<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>