How liberal is Brandeis?

<p>To current Brandeis students or anyone else who has opinions on this:
Compared to HY, Berkeley, just how liberal is Brandeis? Are people politically active? How many students are accepted into H or Y for law school that graduated from Brandeis? Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>Also what are your opinions on the Palestinian Scholar that seems to spark such controversy in this article: <a href=“The New York Sun”>http://www.nysun.com/article/27376</a></p>

<p>I'd say liberal students here (including myself) are pretty much equally liberal as the liberal students at those other schools. The major difference would be when it comes to issues with Israel. For the most part people here, even most liberals, are much more hesitant to criticize Israel than people at those other schools. There is a fair number of conservative students here also, and you'll find something similar at Harvard and Yale--but still definitely a minority. I know less about Berkeley but my guess would be they're redder than a poorly cooked steak. Coming back to the 'Deis, a lot of people have strongly-held views but not a whole lot act out on them. However, there are organizations that do act, and you can join one or more of those.</p>

<p>Being a pre-med, I really can't say what your odds of getting into Harvard or Yale law would be, but if you get good grades, recommendations, summer internships at law firms, and especially LSATs you should have just as reasonable a shot as you would going to any other undergrad place. However, there are A LOT of pre-law people here, so to get into the top law schools you're probably going to have to really make yourself stand out from your classmates. I don't think H & Y are going to take more than a few Brandeis students (or students from any other school for that matter) in a single year.</p>

<p>Hope this helped. And you're welcome.</p>

<p>Actually, the figures are a little better than that. For the 2005-2006 Harvard Law School class, 11 graduates of Brandeis were accepted. Just click on the link and check: <a href="http://www.law.harvard.edu/admissions/jd/colleges.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.law.harvard.edu/admissions/jd/colleges.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Ok, more people did get into Harvard law from Brandeis than I expected. I probably was extrapolating from my knowledge of Harvard Medical School--it seems like most years only one Brandeis grad gets in there, or sometimes none at all. Part of that has to do with class size, because the law school class has close to 600 spots, while the medical school is maybe a quarter or third the size. Also, medical schools tend to have much more of a bias toward undergraduate institution. Plenty of people at Harvard Law (I clicked on the link, Cami) came from schools which I've never even heard of, while in medicine there is apparently such a bias in favor the Ivies and the equivalents that even a top-tier, highly selective school like Brandeis is considered small potatoes.</p>

<p>I still stand by the statement that you're going to have to stand out from your classmates, though. 11 students may have gotten into Harvard, but there are well over 100 pre-laws applying out of Brandeis in any year.</p>

<p>Regardless of where you go to school, you will have to be have excellent credentials to get into the top law and med schools. Obviously if one attends Yale, Brown, Princeton, Harvard, etc.... the acceptance rates to the top schools is better. Keep in mind, in general, the higher achieving students go to the top schools and yes, there is a bias as the stats indicate.</p>

<p>The percentage of the Harvard Law class from an IVY undergrad is quite high. I once saw a stat that something like 70& of the top law school classes were filled by undergrads from top 20 university and a small # of LACs.</p>

<p>Fair or not, this is reality and yes there are plenty of exeptions.</p>

<p>In my opinion, the Shikaki thing is stupid. There is no evidence that he has ties to any Palestinian terror group. Just because his brother does doesn't mean that he does. Many of my friends who are more knowledgeable about him than I have vouched for his moderate voice.</p>