[8] Tufts remained a small liberal arts college until the 1970s, when it transformed into a large research university offering doctorates in several disciplines.

[21] Other famous scholars include William Leslie Hooper who in addition to serving as acting president, designed the first slotted armature for dynamos.

[24] On July 15, 1892, the Tufts Board of Trustees voted "that the College be opened to women in the undergraduate departments on the same terms and conditions as men."

[25]Due to travel restrictions imposed by World War II, the Boston Red Sox conducted spring training for the 1943 Major League season at Tufts College.

[28] Mayer established Tufts' veterinary, nutrition, and biomedical schools and acquired the Grafton and Talloires campuses, at the same time lifting the university out of its dire financial situation by increasing the size of the endowment by a factor of 15.

[29] Under President Larry Bacow, Tufts started a capital campaign in 2006 with the goal of raising $1.2 billion to implement full need-blind admission by 2011.

[45] In the spring of 2022, the university plans to open the newly constructed Joyce Cummings Center, an interdisciplinary academic building which will house the computer science and economics departments, among others.

Tufts biologist Michael Levin will lead the center with research focusing on communications between cells and the causation of birth defects, cancer, traumatic injuries and degenerative diseases.

[55] More than 250 members of the graduating class threatened to boycott commencement and called for an end to "Tuft University’s financial complicity in the ongoing devastation of Gaza".

The "Uphill" portion of the campus comprises the academic and the residential "Rez" quad (built on the former reservoir site) and is enclosed by a wrought-iron fence.

One of Tufts' first buildings, Ballou Hall was constructed from 1852 to 1854 and was designed in the Italianate style by the well-known Boston architect Gridley James Fox Bryant.

Designed by the Olmsted Brothers in the 1920s, the memorial stairs form one of the main entrances to the university and allows direct access to the engineering school from the academic quad.

[60] Administrative offices also occupy the surrounding neighborhoods and nearby Davis Square, where Tufts makes payments in lieu of taxes on some of its tax-exempt (educational) properties.

The site is frequently the host of international conferences and summits, most notably the Talloires Declaration which united 22 universities toward a goal of sustainability.

[71] The college facilitates and supports a wide range of community service, civic engagement programs, research, and teaching initiatives across the university.

[98] Calling it the "first major university to try such a departure from the norm", Inside Higher Ed also notes that Tufts continues to consider the SAT and other traditional criteria.

In 1856, shortly after Tufts opened, its admissions application asked for statements of good character and for students to complete examinations in Greek, history, Latin, and mathematics.

"[101] By 1925 Tufts set an admission quota of 650 males; the examinations were of a similar length of the 1905 ones but the entry requirements decreased in size to a level comparable of that of the 1856 ones.

Notable highlights in the permanent collection include works by John Singer Sargent, Albrecht Dürer, Isamu Noguchi, Auguste Rodin, Andy Warhol, Milton Resnick, Salvador Dalí, and Pablo Picasso among others.

[123] The top 10 countries represented are China, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Turkey, Singapore, Canada, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

In the same article, Price's lawyers stated that the Senate of the student governing body had harassed him by making him "sit through meetings by Tufts student‍–‍government leadership questioning his personal beliefs and identity as a pro‑Israel Jew".

[130] The revised referendum on the issue garnered record voter turnout and passed with 68% of the vote, but university administration did not respond to its demands.

[120] Tufts has a television station (TUTV) which has produced and broadcast films, news, soap operas, and comedy sketch pieces.

Students staged a work strike to protest racist hiring policies practiced by the construction company Tufts had commissioned to build the residence hall.

Some of Jumbo's ashes were recovered in a peanut butter jar that has remained in the athletics director's office where students continue to rub it for good luck.

Due to increasing scrutiny from the administration and injuries incurred by slipping on the icy roads, the tradition was banned in 2011 by then-President Lawrence Bacow,[151] much to students' dismay.

[152][153][154] A protest run took place the following year, with some students donning nude colored leotards and others taking the opposite tack calling their event the "Excessively Overdressed Quad Stroll".

1977, PhD 1979), former United Nations Under-Secretary General and Indian Member of Parliament; Syed Refat Ahmed (MALD, PhD), 25th Chief Justice of Bangladesh; Arjun Narasingha KC (Post-graduate Fellowship in International Diplomacy), former Health, Education and Urban Development Minister of Nepal; Daniel Patrick Moynihan (BA 1948, MA 1949, PhD 1961), former US Senator from New York and US Ambassador to the United Nations; Scott Brown (BA 1981), former US Senator from Massachusetts; Bill Richardson (BA 1970), former Governor of New Mexico, US Secretary of Energy and US Ambassador to the United Nations;[158] Thomas R. Pickering (MA 1954), diplomat; Joseph Dunford (MA 1992), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Peter DeFazio (BA 1969), Democratic United States Representative from Oregon; and Dan Crenshaw, former Navy SEAL, recipient of two Bronze Stars, and a current US Representative for the state of Texas.

Other alumni include Michelle Kwan (MA 2011), Olympic medalist and World Champion figure skater from the United States; Tyler C. Andrews (BS 2013), World-record holding long-distance runner and mountaineer; Frederick Hauck (BA 1962), spacecraft commander of the Space Shuttle Discovery; Rear Admiral Leo Otis Colbert (BS 1907), the third Director of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey; Thelma C. Swain (BA 1931), Maine philanthropist, Edwin Ginn, a Tufts alumnus (1862) and founder of the World Peace Foundation; and Jesse Grupper (BS 2019), a competitive rock climber and a member of the USA Climbing team at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

[160] Notable people who matriculated but did not complete their degrees include actress Jessica Biel, actor Rainn Wilson, American Apparel founder Dov Charney, and country music singer songwriter Darrell Scott.