Waitlisted from Tufts: What to Do

If Tufts University just placed you on the waitlist, your odds of ultimately earning admission are better than you probably think. Tufts has one of the most active waitlists among highly selective universities, and in the most recent cycle, the numbers were striking: for the Class of 2029, Tufts admitted 354 students from a confirmed waitlist pool of 991, a waitlist acceptance rate of approximately 36%. That is not a typo. More than one in three students who stayed on the Tufts waitlist received an offer of admission.

Before you celebrate, understand the context. The historical pattern is volatile. Over the last nine published cycles, Tufts turned to its waitlist six times and did not use it three times. In the years when it did go to the list, the average acceptance rate was roughly 14%. For the Class of 2025, the number admitted from the waitlist was zero. Zero. For the Class of 2024, the rate was about 22%. For the Class of 2026, about 14%. The most recent cycle (36%) is an outlier on the high end, just as the Class of 2025 (0%) was an outlier on the low end.

The swings are entirely driven by yield. Tufts competes for admitted students against the Ivy League, MIT, Stanford, and other top-tier research universities. When yield comes in below projections, Tufts reaches deep into its waitlist, sometimes admitting hundreds. When yield holds, the list does not move at all. You have no way of predicting which scenario unfolds this year.

But the structural tendency is encouraging. Tufts itself has stated: "As in recent years, Tufts hopes to be able to offer admission to additional students from a waitlist after May 1." That language signals that using the waitlist is the expected norm, not the exception.

Accept Your Spot on the Waitlist

Tufts requires you to accept your spot through your applicant portal. When you do, you will also see an optional text box for submitting "additional information." Use it. The waitlist is not ranked. Tufts will reconsider all students who accept a spot based on the needs and composition of the incoming class.

Commit to Another School Before May 1

You will almost certainly not hear from Tufts before May 1. Waitlist decisions begin only after the deposit deadline, when the admissions office can assess how many admitted students chose to enroll. Put down your deposit at another school. Choose the best option from your acceptances and invest in it. If Tufts comes through later, you can switch and forfeit the deposit. If it does not, you need to feel excited about where you are heading.

Write a Letter of Continued Interest

Tufts does not prohibit letters of continued interest, and the portal's optional "additional information" text box is an explicit invitation to express your interest. But do not confine yourself to the text box alone. Write a full letter of continued interest, up to 650 words, and email it to your regional admissions counselor or to undergraduate.admissions@tufts.edu. One letter, sent once. Do not send follow-ups.

Your letter should function as a love letter to Tufts. Not a resume recitation. Not a brag sheet. Not a list of other schools that admitted you. A letter that makes the admissions officer reading it understand exactly who you will be on the Medford campus and why Tufts, specifically, is where your intellectual and personal goals converge.

Tufts describes its community as "intellectually playful, kind, collaborative, civically engaged, globally minded." Those are not throwaway marketing words. They are the institutional identity, and your letter should reflect that you understand what they mean in practice.

The first LOCI anchor is the interdisciplinary academic structure. Tufts has three undergraduate schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA). What makes Tufts distinctive is not just that these schools exist but that students move between them freely. An engineering student can take studio art at SMFA. An international relations major can take computer science courses in the School of Engineering. A student in the combined five-year BFA+BA/BS program bridges two entire degree programs. If your academic interests cross disciplinary boundaries, if you are not a student who fits neatly into a single department, Tufts was designed for you. Name specific courses, faculty, or programs that connect to your interests and explain what your interdisciplinary path would look like.

The second is civic engagement and global orientation. Tufts is home to the Tisch College of Civic Life, which is unique among American universities as a college-wide initiative dedicated to civic engagement. The Jonathan M. Tisch College is not a separate school you apply to. It is an embedded framework that connects civic life to every academic discipline at Tufts. If your work, whether in community organizing, policy research, public health, environmental advocacy, or social entrepreneurship, is oriented toward making the world function better, Tufts provides institutional infrastructure for that orientation in a way that most peer universities do not. Similarly, the Fletcher School (graduate level) and the broader international focus of the university give Tufts a global orientation that permeates undergraduate life. Over 40% of Tufts students study abroad. If global engagement is part of your identity, connect it to what Tufts offers.

The third is the culture itself. Tufts is often described as quirky, and the admissions office leans into that characterization. The supplemental essay prompts have historically been among the most creative and unconventional in college admissions. The student body tends to be intellectually serious but not self-important, ambitious but collaborative, weird in the best sense. If that resonates with who you are, show it in your letter. Do not write a stiff, formal document. Write something that sounds like you, that reveals how you think and what you care about, that gives the admissions officer a reason to advocate for you when the committee reviews the waitlist.

Do not brag. Do not list your accomplishments. Any genuinely significant updates, a major award, strong mid-year grades, a meaningful new development, should come from your guidance counselor, not from you. When you brag, you become less likable. When you paint a vivid, specific picture of yourself in the Tufts community, you become someone the reader wants to fight for.

Submit your letter promptly. The primacy effect matters.

Have Your Guidance Counselor Make an Advocacy Call

After your letter is submitted, your guidance counselor should call or email your regional admissions representative. The counselor should communicate that Tufts is your top choice, that you will enroll if admitted, and that your academic performance has remained strong. If there are genuinely significant new developments worth sharing, the counselor is the appropriate person to deliver them.

If you'd like help maximizing your chances of getting off the waitlist and into your current top-choice colleges, schedule a free consultation with an admissions expert today.