<p>thank you so much sweetdreamzz.</p>
<p>Can I ask you about BU’s financial aid/scholarship for international students? Are many intl students accepted with decent aid?</p>
<p>Thank you :)</p>
<p>Hi, </p>
<p>I want to know if the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center is open for students(specifically the track or the basketball court). I didn’t see any basketball courts in the fields at brandeis?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Spiffmonkey,</p>
<p>Yes Gosman is open to ALL students, and it’s free. They have at least five basketball courts, a full size indoor track, squash courts, indoor tennis courts, weight rooms, cardio rooms, and various other rooms, and in a year there will be a pool.</p>
<p>So - how is the atheist population at Brandeis? Would a full fledged non believer enjoy the student community at Brandeis? Would they enjoy him back?</p>
<p>How’s the school on cracking down on torrents?</p>
<p>Also are bikes stolen a lot?</p>
<p>@PinotNoir, unless you’re looking for religion, religion certainly doesn’t find you at Brandeis. Brandeis is a VERY secular place, and apart from your friends debating religion amongst yourselves, you will not find it being thrown at you, or even gently tossed. </p>
<p>@SoulReaver, I can’t really answer as far as torrents go, because I don’t download torrents, not do I hear much about students getting in trouble. I also haven’t heard about bikes getting stolen, just make sure you have a lock.</p>
<p>Is the campus really as bad as some people make it out to be? I certainly won’t let “beauty of campus” dictate whether I apply or not, but I’m still a little curious. I have already made a scheduled visit + interview to Brandeis this month but I would like to get a heads up before arriving.</p>
<p>askjeeves- I was really dissapointed with the surrounding area, and the campus itself was whatever.</p>
<p>The campus isn’t BAD, it’s just not impressive in any way really besides the castle</p>
<p>@heathernguyen, I know some international students but haven’t really discussed financial aid with them… One of my close friends, though, pays full tuition and is an international student. Another person I know who is international has the Wien International Scholarship and has a full ride. To my knowledge, though, I think international students do not get that much financial aid… but I’m not really sure. Sorry!</p>
<p>@Soulreaver</p>
<p>There is a community for torrents. There is Brandeis DC++ where we share files on campus. Most of us have large libraries or movies, music, and programs to share. AFAIK you cannot be caught torrenting using Brandeis DC++. </p>
<p>[Brandeis</a> DC++ Hub | Facebook](<a href=“http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brandeis-DC-Hub/266052312005]Brandeis”>http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brandeis-DC-Hub/266052312005)</p>
<p>Here is the link.</p>
<p>@askjeeves</p>
<p>The architecture varies from new and sleek (Shapiro Science Center and Mendel Humanities Building) to Usen Castle. It’s pretty varied. The one thing I noticed right away is that the campus is very hilly. It’s alright, everyone’s calves are jacked.</p>
<p>Campus beauty is very subjective. Brandeis’ problem in this regard is multi-faceted. First, because of its New England location just outside of Boston, some people expect it to have the feel of a traditional New England campus. If you love Georgian architecture–visit Harvard. Or if Gothic is your thing, try Yale, or Wellsley, or Boston College. Except for Usen Castle, Brandeis doesn’t look like any of those other places. Much of the campus was built in the 1950’s and 1960’s and follows the International style which was popular then, but not so much now. They have clean lines and are very functinal. The newer buildings on campus (and there are many) tend to be very modern and avant garde. So people who love modern architecture frequently love the Brandeis campus; traditionalists, not so much. </p>
<p>Another issue is that, except for the athletic fields, most of the campus is built on a rather steep hill which presents difficult siting and accessibility problems. Because of the location, there are no broad, expansive quadrangles of the type that dominate many more traditional campuses. Instead, the buildings are placed here and there, wherever they could site them. A long “pedestrian spine” snakes up the hill and provides the green space that quadrangles usually provide. </p>
<p>Another issue is that, because the campus was developed mostly in the 1950’s and 1960’s, it was designed with cars in mind and, IMHO, cars are allowed to dominate much too much. I think that the campus would be much prettier if they largely did away with the ring access road and eliminated on-street parking–replacing it with a large parking garage at the bottom of the hill. Of course, that takes money but, hopefully, in the future something can be done to make the campus more pedestrian friendly.</p>
<p>Finally, Brandeis has a long history of building new buildings but not putting enough money into maintaining existing buildings. I guess this is because it is easier to get a donor to donate money for a new building (named after them) than restoring/maintaining an already built structure. But the bottom line is that deferred maintenance has made some of the older buildings on campus look somewhat shabby. Usen Castle, for example, looks great from the outside but go inside and…, its far less impressive.</p>
<p>But the funny thing is that, while many parents and prospective students are underwhelmed by the look of the Brandeis campus, most professional architects absolutely love it. Conversely, many parents love the look of Boston College while many architects describe it as boring and unimaginative. Like I said, it is very subjective.</p>
<p>Sweetdreamzzz:
My s will be a senior math major at brandeis this fall. He is thinking of taking general chem w/o the lab just for fun. Since you have taken both, do you think it will be a problem if he doesn’t take the lab? Its not listed as a co-req, but not sure…</p>
<p>What’s your favorite thing about college compared to high school?</p>
<p>@littlemimie</p>
<p>I had a friend last year who took Gen. Chem w/ lab but then dropped the lab section when she decided that she wanted to be a politics major instead. She had no problem with the lecture portion. In my experience Gen. Chem. Lecture helps in understanding labs. Whereas the lab portion can be not that to somewhat helpful in understanding lecture content. I think your s will be fine. I would not worry.</p>
<p>@littlemimie: I think it’s not a problem if he doesn’t take lab. It would probably be better for him since lab is a pain and mostly busy work and the lab grade mostly depends on how easy/hard the TA is. It also frees up his time since lab is scheduled for close to 4 hours (1:40pm-5:30pm) although most labs don’t take up the whole time. </p>
<p>Many of my classmates did not like the professor for the chemistry lectures (Pochapsky) though because he had very scatterbrain notes and almost always lost students when explaining how to solve the problems because he would skip steps that a student who hasn’t had exposure to that topic in chemistry would need to understand how to solve the problem. I also heard from my friend that he was rude to her during his office hours but I never had any personal experience with him since I went to the other professor (Novack) who is much more caring about the students and dedicated to their success in chemistry (she teaches the spring semester and is there to see how the students learned chemistry first semester so she can better help students in the spring). At the end of the year, he curved our grades on a bell curve so many people did not get A’s and there was a HUGE line outside his office regarding grades and the bell curve. I talked to my advisors about the grading for his class and they knew about it because so many students complained about it… The head of the chemistry department had to verify that Pochapsky did indeed curve correctly (because of the many complaints) and he was told to state more clearly how the grading would work to the students at the beginning of the year but I’m not sure what will happen this year… </p>
<p>Everyone loved Dolnik (the lab professor) because he was funny during lectures and really cared about the students’ success (not to mention his cool european accent). So, if your son does not take lab, I guess that is what he will be missing out on. </p>
<p>@DasSuiGeneris: My favorite thing about college compared to high school is the independence I get since I live in California =). I love being close to Boston because it lets me have an excuse to get off campus and explore the city (usually on my way to and on my way back from volunteering at MGH). Boston is a great break from campus to breathe… Charles River looks really beautiful on the red line to Mass Gen. I also liked living near my friends on my hall. I became very close with many people on my floor (Cable, 2nd floor) =D.</p>
<p>Can you get HD cable in dorms? Can you connect an LCD monitor to cable tv in the dorms easily?</p>
<p>I guess this is not really a question. But I’m so so nervous about college, and I wanted to know what are some things that you wish you knew your freshmen year.</p>
<p>Things I REALLY wish I knew (pertaining to the meal plans)
- The 10 meals/550 points was the best option for me, and most people I know.
- You get 10,14, or 21 meals per week, not x amount of meals for the semester, this means that if you only use 7 of your 10, 14, or 21, you will lose the rest of your meals, and effectively waste money.<br>
- You can only use one meal per meal time slot, so if you use a meal during either Breakfast which goes something like 7:30 AM to 10:30 AM, Lunch which goes something like 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM, or Dinner which goes something like 3:30 PM to 2:00 AM, you cannot use another meal. This is why the 10 meal plan is the best, in my opinion. If it worked that you can use as many meals as you wanted during each time slot, I would have a different opinion.
- During the Breakfast slot a meal is only worth around $4.10, during the Lunch slot a meal is only worth around $7.10, and during the Dinner slot a meal is only worth around $8.00. Making sure you are always using meals during Dinner and Lunch in order to maximize their values.
- The 5 guest meals you get every semester you can use whenever you want, and they work the same as everything explained above, BUT you can use them at anytime, even if you’ve already used one of your regular meals.
- There are a lot of meal options on campus, you just need to be aware of them. Main two dining halls: Sherman (all you can eat), Usdan (a la carte with many different stations). Other main places: Faculty club (points only, and open during lunch), Einsteins (bagels, coffee, packaged salads, sandwiches, and other food), The Stein/Ollies (points only, diner style food, open during the week for Dinner only until 9 PM, and Thurs-Sat until 3 AM), C-Store (called the POD Market, two locations large one in Usdan student center, and smaller one at the Village, basically one large connivence store), Java City (in Rabb where classes are, small booth with pastries, and prepackaged sandwiches and other food), Dominic’s (in the IBS building, a well liked Waltham restaurant chain that only accepts non-Brandeis related meal currency). So know the choices, and you won’t get sick of the food.</p>
<p>@Soulreaver</p>
<p>I’m not sure about HD cable, I knew people who had cable. As far as connecting your monitor to a cable television, again, I didn’t know anyone who did this. People in our hall would connect a laptop to a HD TV and watch movies which was about as far as the TV on computer action went.</p>