<p>I heard that nearly everyone in Brandeis is jewish so…</p>
<p>I can’t imagine who you heard this from. That is false information. If you do some research on any school you can easily find out this type of data.</p>
<p>Completely false information. I live one town over from Waltham and my sister graduated last spring from Brandeis. Though Brandeis is known for providing Jews with equal educational opportunities when it was founded, it is much more diverse now. Yes, you will see Jewish people but that doesn’t mean they’re EVERYWHERE and you don’t belong at Brandeis if you are not Jewish. In terms of religion, I may be remembering this incorrectly but Brandeis has a growing Muslim community and in terms of ethnicity, the Asian population has grown by a lot the past few years.</p>
<p>Well, let’s not swing the pendulum too far the other direction, either: Brandeis does have a lot of Jews. </p>
<p>It isn’t, as people like to say, “a Jewish university,” but rather, as iiymal said, a university established by the American Jewish community to be open to Jews and others who were then kept out of America’s elite universities and colleges by quotas.</p>
<p>But according to this table published last fall in Reform Judaism Magazine, the undergraduate population at Brandeis is 49% Jewish (<a href=“http://reformjudaismmag.org/_kd/Items/actions.cfm?action=Show&item_id=3074&destination=ShowItem[/url]”>http://reformjudaismmag.org/_kd/Items/actions.cfm?action=Show&item_id=3074&destination=ShowItem</a>).</p>
<p>Does this mean non-Jews should feel uncomfortable at Brandeis? I don’t think so. Half the undergraduates aren’t Jewish. There is indeed a significant Muslim community at Brandeis, and there are healthy campus ministries for Christians, too. My next-door neighbors’ kid went there agnostic and came out fervently Catholic. A lot of students, including many who also identify as Jewish, will be atheist, agnostic, skeptics, etc.</p>
<p>Moreover, the Jewish community at Brandeis is so large that it has lots of factions: Orthodox, liberal and just cultural; Zionist and also critical of Israel; and so on.</p>
<p>If you don’t like Jews, or you’re not comfortable around Jews, I think you won’t like Brandeis. But if you don’t have a problem with Jews, then Brandeis isn’t going to have a problem with you, either.</p>
<p>My D is currently a HS junior in the SF Bay Area and would like to attend an east coast school. She is considering Brandeis, but has expressed concern that it is “too Jewish.” We happen to be Jewish in terms of cultural heritage, but in terms of religious practice and philosophy we are freethinkers. My research indicates that the Brandeis student population is about 50% Jewish. I’m sure that includes the spectrum from reformed to orthodox, but if everyone there keeps Kosher and attends Friday evening services instead of going out for Chinese food and a movie, I fear she is going to feel out of place.</p>
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<p>Yes, exactly.</p>
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<p>They don’t all. Some keep kosher scrupulously, some keep kosher less scrupulously, and some couldn’t even tell you the rules of kashrut. Some keep Shabbat, some go to services and then go out for Chinese food and/or a movie, some skip services and just go out.</p>
<p>IMO, the advice I gave for non-Jews applies to Jews at Brandeis, too: If you don’t like Jews, or you’re not comfortable around Jews, I think you won’t like Brandeis. But if you don’t have a problem with Jews, then Brandeis isn’t going to have a problem with you, either.</p>
<p>Thanks for the perspective. My D has a Jewish “cultural identity” and thus a certain innate comfort level with Jews. She’s up for celebrating Chanukah and eating latkes and bagels and lox. Just keep religion out of it and she’s fine. Sounds like she could find a niche where she’d be comfortable.</p>
<p>I think so.</p>
<p>But I don’t mean to downplay the strong Jewish sense at Brandeis, either. It is a very Jew-y place.</p>
<p>I know it’s hardly in the neighborhood for you all, but have you visited? I’d really recommend that.</p>
<p>Yes, we’ll probably make a visit to Boston area schools in the fall. I’ll try to avoid Rosh Hashanah week. :)</p>
<p>The whole month of September is likely to be a little bit whack. There’s Rosh Hashanah for two days, beginning on the evening of Sept. 4, followed by Yom Kippur, followed a few days later by Sukkot (and Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah). Next fall, there will always be something either happening or about to happen from Sept. 4 until Sept. 27.</p>
<p>DGDzDad, here’s a link to a thread from last year (that also has several links within it) on your topic. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brandeis-university/1305616-non-jewish-life-brandeis.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brandeis-university/1305616-non-jewish-life-brandeis.html</a></p>
<p>As an alum who also keeps in touch with campus, my take is that Brandeis has a very cosmopolitan and diverse culture. If you haven’t seen them, hope these posts are helpful.</p>
<p>B77 - Thanks for the link to the other thread. Just read through it and it confirms what others have said here. My D and I were discussing on the car ride to school this morning and she agreed that as a non-religious Jew she would probably still be a lot more comfortable at heavily Jewish Brandeis than she would at a crucifix-laden Catholic school such as Georgetown, BC, or Villanova. We’ll visit in the fall. Hopefully she’ll consider Brandeis. Does anybody know anything about the Poli Sci department? That’s probably a topic for another post…</p>
<p>^^My guess is that a non-religious Jew would feel pretty comfortable at Georgetown too. (I can’t speak one way or the other vis-a-vis BC or Villanova.)
As for Brandeis, a generation ago it was something like 85% Jewish. As a non-religious Jew myself, that was just way too high for me. I was looking for a more diverse place, preferably in New England, where I could be part of a sizeable minority. I went elsewhere.
I visited Brandeis in recent years with my kids, and have lots of friends whose kids are recent grads. Brandeis’s Jewish undergrad population now tends to be closer to 50%, and that covers a wide range of levels of observance, so a culturally Jewish, but non-observant kid would feel perfectly comfortable there now.
Good luck to your daughter wherever she goes.</p>
<p>I recognize that I’m a bit late, but as a non-Jew at Brandeis I figured I’d chime in.</p>
<p>First of all, the Jewish population is between 49% and 50%, meaning that (albeit barely) just over half of the student body is not Jewish. While there is a significant Jewish population, and there are certain things that are definitely unique to Brandeis, it is not overbearing—it can’t be when just over half of the population is not Jewish. In my experience, I have never seen tension between Jewish and non-Jewish students.</p>
<p>That said, there are things around Brandeis that are significant to a large Jewish community, and certain people will exercise Jewish customs. There are many different types of Jews as well—Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, to name a few—and they all exercise varying levels of devoutness. I have close friends who are Orthodox, and I have close friends who are not Jewish at all. Of my close friends, I would say that slightly less than half are Jewish. In fact, the person that I would call my closest friend is from suburban Boston and is not Jewish at all.</p>
<p>A white Christian from a middle-class New England family, I came to Brandeis as a transfer in the fall of my sophomore year. Interestingly enough, over half of my transfer class of 50 isn’t Jewish—in fact, many of them are similar to me in terms of ethnicity and religious beliefs. To the best of my knowledge, they are all thriving. It would be a lie to say that Brandeis doesn’t have any Jewish culture, but if you want to live your life without any influence of Judaism you will be more than able.</p>
<p>There are plenty of non-Jews who are at Brandeis for its sense of community and top-class education, which are the exact same reasons that I came. Those were my expectations beforehand, and I must say that I haven’t been disappointed.</p>