Where am I?

No, this isn’t a case of Admissions staff amnesia.  Many admitted students, waitlisted applicants, and prospective applicants will pass through our neighborhood in the coming months, and you may be wondering just where, exactly, I am (or, more generally, Fletcher is).

Fletcher is on the Tufts University campus in Medford/Somerville.  Medford and Somerville are two of the small cities ringing the bigger city of Boston, and the border separating them runs right through Fletcher.  Though a lot of students live in Medford (and I have my hair cut there), I think it’s fair to say that for social activities, students are oriented toward Somerville and beyond.  Here’s how it looks on a map:

The marker is pointed at Fletcher, and you can see all the different towns that surround us.  Notice that a little map like this one can also include Logan Airport, as well as Mystic Lake (convenient for biking, swimming, etc.).  So I’m not going to argue that Fletcher sits in the center of a giant metropolitan area, but I can tell you that there’s a fantastic variety of easily accessed spots.  You want to shop for local produce at a farm, hang out at a beach, and dine downtown in a single day.  Go ahead and make your plans — it’s all doable!

When people talk about Boston, they sometimes mean the city alone, but they’re often referring to a broader area, which could include the inner-most neighbors or more.  The population of Boston proper is just under 600,000, about 20th by size in the U.S.  The population of Boston plus its nearest neighbors (including Medford and Somerville) is about a million, and “Greater Boston,” stretching out a little further but still within easy commuting distance, is about 5 million.  For a small city, we’re rich with universities, museums, theaters, restaurants, and all the trappings of urban life.  But being a small city, it’s also easy to head out of town and hike, bike, and otherwise recreate.

We’re often asked what it’s like to be a student here.  Personally, I think there’s a great balance between the opportunity to focus on student life on a leafy campus and access to those urban trappings only a short subway ride away.  The best of both worlds!