Tufts University Area Apartments for Rent

When a relative asked businessman Charles Tufts what he would do with his land, says New England folklore, especially “that bleak hill over in Medford,” Tufts answered with, “I will put a light on it.” There may be truth in the story, for in 1855 the college’s first president toasted the new university, saying, “… Tufts College is to be a source of illumination, as a beacon standing on a hill, where its light cannot be hidden …”

Tufts College was founded by Christian Universalists as non-sectarian institution of higher learning. Charles Tufts donated the 20 acres of land on Walnut Hill, the highest point in Medford, Massachusetts. By the late 1970s, the school had been transformed into an internationally-renowned research university; today, Tufts is known as a “New Ivy” school and consistently ranks among the nation’s top universities. The school is well known for its internationalism and study-abroad programs.

Tufts University is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions. The university’s main campus, in Medford, is approximately five miles from Boston, with parts of the lower campus in Somerville.

The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is located west of Boston on a 634-acre campus in Grafton, Massachusetts. Adjacent to Tufts Medical Center, a 451-bed academic medical institution in Chinatown, are the Schools of Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, Dental Medicine, and the Friedman School of Nutrition.

Tufts University also has a campus in Talloires, France at the Tufts European Center, an 11th-century former Benedictine priory, given to the school in 1978. Each year the center hosts a number of summer study programs, with enrolled students living with local families. The site is frequently the host of international conferences and summits.