<p>Well matches and safeties are all relative, so it shouldn’t bother you. Brandeis is a selective school, so it’s rarely a safety, but that doesnt mean it never is. It would be for a valedictorian with a 2300 SAT.</p>
<p>No, it doesn’t. I understand what they’re saying, and to some extent they’re right. Brandeis is not as selective as the ivies/near-ivies, and here’s why this might be so. I don’t know for sure, and I’m certain that the admins and faculty at Brandeis would have additional, even better reasons. I was only on campus for 2.5 years twenty-five years ago. Brandeis has a brand as a school for smart kids who identify as Jewish from all over the diaspora. That’s a somewhat limited preselected group from which to draw applicants. There are only so many Jewish high schoolers in the world who want to and can afford to come to Brandeis. So the preselected pool loses a great many students this way. The remaining students in this pool have many other choices, some of which will provide them with a more prestigious brand name when they graduate. The pool gets even smaller. Many orthodox Jews will not have anything to do with the kind of liberal, ecumenical, theologically secular Judaism that Brandeis represents, and the pool gets smaller yet. So Brandeis draws 60% of its students from the brightest Jewish kids who are left. The other 40% of Brandeis’ students have no identity or religious reasons to come to Brandeis and come primarily because it’s an excellent education with generous needs-based aid (I was in this group in graduate school). So given its reputation among this non-Jewish, largely American group as a “Jewish school” and its lack of name recognition with the others in this rest of America, Brandeis is not going to draw the best and brightest from the rest of American high school students either. </p>
<p>Brandeis could change its identity, but that isn’t going to happen. It could convince more of the brightest American Jews to attend the University (still, there is a finite number of these kids); it could raise its name recognition and its reputation as an excellent education among non-Jews; it tries both of these things and probably some more I cannot think of off the cuff. Until Brandeis for some reason becomes a hot button school among the best American high school students (I’m pulling for a D1 basketball team to rival Georgetown’s–hey, it worked for the Hoyas), you’re going to have this situation of lower GPA and test scores than those students who get into the ivies and near ivies.</p>
<p>Something similar happens at hbcus in terms of brand and identity. You come out and identify yourself as THE school for people who think of themselves as persimmons; you’ll have great loyalty among those who are dedicated to the persimmon community and their persimmon identity, but you’ll appeal much less to those who don’t think of themselves as persimmons or who have heard of persimmons but don’t think they know personally any persimmons let alone a persimmon university. N.B., I am not equating religious identity with racial identity any more than I’m equating students with flowers. However, if anyone would like to shoot my thinking full of holes, one is welcome to try.</p>
<p>Remember, Brandeis is no older than Israel, and there are some serious growing pains that come with starting up a new university just as there are in starting up a nation. Give Brandeis an opportunity to experience the kind of apocalyptic popularity that, for example, Georgetown had in the 80s and the savvy to hold onto that. Colleges change very slowly for 99% of their history. Just the fact that Brandeis exists is cause for celebration. That it is as excellent and generous as it is is a tale of great effort, magnanimity, and genius in little more than half a century of work. The improvement of its middle 50 it can leave to the admissions office most days.</p>
<p>Add me to the “Take a look@Smith” choir. There was a good back and forth between it and Wesleyan in a recent thread - and Smith won! <a href=“Smith vs Wesleyan? - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1657514-smith-vs-wesleyan.html</a></p>
<p>OP, I don’t know that Brandeis can be anyone’s safety. </p>
<p>Sure, they’d like a 2300-2400 for their standardized test scores, but in addition to considering test scores as “very important,” they also say they consider very important character/personality qualities, as well as rank and GPA. More importantly, perhaps, is that they consider level of interest “important.” So not only is it more holistic than your statement indicates, but the candidate will have to indicate interest to the school, something most students don’t think about with their safeties. There are other “important” characteristics they’re looking for as well, including a talent, volunteering, and ECs, that further suggest Brandeis cannot be a safety.</p>
<p>You might say that this holistic approach is to some small degree hurting their middle 50.</p>