<p>Particularly, its strength in Psychology/ Journalism/ International Relations.</p>
<p>The university has a liberal arts focus (I didn’t know this in the first place, how come Brandeis is grouped with national universities anyway?). Is it any different from independent liberal arts colleges?</p>
<p>To my great great dismay, I’ve heard about social life at Brandeis: non-Jewish students left out, boring weekends. What else to expect?</p>
<p>Anything regarding Brandeis would be of great help - Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Brandeis is barely 50% Jewish and that 50% covers an enormous spectrum from observant Orthodox students to those for whom their Judaism is little more than a family historical fact and everything in between. To assume that this 50% is a cohesive block that makes the other 50% feel “left out” is, in my mind, a little disturbing. Most Jewish college students in this country attend schools where well more than 50% of the student body is Protestant (I am using the term to include an equally broad range of observance and personal identification with Christianity), but most Jewish students are used to being in the minority. At Brandeis you will see more Jewish culture and observance than at just about any other college – you’ll see men wearing yalmulkes – more than you will elsewhere, but still only a small minority; kosher food will be readily available (which will in no way affect someone who doesn’t care about it); the fact that there are students who observe Friday night and Saturday as their Sabbath and refrain from certain activies will be evident, but they will still be a small minority of the student population; and school will be off on certain Jewish holiday. In December, Chanukah will be well evident – but there is also the annual Brandeis traditional performance of Handel’s Messiah and tree lighting. </p>
<p>If you are a member of a majority culture and would feel uncomfortable in an environment where that culture is not the predominate majority (even though it may be well represented), than perhaps you should question whether you would be comfortable at Brandeis – but not because you would be “left out” – but rather because of your own discomfort with a more diverse environment. Student life at Brandeis is very diverse and inclusive. There are Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Jewish chaplains and student groups representing those as well as other religions.</p>
<p>Brandeis is considered a national research university because it is a national research university. It is not a liberal arts college, though it offers excellent liberal arts programs and is relatively small for a national research university. And it is my understanding that there are ample opportunities for undergraduates to get involved in research, which is not always the case at research universities.</p>
<p>Brandeis is not known as a big partying school – but there are students who party. There are also plenty of students who socialize in smaller groups and many who take advantage of the large number of clubs. Whether weekends are “boring” will depend on what it is you are looking for. If you want a school where you have your choice of frat parties to attend each weekend, Brandeis may not be the place for you (there are no official frats, which doesn’t mean there aren’t parties, including ones hosted by “unofficial frats”).</p>
<p>I think Brandeis is a good choice for the subjects you are interested in. It has a small but very engaged Journalism faculty with usually good course selection, and also many campus media opportunities to get some more practical experience. See one example here, the weekly student newspaper The Justice [The</a> Justice](<a href=“http://www.thejustice.org/]The”>http://www.thejustice.org/)</p>
<p>I can’t speak specifically to Psych or IR, but I happen to know the undergraduate rep for journalism and you should definitely get in touch with her, because she has also taken Psych classes. [10-11</a> UDRs | Brandeis University<a href=“the%20second%20listed,%20the%20first%20is%20currently%20abroad”>/url</a>. </p>
<p>Yeah, I guess I should leave social life out of the question & up to myself. Everything comes with a price after all.</p>
<p>Here’s another thing: I’ve heard that for undergraduates who plan to take it up to PhD in psychology, it’s a better idea to attend large research universities where there are obviously more researches going on & plenty of professors with hands-on experience. Brandeis sure is academically terrific with its liberal arts focus, but is it right for me in this sense?</p>
<ul>
<li>Great thanks to the 2 very helpful posts.</li>
</ul>
<p>your post raises a question for me – why does being at a school with more research going on and experienced professors matter? because having such professors in the classroom is supposed to matter or because it is important to get research experience as an undergrad?</p>
<p>if the latter (which is what i would assume, but do not know) what i think you need to look into (and i do not know the answer for brandeis) is what research opportunities are actually available for undergraduates. at large schools with large graduate programs, there may be a lot of research going on, but graduate students may get all/most of those opportunities. </p>
<p>to answer your question you may be best visiting schools you are considering and try to arrange (ahead of time) to meet with someone from the psych dept to see what research is going on, what undergrads can get involved in, and how many graduates of the program go onto phd programs. </p>
<p>If you have a strong interest in journalism, you might want to look for a school with a daily paper. I noticed that the Justice’s website hasn’t been updated since 11/23, and it’s 12/3 now. It seems they did not put out a paper the week after Thanksgiving at all, or maybe they just didn’t update the website, but still…the other paper, the Hoot, didn’t update from 11/17 until 12/2, and then it looked like they put up only one story.</p>
<p>That probably isn’t a big deal UNLESS working on a newspaper is a big deal to you. </p>
<p>Considering your interests, take a look at American U. I don’t know if they have a daily paper but they do have a communications school and an international studies school.</p>
<p>The only reason the papers didn’t update was because of Thanksgiving. Otherwise they publish every week. As someone who wrote for The Justice for four years, I can tell you that the weekly schedule can feel like an intense daily experience. Also when there are big developments as in the President resigning and the new President being announced, there were breaking articles published, even during the summer. The weekly schedule I think is really an ideal timeline if you want to get in to journalism in college with other commitments, you can flexibly commit as much time as you feel comfortable with. You can just cover day stories/events, or you can make an effort, cover articles that involve talking to numerous professors/students during the week, attending weekly student senate meetings that can stretch or Brandeis faculty meetings or contributing to breaking news coverage of a major university announcement regarding the Rose Art Museum that became public at 5 pm the night of publication. And just to be fair, The Hoot actually did add multiple articles this week. It was a slightly unusual week with a developing story taking place Friday morning. Now that I go to a school that has a daily paper, I don’t not appreciate it, but I do notice how it significantly thinner each day, whereas Brandeis there was on average a lot of news to cover. Brandeis also has a good track record with journalism schools. At least six people I know who have recently graduated (including myself) who worked on each student newspaper or who worked in student government have gone on to prestigious journalism schools such as Medill and Columbia. The editor-in-chief of The Justice my freshman year now works for Politico. Guy Raz of NPR is also a Brandeis graduate. [A</a> career ‘Considered’ - Features](<a href=“http://media.www.thejustice.org/media/storage/paper573/news/2010/10/26/Features/A.Career.considered-3949707.shtml]A”>http://media.www.thejustice.org/media/storage/paper573/news/2010/10/26/Features/A.Career.considered-3949707.shtml)
Two of the journalism faculty have won Pulitzers. A well-known Congressman who recently passed away was also a Justice editor [Stephen</a> J. Solarz: Committed to justice and to Brandeis | BrandeisNOW](<a href=“http://www.brandeis.edu/now/2010/december/solarz.html]Stephen”>Stephen J. Solarz: Committed to justice and to Brandeis | BrandeisNOW)</p>
<p>You sound like you are coming to this with a very negative attitude based on untrue hearsay. I suggest you try some place where you will be more enthusiastic.</p>
<p>Speaking of accomplished Journalist graduates of Brandeis (whether they worked on The Justice or not), there are many, which says a lot about Brandeis as a career launching pad for would-be Journalists. To name a few: Pulitzer Prize winners, Tom Friedman and Margo Jefferson of the New York Times, Bob Simon of CBS’s 60 Minutes, Walter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal and Martin Peretz, Publisher of The New Republic.</p>