<p>At Wake Forest, 80% of people are caucasian, that’s skewed enough to say that the school is not diverse…</p>
<p>somehow I’m not tracing your logic</p>
<p>yeah I don’t get why having 50% Jews is less diverse than having 80+% total white people (of which I’d bet almost all are Christian). jews would be counted as caucasian in those statistics.</p>
<p>Interesting. You omitted the graduate enrollment which is important because the grad students are physically integrated into the campus and grads and undergrads mix in certain courses, theater productions etc. Adding those in, according to your website, puts the Jewish population at 40% which, frankly, is close to schools such as Penn, Columbia, NYU, Harvard and others. Would you you consider those schools not diverse as well? It’s simply true that many of the best schools have a significant Jewish population.</p>
<p>B77 i am not trying to put down Brandeis and i only stated the undergraduate class because the entering student will be part of the undergraduate group which makes sense to me. Graduate students can be part time or full time and choose to live off campus and im assuming they don’t live with undergrads. Brandeis is located outside of boston where as the aformentioned schools that you listed are all located in major cities where diversity wouldn’t be an issue. Penn being inside of philadelphia, NYU, and Columbia inside New York. Brandeis is twenty minutes outside of Boston in Waltham. I consider that secluded.</p>
<p>superstar12, if you really want to go there, I live 5 minutes away from Waltham, MA</p>
<p>Waltham, MA:
As of the census[3] of 2000, there were 59,226 people, 23,207 households, and 12,462 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,663.4 people per square mile (1,800.6/km²). There were 23,880 housing units at an average density of 1,880.3/sq mi (726.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 82.98% White, 4.41% African American, 0.16% Native American, 7.29% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 3.20% from other races, and 1.89% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.49% of the population. In recent years, Guatemalans have surpassed Puerto Ricans as the dominant Latino population. Guatemalan businesses and establishments have increased noticeably and line Moody St. and other parts of the city.</p>
<p>Pierre lol i love it…</p>
<p>in conclusion, Waltham is just as diverse as Wake Forest/Brandeis</p>
<p>superstar, sounds like you believe that a school with a 30% or 40% Jewish population (e.g. Penn or Brandeis) but a significant minority and international population is less diverse than a school with a smaller minority/international population presumably because its Jewish population is smaller and, implicitly, its Christian population is larger.</p>
<p>ok…so if both are somewhat similar in the diversity department, is there anything else i should take into consideration in terms of the overall academic quality/prestige/rank/recognizability of the two schools?
admittedly, i am leaning slightly towards Wake but not by much at all, but brandeis is very intriguing because it seems (and i could be totally wrong) to have a slight edge in prestige/rank,…lemme know!</p>
<p>I’d pick Wake Forest because North Carolia is really pretty. :)</p>
<p>Why are you so obsessed with prestige/ranking? It seems like the number one criterion for you…</p>
<p>ill put it this way: i’m so torn between the two that i am looking for anything that may help sway my decision.</p>
<p>But how? They are so dissimilar in terms of fit.</p>
<p>I mean, it’s not like they are schools that typically have a lot of cross-admits. There are more ways to differentiate between them than just their perceived prestige and rankings…</p>
<p>For what it is worth, the prestige of both institutions have a regional bias. In the South, Wake Forest will seem more prestigious and likewise for Brandeis in the NE.</p>
<p>Student culture at the schools will be extremely different. Wake Forest students typically embody the “Work hard, play harder” motto. They work for their grades, but students like to have fun as well. Greek life is quite large. 40% of all undergraduates participate in Greek, and it breaks down to 1/3 of all guys and about 50% of girls.</p>
<p>Both schools will have small classes and have a commitment to undergraduate teaching. For the Accepted Students Day at Wake, I got a paper showing some law school statistics for the undergrads. All T-14 schools were included this past admission cycle as schools that Wake Forest Seniors/Alums got accepted to. The average LSAT scores for Wake Forest seniors are at the the 80th percentile. Average GPA is slightly lower than the national average because of the slight grade deflation. However on average, a Wake Forest student gets accepted to 2 more laws schools than the national average. About 75% of students applying to law school gets accepted to at least one.</p>
<p>@dubcongress</p>
<p>have you visited the campus or other parts of NC like Charlotte? It really is a beautiful state. My parents are moving there so even though I’ll be in school in NY, I’m excited to visit them at the beach over the summer. I honestly would take Wake just for location.</p>
<p>I am currently in my junior year at Wake Forest, and I can undoubtedly attest to WFU’s dedication to excellence. Brandeis is indeed a phenomenal institution (my brilliant English professor from freshman year graduated from Brandeis). However, Wake Forest’s commitment to academic excellence and service to humanity are what set it apart. Steeping onto the campus my first semester, I had myself surely convinced that I would go through the Calloway School of Business and eventually take on corporate America. Plans quickly changed, though, when I took a Communication class (to fulfill a divisional requirement) during the summer between my freshman and sophomore years. It was at that moment in time that I decided to major in the field of COM. Law school crossed my mind at that point as I have been studying rhetoric and persuasion. I requested brochures from a few grad programs; however, in talking with my uncle, a Florida state judge, he strongly suggested that I pursue something that truly piques my interest. He said that roughly 10% of attorneys ever see the inside of a courtroom, which leaves the other 90% to shuffle around papers for 60-80 hours a week, wondering why they spent so much money to achieve so little satisfaction in their lives. Weighing his advice, I am looking to go into public relations and advertising instead (note: I am keeping my options open). I’m not saying that you wouldn’t be successful as a lawyer, but the odds are stacked against you. You need to pick a field of study that truly interests you, and you need to do well in your undergraduate classes, focusing on the assignments at hand. Whether you choose Wake Forest or Brandeis, remember to enjoy your educational experience, perform your absolute best in all that you do, and always keep an open mind. Your future will unfold; just be patient!</p>
<p>
Brandeis has a Jewish population of 51%. Penn has one of 31%. They’re not exactly comparable institutions.</p>
<p>
Check the IPEDS data.</p>
<p>Wake Forest
African-American 7%
Hispanic 2%
Asian-American 5%
Native American 1%</p>
<p>Brandeis
African-American 4%
Hispanic 4%
Asian-American 9%
Native American 0%</p>
<p>The percentages of known minorities at Wake Forest and Brandeis (15% and 17%, respectively) are roughly similar. In fact, factoring school size into account (4400 and 3200) actually shows that Wake Forest has a higher raw number of minorities on campus than Brandeis (660 and 544). Brandeis does have a significantly larger international population…however, the cynic in me wonders how many of those international students come from Israel.</p>
<p>Quite frankly, I’m always surprised and disappointed when this comes up. I’m surprised because racial diversity is only one form of diversity. I’m disappointed because “less diverse” schools can hardly become more diverse if people use scare tactics to discourage minorities from attending!</p>
<p>
The school spirit and athletic teams at Wake would do it for me. As a bonus, Wake students are by far the friendliest students I’ve met out of all the colleges I’ve visited or attended.</p>
<p>dubcongress,</p>
<p>If you are looking for anything that could help you sway your decision, consider that Wake Forest’s football team has arguably the sickest uniforms (black and gold) of any Division I college team.</p>
<p>Rockerguy is exactly right. Students don’t typically apply to both of these schools. Folks that apply to Brandeis commonly are interested in other top small LAC’s or excellent small liberal arts/research universities that concentrate on academics and the arts more so than sports and that have a decidely intellectual atmosphere–e.g. Brandeis, Wash U, U Chicago, Emory, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Johns Hopkins,Tufts, Brown etc. Although a fine school, my impression of Wake Forest is that its atmosphere would be characterized as more oriented to big-time sports and frats. In respect to atmosphere, one is not necessarily better than the other, it’s just a personal choice. Plus, for many, the opportunity to be a 20-minute van or commuter rail ride to Boston, one of the world’s great cities and the world’s greatest college town, would be a significant consideration., while others would prefer the slower-paced, less-urban North Carolina. In terms of success after college, I can’t comment on Wake Forest, but I do know that Brandeis’ post-grad placement success is excellent and it boasts an impressive list of accomplished alumni.</p>
<p>I’m not sure where you guys are getting those % for Wake Forest’s minority population, because on their facts book it is slightly different:</p>
<p>First-time Freshmen Ethnic Enrollment, Fall 2008
Ethnicity # %
Native American 3 0.2%
Asian 76 6.3%
Black 86 7.2%
Hispanic 50 4.2%
White 980 81.5%
Other 7 0.6%
Not Reported 0 0.0%</p>
<p><a href=“Home - Office of Institutional Research”>Home - Office of Institutional Research;
<p>For the whole undergraduate populations:
Undergraduate Ethnic Enrollment, Fall 2008
Total by Ethnicity
Ethnicity # %
Native American 24 0.5%
Asian 257 5.7%
Black 320 7.1%
Hispanic 147 3.3%
White 3,688 82.4%
Other 39 0.9%
Not Reported 1 0.0%</p>
<p><a href=“Home - Office of Institutional Research”>Home - Office of Institutional Research;
<p>For what it is worth to you…Wake Forest seems to be trying to improve the % of minorities on campus for the last several years. Actually, it has doubled the % of minorities in their freshmen class from 2003 to 2008.</p>
<p>There is more to diversity than just skin color…you can go check the whole Facts Book, and it reveals Wake Forest’s religious diversity, socioeconomic diversity, and other things like law school #s…</p>
<p>[WFU</a> | Institutional Research](<a href=“Home - Office of Institutional Research”>Home - Office of Institutional Research)</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>Here is Wake’s religious preferences if you want to know:</p>
<p><a href=“Home - Office of Institutional Research”>Home - Office of Institutional Research;
<p>I think the point of this diversity talk is that the character of the student body is much different between the two schools, and it comes down to personal preference of which would be the better choice.</p>
<p>anyway, about the law school thing… I know that Brandeis also has a pre-law track, and a undergraduate pre-law “society” or whatever they call it to help people with placement etc., and there’s also a legal studies minor. however, you definitely wouldn’t have to do the pre-law track to go to law school, I’ve actually heard some law schools prefer applicants who’ve done something unrelated to law so they’re more well-rounded. The point is, there’s definitely other future law school applicants at Brandeis and the school does a good job of preparing students for that. </p>
<p>I only know this because I was considering going to Brandeis, I don’t know much about Wake Forest.</p>