<p>luluzg:
As far as I know all notifications are sent by regular mail on April 1st.
I don’t know of any special notification process for international students, but it’s possible.</p>
<p>Oh! So it is not necessarily a writing requirement that it is satisfying? So by not satisfying it, the class I take to satisfy the requirement may not be writing related?</p>
<p>Eliyahu2123:
Slow down there buckaroo. I’m not sure I’m following you.
(and after re-reading your last posting several times, I’m pretty sure you’re going to need those writing classes! <lol>)</lol></p>
<p>The AP test will satisfy your Humanities requirement.
You still need to take the University Writing Seminar and two writing-intensive classes.
(keep in mind that the two writing-intensive classes can be in ANY subject and are also pretty easy to fulfill – unless you were planning on spending four years locked in the chem. lab – which I don’t recommend in any case).</p>
<p>I <em>hope</em> I’ve answered your question.</p>
<p>deisman,
I know what it says on the common data set report, but can you comment on your perspective regarding Brandeis’ emphasis on class rank, per se? If a kid has a strong GPA (say, 3.7ish), took challenging courses (honors, GT, the occasional AP), and top-notch test scores, would a ranking outside the top decile be a significant black mark? To what extent would strong recommendations/essays mitigate against this?</p>
<p>Also, is there any particular interest in recruiting students with particular academic interests? If so, could you mention which those might be? (Not so the kid could fake an interest…more to find out if the kid’s interest is a boon to the application.)</p>
<p>Sikorsky:
You ask two great questions.</p>
<p>On the subject of class rank. Most competitive schools describe what they are seeking in terms of class rank because it’s somewhat comparable across schools and grading systems. GPA is calculated differently across schools and more importantly does not take into account the fact that some schools are considerably more challenging than others.</p>
<p>There are no cut-offs of any kind. A ranking outside the top 10% would not be a “black mark”, but if was too far down it frankly starts to become a tougher sell (but not an impossible one). What’s much more important is class choice. Did the candidate take the most challenging curriculum available? etc. Strong recommendations and essays are essential for <em>every</em> applicant, regardless of GPA or ranking.</p>
<p>Your second question is a tough one. I would say that if you have a particular academic interest and you pursued that with passion and consistency for multiple years and perhaps coupled that with related ECs, it could make your application stand out. However some candidates think that specifying a major that is infrequent for a given school can help you get in. I’m not sure that this works. If that was the case, MIT would be flooded with applications from potential history majors every year!</p>
<p>I hope this helps.</p>
<p>I’m really interested in this class rank issue as well.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Could you expand a bit on how class rank takes into account the fact that some schools are more challenging than others? I see a number of kids posting who are at the top of their respective classes and present standardized test scores in the 600’s. Would this, perhaps, suggest that this school was less competitive? Wouldn’t a hypothetical kid with top-notch test scores and a second decile rank seem perhaps to have more academic potential? I find this perplexing. Is it not possible that the entire top half of the class at school X is comprised of more capable kids as the top tenth at school Y? Maybe this isn’t a matter of the school being “challenging” or not, but simply a talent pool issue at the particular school. Looking back, I went to a top public with a graduating class of less than 150. I am pretty sure that #16-30 in my school were better-prepared, more capable, and had greater potential than #1 at the school two towns down the road…because my district attracted families who wanted a top-notch school. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’ve seen this elsewhere as well. It sounds like you would have considerable reservations about a kid who chose the honors level course if an AP level course was also offered? We have schools in the area where a kid choosing the “most challenging curriculum available” would be in a rather punishing slate of courses. I guess this is expected? (Again, whereas a kid could graduate near the top of his class at a school across town where fewer APs were offered, without doing this…and have taken “the most challenging curriculum.”) </p>
<p>I get that you may not be interested in slackers…but I’m thinking that choosing NOT to accept the full slate of G/T level courses, and opting for honors instead in some classes (not the regular classes), for our rising freshman has already taken her off the road to colleges like Brandeis. Is this correct?</p>
<p>DeskPotato:
You raise some interesting points here.
Let me try and explain.
What Brandeis is looking for can somewhat be over-simplified to this:</p>
<p>“Did you make the most of the opportunities that were available to you?”</p>
<p>This is where class rank <em>and</em> the “toughness” of a particular high school can come into play. A student in the 50th %-tile of a really demanding school that sends 100% of it’s graduates to top four-year colleges would perhaps look comparable to someone at the top of the class of a mediocre school where only 20% of the graduates go to four-years colleges, etc. You need to take in the totality of the applicant, and that’s exactly what Brandeis (and frankly pretty much any quality university) is going to do.</p>
<p>About AP vs. honors. The notion of “the most challenging curriculum available” is a general guideline, not a hard rule. Sometimes people ask: “is it better to get a B in an AP class or an A in a regular class?” The glib answer is that “it’s better to get an A in an AP class,” but the reality is that we all know that for most mortals, B’s are going to sneak in.
The thing you need to understand is that Brandeis is tough academically. Very tough. Brandeis above all wants to make sure that the students that they admit will be successful academically once they enroll. One data point for this is the rigor of their pre-college curriculum and how well they performed. Brandeis would typically expect to see a certain level of AP and honors courses, but this depends on the particular school and what they offer (and trust me, they know the gory details on EVERY high school). For example my son went to a private school that offered very little actual AP classes. But nobody worried about this, because everybody (colleges included) knew that the regular classes at this school were tougher than AP classes elsewhere. </p>
<p>Also, not all APs are created equal. Some APs are well-known for being very tough (Physics, Latin) and some are a bit easier (History). The colleges know this as well and doing well on a “hard” AP will carry a bit more weight.</p>
<p>I hope this has been helpful!</p>
<p>Hi, I’m applying as a transfer student and have a couple of questions.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I made the decision to transfer very late (not until February) and so I missed the deadline to schedule an interview. Is there no way now to have an alumni interview?</p></li>
<li><p>I’ve done very well in my college courses (3.82 GPA), but most of my courses were lectures, and I didn’t get to know any of my professors particularly well. Will it count against me if the recommendations I got are somewhat generic? I knew them both somewhat, but nowhere near as well as I knew the teachers who wrote me recommendations in high school.</p></li>
<li><p>I applied to Brandeis last year and was accepted. Is this a good indicator that I’ll be accepted as a transfer as well?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks for you help!</p>
<p>Deisman, I have one last question before the decisions are out? Is Brandeis sending them out tomorrow, i.e. March 17??</p>
<p>percpaul:</p>
<p>Ok, here we go:
- Yes it’s too late. Sorry.
- 3.82 is a very good GPA. But of course much like HS GPA, it depends where you earned it. It seems like you don’t have much of a choice about the recs, so I would just make sure you get the best ones you can given the circumstances.
- It certainly doesn’t hurt. Of course you do realize that you need to beg their forgiveness for turning them down last year? (; Seriously… I think it is a very good indicator, particularly if you went to a good college and took a challenging course load.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>luluzg: </p>
<p>As far as I know, decisions will be mailed on April 1st. But… you never know.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Ah, so it’s not really an index of go-getterness, or something along those lines? In this case, AP courses taken senior year might be of some use if the student were excelling at the time of the mid-year report?</p>
<p>My kid’s school offers four levels of most courses: a remedial level and a standard level, plus in many (but not all) academic areas BOTH an “honors” and a “G/T” class. Where AP is available it substitutes for the G/T level. The school is big enough that the existence of another level up doesn’t drain all the talented kids out of the honors level. It never occurred to us that choosing a mix of hard and harder classes my kid was going to look like a slacker.</p>
<p>Thanks Deisman. I’m at NYU, so my classes are pretty challenging in general. Will the admissions office hold it against me that I chose NYU over Brandeis last year (If it helps, I have a laundry list of reasons for why I now prefer Brandeis to NYU.)?</p>
<p>Also, do you know around when I can expect a decision if I send my application in this week? I know that for fall transfers admission is rolling, but I’m not sure exactly how long a response usually takes.</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>DeskPotato:
I doubt your kid is going to look like a slacker. It sounds like the curriculum you have selected is certainly challenging. Is it the “most challenging possible?” Probably not, but it’s likely to be good enough. Provided of course s/he does well.</p>
<p>Good luck to both of you!</p>
<p>Percpaul:
I was just kidding about having to beg for forgiveness. They will absolutely not hold it against you. NYU is a fine school and takes many excellent students each year who can’t get into Brandeis… sorry, I couldn’t resist! (I can joke like this because my dad went to NYU, so it’s an in-family thing)</p>
<p>In your case the fact that you were already accepted once bodes well for your acceptance again. Particularly since you did very well in college.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the notifications for transfers, other than the fact that they are “rolling.”</p>
<p>Good luck and let us all here on CC know how you did!</p>
<p><a href=“If%20it%20helps,%20I%20have%20a%20laundry%20list%20of%20reasons%20for%20why%20I%20now%20prefer%20Brandeis%20to%20NYU.”>quote</a>?
[/quote]
Perhaps it might help some other potential applicants if your share these.</p>
<p>I wasn’t able to obtain an off campus interview- although when I emailed asking for one they said it would be put on my record that I requested an interview.
will the fact I never had a real intervie hurt me?</p>
<p>Same question.</p>
<p>Having an interview can really help you.</p>
<p>Not having an interview can’t hurt you, but (assuming you would have done a good job on the interview) you have one less opportunity to help yourself.</p>
<p>One thing that you can do on an interview that’s tough to do on a written application is show your level of interest in Brandeis and why specifically you want to attend.</p>
<p>Some people say that an interview can “only help you.” I’m not sure this is the case.</p>
<p>As an interviewer, I’ve had it go both ways:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Someone who can really talk in detail about why they want to go to Brandeis and how they will be able to enrich the Brandeis community and contribute to it.</p></li>
<li><p>Someone (and I’m sad to say, this happens a lot with pre-med kids) who is only interested in Brandeis because they have a good med-school admissions record and wants to know how fast they can graduate and move on to med school, etc.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Suffice to say, in the case of the first scenario the interview really helped where in the second… well let’s just say not so much.</p>
<p>my talent has always primarily been creative writing, which is why i though brandeis would be the best fit for me. however, i have also been considering schools such as NYU and Northeastern because of the city’s internship opportunities in the field of business. although i love to write and would love to study it, i also want to double-major in marketing or global business, since just “writing” isn’t all that stable of a career nowadays, unfortunately</p>
<p>however, i truly am interested in the field of business, and am looking forward to the part of my college experience that requires work experience, interning, and studying abroad. will i still have these opportunities at brandeis? do a lot of kids go abroad during the summer or school semester? and are there lots of resources for networking like northeastern’s co-op program? i was hoping i’d be able to combine my two passions (writing and the more “creative” side of business) at whatever school i went to and maybe get into book publishing or something along those lines later down the road</p>