Graduate Research Excellence at Tufts (GREAT)

The Graduate Research Excellence at Tufts (GREAT) program is a summer program that spans two and a half weeks and aims to cultivate outstanding graduate researchers at Tufts. Leveraging interactive pedagogy and a supportive interdisciplinary environment it enables intermediate graduate students to acquire skills in research, communication, career skills, and computation. GREAT is one of our signature professional programs, and complements the Graduate Institute for Teaching (GIFT) program. 

GREAT is primarily intended for second-year master's students or early-stage doctoral students (years 1-3) who are ready to embark on research or have already begun to conduct research with an advisor. Students should apply together with a faculty member who will act as a discipline specific mentor for the GREAT program; this faculty member can (but need not be) the student's primary advisor.

This year, we especially encourage applications from students considering applying for external fellowships or other programs. During the program, students will develop a draft application with support, and will have the opportunity to be supported beyond the program in developing and submitting their application.

The program will run from May 20 - June 5, 2024 from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. (Eastern) each day on the Medford campus to leave time in the mornings for participants to meet with their mentor, conduct their regular research, or fulfill other obligations.

Upon completion of the program, GREAT fellows will be able to:

1. Design and manage the lifecycle of a research project from generating creative ideas, using literature to motivate their research, formulating new research questions, obtaining necessary evidence to answer them, and managing progress;
2. Write a research statement outlining their research goals and roadmap;
3. Communicate their work and progress effectively to a general graduate student level audience;
4. Leverage their research community to acquire further tools and knowledge necessary to advance their project;
5. Prepare a resume, communicate effectively in job interviews and leverage social media and the web to cultivate their professional image; and
6. Give, receive and act on feedback in a structured and collegiate fashion.

GSAS students selected for the GREAT program receive a taxable stipend of $500 for participation.

Role of the Faculty Mentor: The faculty mentor is intended to be a very lightweight commitment. We would like them to be a point of contact to help the student participant translate and contextualize the general cross-disciplinary advice from the GREAT program into their field. For example, presentation styles and conventions vary tremendously across disciplines; different kinds of funding and fellowship opportunities are available to different programs. Students are encouraged to meet during or after the program to discuss how what they’ve learned should be translated into their work.