<p>Objective and Subjective statistics and opinions are welcome. I'm interested in academic and social atmosphere.</p>
<p>Hands down ugliest campus I visited when looking at colleges. Just made a really negative impression, i couldnt take it seriously.</p>
<p>mm, strong jewish population/culture?</p>
<p>all i kno is that theres a lot of jewish people and strong premed program</p>
<p>Supposedly good premed and prelaw, lots of Jews.</p>
<p>Brandeis is an excellent, small research university (@3000 undergrads). The students are smart–more into intellectual pursuits than sports (Brandeis is in the UAA–so it competes with similar good D3 universities like Chicago, Emory, CMU, and others). The faculty is as good as its gets. Overall–it is on a par with places like Tufts ( their USNWR ratings are almost identical–for whatever that is worth). In Boston–it is considered better than BC and BU, but obviously below Harvard and MIT.</p>
<p>Contrary to popular belief–it is not a religiously afflilated institution. Instead, it is a non-sectarian university founded and largely supported by members of the Jewish community. At the time it was founded–most elite US colleges had quotas on the number of Jews they would admit. Brandeis was designed to provide a first class education in a non-discriminatory environment. It was also intended to promote social justice. Today–about half the undergrads self identity as Jews. There is a significant Asian population on campus as well.</p>
<p>I disagree that the campus is ugly–although I do agree that it is not likely to be nominated for any awards for beautiful campuses. It is located on a hill–much the same way Tufts is–and wonderful views of the Boston skyline are available. The reason some people don’t like the campus is that–in contrast to most schools of comparable stature–the archecture is mostly modern–International style to be exact–and that’s not everyone’s ideal for a college campus (unless you live in California). The problem is that Brandeis is still a very young school (founded in 1948)–so one can’t expect, despite its Boston area location, to look like a nearby school founded in 1636. I do like its campus better than MIT’s, which is also nearby. And not everything is modern–there is a castle on campus which predates Brandeis (Middlesex University–a defunct medical school–used to be located there).</p>
<p>Brandeis is easier to get into than the Ivies–but the educational experience will be on a similar level. Most of the students there love it.</p>
<p>I suggest you visit the school and form your own opinions.</p>
<p>For purposes of comparison (in terms of type of student and academic quality), I have friends at Wesleyan and Mount Holyoke who both had Brandeis as their second choice. And one is Catholic, FWIW.</p>
<p>Brandeis has warm chocolate chip cookies when you go to the Admissions office.</p>