<p>Cost is the same so don't worry about that.
Rochester has a medical school but Brandeis doesn't though</p>
<p>Any input would be greatly appreciated :)</p>
<p>Of course this two schools are really good! So congratz on getting accepted to both. I really don’t know about Brandeis except that it is a good Jewish school in Boston area.</p>
<p>Rochester and Brandeis share a lot in common. They are in the same Div III UAA and both boast of their 9:1 teacher to faculty ratio.</p>
<p>For Rochester that I know so much about, I will tell you this: As a premed you will be in a great University that caters to students with such goals.
When it comes to Research, especially in the sciences, Rochester will give you more opportunities to get involved at the earliest time possible. The renowned University of Rochester Medical Center is literally across the street from the undergraduate campus. This is really good because you can get involved with clinical exposure during the school year if you wish. Most students that I know of, both upperclassmen and freshmen who are premeds utilize the Medical Center ALOT! This I think is a really nice advantage.</p>
<p>Also the premed advising is top notch. They have dedicated staff members who are only for pre health advising and Rochester does not screen applicants before they write a letter of recommendation.</p>
<p>Another added benefit that Rochester has is the open curriculum that the school has. This is especially good for premeds because it gives you so much freedom to take premed classes and still major in non science if you wish. Also because med schools love high GPA so much, you can easily choose classes that you feel more comfortable in.</p>
<p>Add UMich and UVa into the boxing ring!
They’re both public, so, for me, each of them is about 5k-6k more per year than brandeis or rochester.</p>
<p>Bump! Thanks</p>
<p>First of all, to dispell the earlier poster’s misconception, Brandeis is not a Jewish school. It is in fact the youngest and smallest of all top tier research universities. Although founded by the Jewish community in the spirit of other great private, secular schools (e.g. Protestant Harvard and Presbyterian Princeton), its student body is less than half Jewish and about 20-30% minorities and internationals. It’s truly a diverse place (in fact the majority of The Brandeis International Business School is international students).</p>
<p>If your goal is excellent undergrad science-research opportunites within a small liberal arts school environment, Brandeis cannot be beat. Plus, if you’re pre-med, Brandeis has the early admissions program with Tufts Medical School in Boston.</p>
<p>Brandeis is truly an amazing school. It’s a special combination of small liberal arts college and world-class research university-with the smallest student body I believe (around 800 in a class) of any top tier national research university matched with high-powered professors who actually teach in small classes. So, the research opportunities are tremendous. The Brandeis sciences faculty is excellent and committed to undergraduate education as well as cutting edge research and graduate education–the new science facilites are first rate. While not huge, Rochester’s undergrad enrollment is at least 50% larger than Brandeis’s and overall it’s about twice as large.</p>
<p>Brandeis’s intellectual environment is comparable in many ways to its University Athletic Association sister school, U Chicago (perhaps no coincidence that the President of U Chicago is a Brandeis alum). Yet its students are down-to-earth, friendly and non-competitive with one another. With respect to success rates in admissions to the best graduate schools, including med school , it would be hard to beat Brandeis. Plus it’s located just outside of Boston, the world’s greatest college town, but on its own suburban campus.</p>
<p>It is the nurturing quality of that faculty and their mentoring that attracted and benefitted Rod MacKinnon, an undergraduate and a classmate of mine at Brandeis in the late 70’s. He returned after medical school to pursue post-doc studies there. In 2003 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Clearly, a nurturing, undergraduate-oriented atmosphere can may make the difference in a student’s future. </p>
<p>On a related note, Edward Witten, the Fields Medal winning Physicist (sometimes called “Einstein’s successor”) was an undergrad at Brandeis as well (a History major I believe) and went on to take his graduate training in physics at Princeton. Perhaps another example of how a small, nuturing undergraduate program can lead to great success in science.</p>
<p>If you haven’t seen it, you should watch the interview on the Brandeis website with Greg Petsko, Professor of Biochem, who left MIT to come to Brandeis. He discusses his reasons as to why he found Brandeis to be, in his words, “a better place” to teach and for his students to learn. Here’s a link to the “video tour” page which you may need to paste into your browser: [url=<a href=“http://www.brandeis.edu/admissions/videotour/]Tour[/url”>http://www.brandeis.edu/admissions/videotour/]Tour[/url</a>]. Then, you may need to click through to the 'Meet Brandeisians" faculty interviews to find Petsko. </p>
<p>The kind of person who would feel comfortable at Brandeis is an intellecutal and/or creative sort who is friendly and comfortable with himself or herself and not competitive or pretentious. Intellectual but down-to-earth and friendly I think is an apt description of the student body. Unlike some preppy place or frat-oriented environments where social interraction is based on the “exclusivity” of the frat system, Brandeis has a welcoming, relatively-nonjudgmental environment–yet there are some off-campus frats for those who like what they have to offer. There is no pressure to party, but parties are there if you want them. Often social interaction centers around the numerous clubs and other terrific extracuriculars like theater and music. Rochester is a good school as well, but my impression is that it is more frat oriented. Candidly, I’m not familar with Rochester’s culture, but, since it’s in Rochester, NY, that in of itself would be a deal breaker for me.</p>
<p>As for Michigan and UVA, both are excellent but are large state schools and cannot compare to the LAC-type environment available at Brandeis.</p>
<p>Hope this view is helpful.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for contributing so much!</p>
<p>These schools are absolute peers in rankings, academic quality of the student body, faculty quality, etc. Brandeis’ smaller size translates little into experiential difference in academics. Rochester is on the smaller size itself for a mid-sized university and class sizes and the intimacy of the academic experience will be almost identical. </p>
<p>So forget academics - both will be strong pretty much across the board. Rochester may have some advantage for you in having its own med school around the corner (a good one at that). Rochester as a city can’t compare to Boston. But the campus centered activities at Rochester are significantly stronger than at Brandeis where kids tend to be pulled into Boston. 50% of Brandeis’ undergrad population is Jewish and a significant number are Orthodox. Is this evident on campus? Of course. Despite this, there is a pretty diverse “other” population at the school and the international presence is not small. </p>
<p>Last issue is financial. Brandeis has had, even by standards of the financial crisis hitting all colleges, a hard time of it. Both undergrad and grad programs have been cut and the faculty size is shrinking while enrollment is enlarging to bring in revenue. Be aware.</p>
<p>If a mostly campus centered college experience is what you seek, I’d probably favor Rochester. If having Boston in your backyard really appeals, I’d favor Brandeis.</p>
<p>Remarks about lack of diversityand impact of economy at Brandeis are not accurate. As for the campus, Brandeis has the best of both worlds–proximity to Boston and a vibrant campus life. Agreed that Rochester, NY is definitely not Boston. The OP should visit iboth campuses f possible and draw his or her own conclusions.</p>
<p>“not accurate”</p>
<p>You’ve got to be kidding me. Believing in and boosting a college is one thing, but being blind to problems and limitations all face is quite another.</p>
<p>[Faculty</a> cuts at Brandeis proposed - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/02/23/faculty_cuts_at_brandeis_proposed/]Faculty”>http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/02/23/faculty_cuts_at_brandeis_proposed/)</p>
<p>[Brandeis</a> 2020 Committee releases academic restructuring proposals | BrandeisNOW](<a href=“http://www.brandeis.edu/now/2010/february/2020report.html]Brandeis”>Brandeis 2020 Committee releases academic restructuring proposals | BrandeisNOW)</p>
<p>Both schools are excellent choices and offer strong programs as well as research opportunities. I have a daughter who graduated from Brandeis and a daughter who is a graduating senior at Rochester. While neither was a bio major, they both have friends who have been accepted into top graduate programs for research, as well as med school. Both offer fine opportunities both on-campus and off for activities and things to do. You need to visit both and possibly sit in a class or meet with dept. faculty at each school.</p>
<p>Bookmama22 is of course correct that the OP should experience both schools to find out which is the best for him. No offense meant to wbwa’s advocacy for UR, but it needn’t consist of personal attacks on another school. The economic downturn has affected all schools. As you can see, Rochester is no exception: </p>
<p>[University</a> Of Rochester Squeezes Budget](<a href=“http://rochesterathome.com/dct/62/id/320956/mid/315/University-Of-Rochester-Squeezes-Budget.aspx]University”>http://rochesterathome.com/dct/62/id/320956/mid/315/University-Of-Rochester-Squeezes-Budget.aspx)</p>
<p>More forthrightly than most, Brandeis has stepped up to make strategic cuts that do not materially affect undergrads and strengthen the academy for the long run, while simultaneously innovating programs and building state of the art facilities–e.g. the new science center. To suggest otherwise is inaccurate.</p>
<p>Man, I’ll amend my previously “you’ve got to be kidding me” to also read, “what have you been smoking.”</p>
<p>“wbwa’s advocacy for UR” “personal attacks on another school”</p>
<p>I concluded my comments with:</p>
<p>“If a mostly campus centered college experience is what you seek, I’d probably favor Rochester. If having Boston in your backyard really appeals, I’d favor Brandeis.” </p>
<p>And, by the way, I’m afraid I DO take offense with your mission to so advocate for a college that you paint it in a pure white light and knock aside other arguments with attacks and obfuscation. There are lots of HS’ers on these boards who have yet to learn that grey is the color that dominates ALL college experiences. Your unfettered boosterism does Brandeis a real injustice.</p>
<p>Whoa guys–let’s settle down. An argument here isn’t going to help anybody.</p>
<p>I agree that both schools are peers academically and athletically. While each school will have departments with varying strengths and weaknesses, this will probably only make a difference for graduate study.</p>
<p>But its hard to compare Rochester with Boston. Sorry, but Boston is not only a better city–its a much much better city in every category I can think of. Many think Boston is the best college city in the country. Not even its biggest boosters make that claim about Rochester.</p>
<p>I do think the “Jewish” thing is overstated by many with respect to Brandeis. Yes, about 50% of the undergraduates self identify as Jewish. That percentage is higher, but not a lot higher, than exists at Tufts, Penn, Columbia and many other top flight schools, including Harvard. Other than the calendar, which does revolve around Jewish holidays (e.g., spring break is always coincident with Passover), it really does not make a signficant difference. Brandeis was founded as a non-secular institution, which happened to be funded primarily by members of the Jewish community as a reaction to the admissions quotas which were then prevalent at top universities. This is the same reason that Jewish hospitals sprouted in many American cities (Jewish doctors were excluded from many hospitals due to quotas). As quotas disappeared, the need for special Jewish affiliated institutions diminished (leading to anomolies such as Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, one of Harvard’s teaching hospitals, which is the result of a merger between a Jewish Hospital and a Catholic one). Brandeis still nutures it’s Jewish connection, because it provides a considerable fundraising base. But as far as its effect on undergraduate education, its probably no greater than the effect on patients who are admitted to a Jewish sponsored hospital, i.e., minimal to no effect.</p>