; prove it with the wax room's 40 pairs and the Coaches' Award
2. Name strength two: teaching; link training 3 dishwashers to tutoring 9th graders on first research papers
3. Mention reviving a dead Psychology Club as proof you start things, not just maintain them
4. Tie back: how would these strengths show up in a Tufts lab or the Leonard Carmichael Society?

To think about

Who besides your coach would name these strengths in you, and what exactly did they say or ask you to do because of it?

Avoid: Don't just say 'patient' and retell the grandfather story; that's your essay. Avoid listing five strengths with no proof.

Material

• Why Tufts essay: Community Health classes alongside Cognitive and Brain Sciences, because stroke recovery depends on rides, insurance and caregivers Ravi majored in Community Health and built a caregiver app, so he can actually answer a question about that overlap.
• Activity 3 and the personal essay: running Grandpa Arne's speech-therapy practice and driving him to appointments This is the real reason behind your question about missed therapy and caregivers, not just curiosity about Ravi's job.
• Why Tufts essay: Leonard Carmichael Society and wanting a research lab with real data, not a pretend replication night Ravi was in Leonard Carmichael, and asking how a first-year gets into a lab follows from your Stroop replication night.

The angle

This question tests whether your interest in Tufts is real and specific. Your questions should come out of things you've lived through: the kitchen-table speech drills with your grandfather, the Aphasia Café, the replication night that only pretended to be research. Ask what you actually can't find online, like how Community Health and Cognitive and Brain Sciences meet in practice, or how Leonard Carmichael volunteers get placed. That shows fit far better than asking about dorms.

Talking points

1. Start with Leonard Carmichael: ask what kinds of placements he had, and say you'd look for something like the Lakehead Aphasia Café
2. Ask whether Community Health classes changed how he sees who a health program is really for, tying it to the rides and appointments you handle for Grandpa Arne
3. Ask how a first-year finds a lab with real data, briefly mentioning your 60-student Stroop night as the thing you want to go beyond
4. If there's time, ask about skiing or the Mountain Club, and mention you're the wax-room captain for 40 pairs of skis
5. Which question do you honestly want answered most? Ask that one first.

To think about

Which thing about Tufts have you tried and failed to learn from the website, the essay prompts or student pages? That gap is your best question.

Avoid: Don't turn your questions into a second pitch by retelling the 'boat' story or the Mateo cards. Keep any mention of your own life to one line and then listen. Tufts no longer offers interviews this cycle, so take these questions to the admissions office in Bendetson Hall (617-627-3170) or to interviews at other colleges, and let them sharpen your Why Tufts essay.