<p>Students are rejected all the time from schools they considered a “match” or even a “safety.” There are many different reasons why this happens. </p>
<p>You say you don’t want to be accusatory or point fingers, and yet you do. and quite honestly, your citation to the wikkipedia article seem designed to politicize an admissions decision. You clearly are trying to point fingers and be accusatory – and all based on one friend’s rejection from a very selective college?</p>
<p>From what I have heard, Brandeis strongly considers demonstrated interest – did she do anything to really show Brandeis she wanted to go there? Did she allow her stats to make her overconfident and not give the same attention to the “why brandeis” essay that she may have given to the essays of schools she considered more of a reach? Or did she maybe even leave out that “optional” element and miss out on the chance to show why she wanted to attend Brandeis? </p>
<p>Brandeis is a competitive school in terms of admissions. People will get rejected who don’t think they should have been rejected. That’s true at any very selective college. There are always admissions decisions that from the outside seem to be incomprehensible. That doesn’t mean the decision was improperly motivated.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Doesn’t matter, this is Chicago forum, blah, blah, blah . . . </p></li>
<li><p>I see your point. Of course it raises a question.</p></li>
<li><p>If she was a committed Muslim applying to Brandeis (or Notre Dame, for that matter, or Pepperdine), and she didn’t address the question in her application (or didn’t address it in some convincing manner), then some if it is on her.</p></li>
<li><p>Is it conceivable that she actually cares? Brandeis would have been 7th or 8th of 8 for me on that list.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Brandeis was founded in order to give access to higher education to highly qualified minorities. Plus, its status as an extremely Jewish-friendly school makes it equally Muslim-friendly - the institution on the whole is very sensitive to the needs of its Muslim students. The Muslim Student Association is strong and vocal. I can guarantee that your friend’s rejection has nothing to do with her religion.</p>
<p>It’s possible, like others have mentioned, that she was rejected because she showed little interest in Brandeis. Admissions people can see when you are honestly not interested in their school and they would rather give your spot to someone who truly wants to attend, which is only fair. It looks like she has plenty of other great options though.</p>
<p>Brandeis has a very diverse student body and active Muslim student group. They are known, however, for rejecting highly qualified applicants who they know are unlikely to attend because they will get into more prestigious universities. I imagine that happened to your friend.</p>
<p>The answer is absolutely not. Brandeis has a surprising number of Muslim students, including many from the Middle East, including the West Bank. And as you point out, you were admitted with significant finacial aid. </p>
<p>No one can predict who will and who won’t be admitted because no one but the admissions committee is seeing the whole picture–who applied and what needs does the prospective class have. It is also not just a numbers game, the essays mean a lot. I don’t know why your friend wasn’t offered admission. Perhaps there was something in her application that suggested that she was unlikely to accept an offer to Brandeis. I don’t know, but I do know it was not based upon discrimination.</p>
<p>hmmm…your friends stats are very impressive. Before you jump to the conclusion that Brandeis is biased, here are 2 facts I’m aware of:</p>
<p>1) There are happy Muslim students at Brandeis. I don’t know how many (is there some org like Hillel that might have info on this? Maybe the MSA?) </p>
<p>2) I have a friend who is a very very active and committed Jew. He won a major high school competition which included a journalism internship and a free trip to Israel, for example. Many Jewish interests, activities etc. He was accepted at Columbia and UofC, denied at Brandeis. </p>
<p>That’s it for my 2 facts. Here’s my opinion: sometimes Brandeis feels they’re being applied to as a safety and they may not like that. Or you could phrase that differently and say that they care about their yield…</p>
<p>Why did you post this on the Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Tufts, Johns Hopkins and Chicago forums? You figure the fact that your friend got into those schools somehow makes their forums qualified to answer this question?</p>
<p>I don’t have any stats or anything on it but word is that Brandeis is actually trying to increase it’s muslim population in an effort to increase discussion between the islamic and jewish religions… kind of their way of promoting peace.</p>
<p>Stop whining. You didn’t get rejected for being Muslim.</p>
<p>I got into Cornell, but was rejected by Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, Northwestern, and waitlisted at WUSTL, and Vandy. I thought it was odd too. I also know kids with higher stats than me who went to “second and third tier schools” because they got rejected from all the top ones they applied to.</p>
<p>College admissions isn’t a formula and it’s often a bit irrational seeming, especially with things like essays and recommendation letters.</p>
<p>So… you think you were discriminated against because a Muslim female who’s ranked first, has outstanding test scores, and has high achievement in a sport was accepted to may top schools. Good luck making your case.</p>
Seriously, your comment was dumb. Please think before you post. You just totally answered yourself question in this post. NO it’s not discrimination, especially when you are the perfect proof that it isn’t.</p>