<p>Even putting prestige aside (where Brandeis far exceeds BU), the two schools are extremely different from one another. To begin with BU is a large and impersonal urban school with no distinct campus of its own. In contrast, Brandeis combines a nurturing, small liberal arts college and world-class research university-with the smallest student body I believe (less than 800 in a class) of any top tier national research university. And that small student body is matched with high-powered professors who actually teach in small classes. As you can imagine, the research opportunities are tremendous. Plus by being very close to Boston but on its own suburban campus, its full of campus activities and gives you easy access to the city–the best of both worlds.</p>
<p>BU is a good university, but, as I’ve mentioned to others on CC, for undergraduate students, Brandeis is truly amazing. Its intellectual environment is comparable in many ways to its University Athletic Association sister school, U Chicago (perhaps no coincidence that the President of U Chicago is a Brandeis alum). Yet its students are down-to-earth, friendly and non-competitive with one another. FYI in a recent Forbes national college rankings survey, Brandeis was ranked 15th among research universities and 30th overall among all private univerities and LAC’s–a testament to its focus on undergraduate education. Larger schools, including some Ivies, were ranked much lower. </p>
<p>Despite its small size and relative youth, Brandeis’ alumni are very distinguished–to name just a few: Nobel Prize winner for chemistry Rod Mackinnon, Fields Medal winning physicist Edward Witten (often called “Einstein’s successor”), 3-time Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Friedman of the NY Times, The Earth is Flat etc; Mitch Albom of Tuesday’s with Morrie (about his Brandeis professor), the Creators/Producers of Friends; actress Debra Messing; Robert FX Sillerman (billionaire businessman–currently owner of American Idol and Graceland), Jeff Lurie, billionaire owner of the Philadelphia Eagles and Christy Hefner, former CEO of Playboy). Also, if you’re into social justice (Angela Davis and Abbie Hoffman are alums as well, I could go on) or theater/music/art, it’s a very exciting place to be.</p>
<p>With respect to the sciences, Brandeis is first rate with a spectacular new science center. You will no find any buildings in “ruins.” To the contrary, in addition to the new science cener, and the recent and fabulous student center and admissions building,there is a brand new humanities center being built Also, if you haven’t seen it, you should watch the interview on the Brandeis website with Greg Petsko, Professor of Biochem, who left MIT to come to Brandeis. He discusses his reasons as to why he found Brandeis to be, in his words, “a better place” to teach and for his students to learn. Here’s a link to the “video tour”: [url=<a href=“http://www.brandeis.edu/admissions/videotour/]Tour[/url”>http://www.brandeis.edu/admissions/videotour/]Tour[/url</a>]. Then, you may need to click through to the faculty interviews to find Petsko.</p>
<p>Also, with respect to the diversity concenern, Brandeis is very diverse undergraduate and graduate, with a strong international flavor. Brandeis is not a Jewish school. It is and has always been a secular institution. Although founded by the Jewish community in the spirit of other great private, secular schools (e.g. Protestant Harvard and Presbyterian Princeton), its student body is less than half Jewish and about 20-30% minorities and internationals (in fact the majority of The Brandeis International Business School is international students from many different countries).</p>
<p>Its total Jewish population far smaller than BU’s and the nature of its student body is very similar to other top schools you might not single out as “Jewish” because of their founding–e.g. Barnard, NYU and Penn Thse examples suggest that Brandeis is not unique in having a significant Jewish population. However, it is unique in providing a truly small and intellectually stimulating liberal arts college environment within a major research university</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision!</p>