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High-Value Education

The Princeton Review’s 2016 guide to “Colleges That Pay You Back” has named Tufts a “best value” college, ranking it in the top fifty in three categories: Colleges That Pay You Back, Best Career Placement, and Best Schools for Making an Impact. The university came in at number twenty-nine for offering good return on investment, a metric that considers such factors as quality of education, cost, financial aid, graduation rates, and student debt. Tufts also scored ninety-five out of a possible ninety-nine in student satisfaction with financial aid. The university’s reputation and proximity to Boston provide students with attractive post-college career opportunities, and its strong alumni network has helped students find jobs and internships, the guide says. full story

Youth Voting Power

If you’re wondering who really wields the power to influence this year’s presidential election, think young. A new Tisch College report points to the importance of getting voters ages eighteen to twenty-nine to the polls. The report, “Youth Electoral Significance in 2016,” ranks the top ten states and congressional districts where young people are poised to have a disproportionately high impact on races for congressional seats and the presidency. Iowa and New Hampshire are at the top of the list. The ratings give political campaigns and national organizations like Get Out the Vote and Rock the Vote the tools to refine their outreach strategies, said Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of Tisch College’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), which did the research. “Young people simply don’t get asked to get involved or vote. So they don’t. When they are asked, research shows that they do vote,” she said. full story

Influential Scientists

Five Tufts researchers have been named to Thomson Reuters’ 2015 list of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds. The list recognizes the top thinkers in twenty-one fields who between 2003 and 2014 published the most papers cited highly by other scientists. Named to the list are Jeffrey Blumberg, a professor at the Friedman School and director of the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging; John Coffin, the American Cancer Society Professor of Molecular Biology at Tufts School of Medicine; David Kaplan, the Stern Family Professor of Engineering; Andrew Levy, the Dr. Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman Professor of Medicine and chief of nephrology at Tufts Medical Center; and Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School. full story

Environment Institute Director

Linda Abriola, a nationally recognized authority on groundwater contamination and remediation, has been appointed director of the Tufts Institute of the Environment (TIE), with the goal of raising the institute’s profile. Abriola, the former dean of the School of Engineering, will focus on bolstering interdisciplinary environmental research and education for faculty and undergraduate and graduate students. She will assume her new role on September 1. TIE, which was founded in 1998, has evolved into a hub for environmental research, teaching, and leadership at Tufts. “Our primary goal will be to leverage Tufts’ intellectual capital to make a difference in the world,” Abriola said. full story

Tisch Associate Dean

Chris Swan, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been appointed associate dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. An MIT-educated engineer whose expertise is in soil behaviors and reusing waste, Swan is a longtime advocate of service learning, an approach that marries community service and instruction. He has done research on the impact of civic engagement on engineering education and evaluated the benefits and barriers for engineering faculty who employ community engagement in their teaching and research. “Engineers impact society—their designs have civic purpose,” Swan said. “We better prepare our students when we incorporate civic-based learning into our curricula. I look forward to championing these ideas and exploring new academic possibilities across all our schools.” full story

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