<p>This so-called shortage of diversity issue is endemic to most public versus private institutions. The typical private school that is plurality or primarily white and Christian with a significant minority/international population of say about 25% (like Brandeis’) is no more diverse than one that is plurality white and Jewish with the same minority population. The difference between Brandeis and these other private, non-sectarian institutions is that it was founded on the very proposition of non-discrimination among religions. There are three chapels at the heart of the Brandeis campus built in the 1950’s that are equal–one Protestant, one Catholic and one Jewish and,in more recent years, a Muslim prayer room was added. Four Chaplain are employed by the university to serve each of those major faiths. Non-discrimination and diversity are the hallmark of the institution. On the issue of education, Stony Brook is a good school, and may have some particularly strong departments (whether or not objectively better than their counterparts at Brandeis) but, as mentioned, it is an entirely different educational experience from Brandeis just as it would be different from other small, private research universities-e.g. Tufts, Johns Hopkins, Wash U, The University of Chicago etc.</p>