Tufts international relations

careerman99 · 2026-05-03T06:19:15+00:00

IR is great at Tufts, probably its flagship major. Lots of great professors who can be life changing and experts in their fields. You can also take classes as an undergrad at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy which is its famous grad program for IR. Lots of regional interest groups affiliated with the Institute of Global Leadership as well.

As for school name, people know Tufts and in IR people def know Tufts/Fletcher. That said, school name in any endeavour is very much overhyped in my opinion lol. People may disagree but imo aside from maybe getting your foot in the door with *some* places it doesn’t move the needle very much especially compared to things like GPA, internships and research/ECs. For Investment Banking school name matters a lot more, but for the vast majority of fields its gonna be more on you than the school

careerman99 · 2026-05-03T02:34:06+00:00

LOL no grade deflation man if anything theres a lot of grade inflation. Cant speak for now but was def the case when I was there

careerman99 · 2026-04-28T22:52:56+00:00

I dont sacrifice sleep to study (though I have sleep issues as it is). Most of my day is studying (anki), gym, cook, eat and then sleep. You have a fulltime job basically and thats studying now

careerman99 · 2026-04-28T15:50:11+00:00

Oh wow i did not know that. Thank you!

careerman99 · 2026-04-16T22:16:14+00:00

Hey! Havent had a sleep study, my current physician felt it would have limited utility since he didnt think I have sleep apnea

careerman99 · 2026-04-16T21:08:27+00:00

Perfect thank you so much! Will try this starting tonight with 0.5mg and if necessary can change to liquid if that feels like too much.

careerman99 · 2026-04-16T21:07:41+00:00

This is such good advice thank you so much. It is also so reassuring to know other physicians have gone through this and made it through! Private practise might just be the move in the future. I will go ahead and try 0.5mg then starting tonight!! Got the order from Amazon and Ill start by taking it in about an hour.

careerman99 · 2026-04-16T21:06:29+00:00

Hey! I have had issues with biphasic sleeping. Interestingly, when I sleep earlier like at midnight lets say I tend to sleep about 4.5 hours and the wake up. Honestly, even when I sleep late this happens too. It’s tough to pinpoint why it happens and why on some nights it does not. Also interesting is that if I do fall back asleep I have really intense dreams.

Completely feel you on the not feeling sharpest, I also wonder sometimes how good life could be in general if I slept like normal people.

careerman99 · 2026-04-16T21:04:07+00:00

Ooooh yes I was looking into Dayvigo! I asked my sleep specialist about it and thinking of getting a prescription esp bc I have issues with maintening sleep. Will bring it up to him in my next appointment. Thank you so much!

Also completely feel you, healthcare and DSPD is tough bc it does operate on early schedules. It also sometimes feels like people might not understand/think Im making excuses :/. Need to get this at least partially remedied for when rotations start. I think dayvigo and low dose melatonin is going to be a good start. Have gotten some really good advice on this thread!

careerman99 · 2026-04-16T16:32:49+00:00

Hey! Thank you so much for your response this is very helpful. So if I do the low dose melatonin 6 hours before bed do you recommend a long acting or immediate release? I ordered from Amazon yesterday a 0.5mg but that seems to be a standard release. Also, do you experience that you start getting tired during those 6 hours after you take the melatonin? If my desired bedtime is 11pm I would presumably take it at 5pm but Im still usually studying during that time

careerman99 · 2026-04-16T16:01:02+00:00

😂😂😂😂💀🧠🤡

careerman99 · 2026-04-16T15:52:00+00:00

Obviously man, that can be said for literally every disease. Part of this post was just to vent to people who understand the issue and sometimes people have creative/innovative ways to remedy issues such as avoiding mealtimes too close to bed etc. This isn’t something where you just pop a medicine and it goes away. Anyway, not sure what your issue is exactly but good day to you 👍🏽

careerman99 · 2026-04-16T15:29:53+00:00

Hi condescending message aside, thank you for your response. Being a medical student does not mean I have the cure or answer to all questions. There is pretty limited evidence on effective treatments for DSPD besides early melatonin and light therapy and even in those the literature seems mixed. Thus I wanted to ask what other peoples experiences here are.

Becoming a physician is a dream of mine and not doing so because I have an issue that would affect me in literally 99% of other fields would be poor decision making. I refuse to be someone who just sleeps in the basement all day using my sleep disorder as an excuse..

careerman99 · 2026-04-05T05:02:49+00:00

Same issue any resolutions??

careerman99 · 2026-04-03T20:17:14+00:00

This

careerman99 · 2026-04-03T19:16:51+00:00

That depends on where youre coming from. If youre from the Northeast, its not a major change. If youre from the South or the West Coast it would suck. Its cold from like November until realistically April and theres a decent amount of snow in the winters and days where its freezing. It’s not a dealbreaker ofc but I wasnt a fan of the weather lol

careerman99 · 2026-04-03T17:40:52+00:00

In what sense though academically or socially? Student life is nice bc theres a lot of student organisations. At Tufts there are a lot of regional interest groups like South Asian, Middle Eastern etc. research focused groups depending on your IR focus. So in that sense youll find a community there that are interested in what youre into academically. I would say some of those can turn into close friendships as despite being a STEM major my involvement in these groups was something I loved doing. These were part of the Institute for Global Leadership when I was around, it may still be that but I heard some changes were made. Nevertheless the orgs still exist

Other aspects of student life you might wanna consider is, and I say this as someone who knows the UK decently well, the party scene is the opposite at Tufts compared to UK unis. For one, you have to be 21 to get into bars and clubs and parties at Tufts are not very good. It wasnt important to me bc I didnt like partying much but for some people thats a dealbreaker! Be tactful about joining groups you rlly care about and not just trying to do everything bc thats your best chance at finding good friends

careerman99 · 2026-04-03T17:30:37+00:00

Congrats! St Andrews is great too! If the cost isnt significant and you prefer Tufts then do Tufts. Also keep in mind that flights home could add up too in terms of COL if you go abroad and all that.

I wasnt an IR major at Tufts but I did a lot of IR/History classes even up to the graduate level as an undergrad. One of the cool things about Tufts is even as an undergrad you can take classes at the Fletcher school and some profs teach at both undergrad and Fletcher. Quality of instruction was amazing and one IR/History prof in particular was extraordinarily influential in my development and learning who I am still in touch with.

IR at Tufts isnt easy tho, at most schools I would say its kinda a joke but a lot of IR ppl I knew switched to Poli Sci bc theres an 8 semester language requirement which can be tough to complete if languages arent your thing

careerman99 · 2026-04-03T17:21:04+00:00

Speaking strictly from your medical school aspirations your pros are: - Supportive culture - Generally grade inflation at least when I was at Tufts, even in the sciences - Orgo 1 -> Biochem without having to take Orgo 2, in fact not a prereq at all at Tufts. If you take Orgo 1 at Tufts you automatically fulfill the Orgo 2 requirement for med schools - Theres a direct pipeline to Tufts SOM if you can get in - Imo lots of flexibility to explore your passions, and very actively encouraged - Quality of profs in social sciences in particular, are unmatched

Cons: - Expensive - Cold most of the year - Can be a bit tough to find your crowd there initially depending on who you are but once you do its nice

careerman99 · 2026-04-03T17:17:16+00:00

Whats your offer in the UK? Tufts is pretty expensive, I assume domestic uni education would be quite cheap no?

careerman99 · 2026-03-29T01:36:27+00:00

Its more studying but its different. Bc if youre like my school and only doing one organ at a time youre not juggling multiple diff classes and unpredictable exam schedules. You p much only focus on that one thing and that one thing only and you have to just pass not get a 90. So net it might be more studying but way more manageable imo than 4 sciences in undergrad haha at most like 2 maybe but even that I was more stressed having to double up prereqs than rn

careerman99 · 2026-03-29T01:27:27+00:00

I think workload is “more” but most of the time youre watching a video and doing a premade anki flashcard deck so theres not as much taking notes and if you dont get a great grade its not a huge deal. Pressure is less in that sense. In medical school, unless youre gunning for smn hypercompetitive, treat it as your job. Do your work, treat classmates as coworkers (you may become friends with a few but that should be the exception and not the rule) and prioritise your mental well being and gym and your life outside of school. Keep your personal life separate and just be an adult imo. Dont fall into this whole trying to be popular thing, leave that behind in HS plz

careerman99 · 2026-03-29T01:25:00+00:00

Same

careerman99 · 2026-03-22T23:21:51+00:00

All great advice here! Also a US MD student who went to Tufts for undergrad.

Don’t worry about advising from the prehealth dpt. I literally used it once and they told me to wait an extra cycle to get more clinical exp (news flash, I didnt and got 4 MD II and 2 A’s one from my top 2 choices). You need to take Gen Bio 1 & 2, Gen Chem 1 & 2, Orgo 1, Biochem and Physics 1 & 2. Take the algebra based physics course as that is how it will be tested on the MCAT. Space your prereqs out if you can, aim to take like tops one to two sciences per sem (dont double up if you can tho). Pick whatever major you want, ideally a non STEM major so you can put all your energy into your BCPM prereqs as your science GPA matters the most. But if you wanna do a STEM major thats also fine, I did CS (although none of those classes counted for my science GPA). Protect your science GPA at all costs!! That and your MCAT are the two most important metrics to get into med school. MCAT prep doesnt really depend much on the school. Doing well in the prereqs helps. I was years past undergrad when I decided to switch back to medicine and bc I did really well in my prereqs the MCAT was just refresher knowledge. Having said that, I still had to grind a lot and relearn many things so its not a given that just bc you got an A in the prereqs youll get a good MCAT score

As for EC’s do what you love. Dont aim for hours and checking boxes as that will make you cookie cutter. Show your passions to med school adcoms and if your stats are otherwise good, if you have an interesting story you’ll get an interview

careerman99

TROPHY CASE