Brandeis vs. Binghamton vs. UDel Honors...?

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hi!</p>

<p>I am stuck between these three schools... I am unsure of what I want to do, since I went to a very science-focused school, so I would like to explore a bit, though I am very interested in biology, psychology, neuroscience, and behavior.</p>

<p>Money received:
Binghamton: 0 ):
Brandeis: $18,000
Delaware (honors): $7,000</p>

<p>I'm from New Jersey and am Jewish (but not really religious. at all.), if that matters. I'll provide more info if needed. I just need some other opinions before I make a decision...Thanks! :)</p>

<p>PS. Almost forgot...I was waitlisted for Johns Hopkins and decided to stay on that, so that's another option...sort of, I guess... :/</p>

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<p>If you’re interested in excellent undergrad science-research opportunites within a small liberal arts school environment, Brandeis is the compelling choice. Brandeis is a unique combination of small LAC (about 3000 undergrads) and major research university. The Brandeis sciences faculty is excellent and committed to undergraduate education as well as cutting edge research and graduate education. It is the nurturing quality of that faculty and their mentoring that attracted and benefitted Rod MacKinnon, an undergraduate and a classmate of mine at Brandeis in the late 70’s. He returned after medical school to pursue post-doc studies there. In 2003 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Clearly, a nurturing, undergraduate-oriented atmosphere can may make the difference in a student’s future. </p>

<p>On a related note, Edward Witten, the Fields Medal winning Physicist (sometimes called “Einstein’s successor”) was an undergrad at Brandeis as well (a History major I believe) and went on to take his graduate training in physics at Princeton. Perhaps another example of how a small, nuturing undergraduate program can lead to great success in science.</p>

<p>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” page which you may need to paste into your browser: [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 'Meet Brandeisians" faculty interviews to find Petsko.</p>

<p>In terms of prestige and stimulating environment , Brandeis also is the easy choice. Brandeis is truly an amazing school. 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, its alumni are very distinguished–to name just a few, and in addition to MacKinnon and Witten, 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, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles and Christy Hefner, (former CEO of Playboy). Also, if you’re into theater/music/art or social justice it’s a very exciting place to be (Angela Davis, Abbie Hoffman, I could go on, are alums as well).</p>

<p>Forgive my enthusiasm as a Brandeis alum, but I loved! Good luck with your decision!</p>

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<p>hey, i actually got into all 3 of those schools too and the only one im still considering is udel. letme explain why…</p>

<p>binghamton: I only applied here because lets face it, everyone in ny did lol. I just have no interest in going to a SUNY. Everyone you meet is going to be from NY and if you’re instate like I am you may want a change of scenery from that. I’m from long island and I know going to bing would be different than living here but I just feel like everyone there would know where I’m from and I don’t like that. I wanna move away somewhere with a more diverse student body. (I should also note that I didn’t visit bing!)</p>

<p>brandeis- It’s a cute little school with great academics. I don’t have anything bad to say about it. But it’s just not the place for me. I like bigger schools and honestly, the whole jewish scene at brandeis is unappealing to me. I’m jewish but completely not into my religion or religion in general. A school with such a large presence of religion isn’t my place. I also didn’t find anything about the surrounding area that appealing. I know you can get into boston easily but I’d rather be in a city not outside of it.</p>

<p>UDel I actually just visited for the first time yesterday, and I loved it! It’s a big school which I like because theres always something going on and new people to meet. It has great campus life and school spirit which I love. The only thing that worries me about UDel is that most people I know don’t look at it as being as strong academically as other schools I got into. But I don’t think a school should only be chosen based on its academics. Like since you’re in honors you’ll probably have a better academic experience though one of the reasons I didn’t want to be in honors is because I didn’t wanna be housed with honors students. Being in a university’s honor system has its perks.</p>

<p>So yeah, clearly I’d choose udel out of the 3. I’m deciding between udel and ucla mainly but also some others like tulane usc lehigh & american</p>

<p>Also from a money stand point udel isn’t that expensive! I mean if you’re from ny bing is a great value, but i think udel is worth the extra money =]</p>

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<p>Thanks guys! Appreciate the responses. I’ll consider them, but I’d like to see some other opinions first.</p>

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<p>Everyone should pick a school that is the right fit for them, and if that is UDel, so be it. However, Californcation9 is undoubtedly correct when he says “The only thing that worries me about UDel is that most people I know don’t look at it as being as strong academically as other schools I got into.” UDel is simply not comparable to Brandeis academically or in terms of intellectual/cultural/extracurricular opportunities or access to a great city–in this case Boston, a cultural mecca and the world’s best college town. </p>

<p>As for the suggestion that Brandeis someohow is not diverse or is overtly “Jewish,” that is simply inaccurate. Brandeis’s student body is less that half Jewish–about 40% when you fairly count grad students since they’re integrated on the same campus as undergrads. And even the students identifying themselves as Jewish are from diverse backgrounds.That percentage is higher, but not a lot higher, than exists at Tufts, Penn, Columbia and many other top schools, including Harvard. Plus around 25% of the Brandeis student body is minority and international students (in fact its International Business School is majority international students). So, ultimately the school is quite diverse.</p>

<p>Equally important, Brandeis not a religious institution like a Georgetown or Notre Dame. It always has been a secular school, although founded in the tradition of Harvard, Princeton etc by a religious-affiliated group. </p>

<p>UDel is a good but very large state school–16,000 undergrads versus 3000 for Brandeis. Your classes your first few years will be very large, and you will have TAs in many of your introductory classes. At Brandeis, you will have dramatically smaller class sizes and classes taught by professors, not TAs. Brandeis has all of the elements of a small liberal arts college, but set in a research environment. Undergraduate teaching is the main focus of the faculty, not research. In contrast, if your main interest is mid-major athletics and partying, then you should consider UDel. But if your focus is academics, class size, quality of teaching, then Brandeis is your clear choice.</p>

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<p>I wanted to bump this since I’m still deciding.</p>

<p>About what the last guy said about UDel and being academically inferior…i would be in the Honors program so i’m hoping that would alleviate that.</p>

<p>Any more thoughts are greatly appreciated :)</p>

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<p>UDel is fine, but I do not think its honors program matches Brandeis</p>

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<p>The totals per year to go to each end up being:</p>

<p>Binghamton: $27k
Delaware: $25k
Brandeis: $35k</p>

<p>I know Brandeis’ academics are superior. The question is whether it’s worth $10,000 more.</p>

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<p>I am also worried about the fact that Delaware is a major party school :/</p>

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<p>Binghamton, that is if Brandeis is too expensive, and then you could save that money for grad school. Binghamton is still considered a public ivy and has great academics. Also, as far as I know, UDelaware is more of a party school but Binghamton is not</p>