Thanks for your interest in Tufts Sailing.  You may have many questions about sailing at Tufts.  Here are some answers to the most common questions:

1. How do I contact coach Ken Legler?
2. Who gets in to Tufts?
3. Are there any scholarships for sailing?
4. What does Tufts do best academically?
5. How much do we practice and compete?
6. What makes Tufts and Tufts Sailing so special?

1. You can reach coach Ken Legler at the Tufts Sailing office most weekday mornings directly on the phone, 617-627-5150. To contact Ken, e-mail: kenneth.legler@tufts.edu. If you are interested in Tufts, please fill out the following recruiting form AND email Ken.   https://www.gotuftsjumbos.com/sports/sailing/recruitForm

2. Admission to Tufts is very competitive. The number of applicants climbs dramatically every year; there were nearly 23,000 applicants for only 1500 seats for the Class of 2023. Here are some rough guidelines: Tufts is looking for A and A- students that crack 700 on one or more SAT I’s and II’s. That said, there is a considerable amount of variability in accepted scores and grades. Sailors can and do get a little bit of preference within Admissions, though not a lot. All sailors are on an athletes list, and Tufts considers athletics an important part of your education. A very limited number of athletes, past champions that will make a clear contribution to the success of their respective programs, can get a little more preference but again, it is limited. For the most part, candidates are admitted on academic merit, just like any other top academic institution. There are some strategies for Admissions that you can discuss with Ken, such as Early Decision and admissions pre-reads.

3. Unfortunately, there are no athletic scholarships at Tufts, nor any sailing scholarships at any other school. The college sailing rules do not allow them. However, there are plenty of academic scholarships available, especially for candidates with need. Contact the Tufts Financial Aid office directly and search the web for countless local and regional scholarships for any geographic area or field of study.

4. Tufts is one of the best universities in the country for many academic fields. International Relations at Tufts, for instance, is the best there is. Tufts Engineering is also top notch, and we excel in many programs in the School of Arts and Sciences. The only thing Tufts does not offer is a business school program. Tufts students interested in business usually get a degree in another discipline, be it economics, civil engineering, etc. before going on to graduate business school elsewhere.  Current sailors study: Mechanical Engineering, Quantitative Economics, Computer Science, Chemistry, Community Health, French, Latin, Astrophysics, Biomedical Engineering, Psychology, and many more subjects!

5. Practice time: During the fall (Aug – Nov) and spring (Feb – May), the team starts practice on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 2 and Wednesdays at 3. Practice ends in time for the team to have dinner together on campus.  Mondays is our day off. We have team lift on Tuesday and Thursdays at 8am. At Tufts, it is easy to work around academic conflicts as most classes are offered Mon/Wed/Fri or Tue/Thur so sailors should be able to practice two days a week minimum. Regattas are on Saturday, Sunday or both days. No one sails seven days per week; it’s not allowed.

6. What makes Tufts and Tufts Sailing so special: Many things. The academics at Tufts are among the best. The sailing is arguably the best for scheduling, boats, coaching, wind and practice competition. Our schedule is the biggest in all of college athletics; over 110 college regattas per year.

• We are located right near Boston, the mecca of college sailing. Our lake is in the suburbs and completely surrounded by beautiful trees. We are only a short trip for the Charles River, host of MIT, Harvard, BU, and Northeastern Sailing regattas. Other sites within two hours include Mass Maritime, Roger Williams, Salve Regina, Brown, URI, Connecticut College and Coast Guard to the south; UNH and Southern Maine to the north. Dartmouth, Bowdoin and Yale are less than three hours away while Vermont and Maine Maritime are a bit further.
• Our boats do represent a departure from the rest of college sailing. We sail Larks. We do so because they are more fun to sail; more rewarding than 420s and FJs for the really good sailors while less forgiving for those sailors on the steeper part of the learning curve. In short, they point higher, plane faster, and tack and gybe more quickly than their counterparts. They are also beautiful to see sailing, and they feel great whether you are steering or just trimming and hiking. Check them out in the photo gallery. We also have a fleet of FJ’s and a few Lasers in order to help bridge the gap between Larks and the boats we are competing in every weekend.
• Competition at practice everyday is better than the best racing clinics you have ever attended. Everyone is fast and everyone knows each other. Race management is efficient and includes equal parts of fleet racing and team racing with a few drills mixed in.

The excellence of Tufts University academic programs and Tufts Sailing combines the best of both. If you like fun and challenges, keeping your mind and body busy, and have the ability to get in, Tufts might be the perfect fit for you. Please contact coach Ken Legler if you are interested in Tufts University and the Tufts Sailing Team.