<p>Shalom everybody. I’ve been trying for the past two weeks or so to pick a safety school in the event that I get denied by Brandeis. A few of you suggested Clark University, but unfortunately it is a little too far away from both of the two cities I’m considering: Boston and NYC. I absolutely refuse to attend a university that is not rather close to either of these. I also would like to attend a traditionally Jewish school. </p>
<p>I came across Yeshiva University in NYC. Does anyone know if it’s comparable to Brandeis? Has anyone else used it as a safety?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I say this as a gentile who really only knows YU by name, but Brandeis was founded by the Jewish community but it is a non-denominational school and has no actual religious affiliation. As an institution it's secular. It's certainly not anything <em>close</em> to a seminary. And I'm not a student but I project that the student body at Brandeis is more secular--half of them are gentiles, and I'm only guessing that the other half as a whole aren't as...observant...as those at YU? , Correct me if I'm wrong.</p>
<p>Brandeisbound: please describe your image of a traditionally Jewish school.</p>
<p>Yeshiva tends to be mostly Orthodox (the school even separates males from females).
Brandeis, while being known as a very jewish school, is secular, and attracts not only Jewish students from all backgrounds, but non jewish students as well.</p>
<p>Brandeis and YU are very different. As others have mentioned, Brandeis is secular while YU is Orthodox Jewish. YU has an extensive Jewish studies requirement that includes religious studies (Torah, Talmud, etc.) and Hebrew language. On could go through four years at Brandeis without ever taking a course that involved a Jewish topic (if one chose to do so).</p>
<p>YU is very specifically an Orthodox school. Orthodox Jewish students who might apply to Brandeis because of the the large active Orthodox community at Brandeis might also apply to Yeshiva, but even for an Orthodox student the differences between the two schools would be very clear -- as others have said, YU is entirely Orthodox with religious as well as secular curriculum part of the standard course load, whereas Brandeis is a secular university which because of its background has a large Jewish population, only part of which is Orthodox. </p>
<p>For an Orthodox Jewish student, both schools might well be considered as schools worth considering (though there are reasons a particular student might favor one versus the other in terms of secular vs. religious surroundings). Otherwise, I would not think that Yeshiva would be an attractive alternative to other prospective Brandeis students.</p>
<p>You do not describe your religious background, but you might also want to look into List College of the Jewish Theological Seminary (<a href="http://www.jtsa.edu/list/index.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.jtsa.edu/list/index.shtml</a>) -- List offers a joint program between Columbia University or Barnard College (woman only at the latter) and the Jewish Theological Seminary, which is the school of the Conservative Jewish movement. You do not have to be a Conservative Jew to attend (I am aware of students from both Orthodox and Reform Jewish backgrounds who have attended). </p>
<p>But again, List is not quite like Brandeis -- you go for two degrees at the same time, one from JTS one from Barnard/Columbia, and you have to meet a Hebrew requirement and study a field of Judaic Studies for the JTS component of the program. I cannot say if List would be a "safety" compared to Brandeis. It is a very small program so "fit" is probably very important.</p>
<p>Even though I consider myself rather observant, I am not Orthodox. I'm currently minoring in Hebrew but have no desire to pursue a cirriculum requiring extensive Jewish studies. At my present college, the Jewish student body is minute, and I don't really feel involved like I had wished I would. For that reason, I'm making it a priority, wherever I get accepted next year, to choose a school with a sizeable Jewish student body (like Brandeis), which is what I meant by a "traditionally Jewish college."</p>
<p>Given everyone's great advice, it's rather safe to say that YU is probably not an option for me. And the search continues...</p>
<p>Oh, Unbelievablem... I just checked out the List/Columbia/Barnard program... how awesome! I never knew a program like this existed!</p>
<p>go to <a href="http://www.hillel.org%5B/url%5D">www.hillel.org</a> and you can do a search on the approximate jewish population at just about all of the colleges.</p>
<p>Brandeisbound: When you go through the Hillel website, you will find that most of the schools with significant numbers of Jewish students (including Brandeis) are not in the safety category. To have one or more true safeties with significant Jewish stdent populations you should seriously consider expanding the list of cities to include, for example, Denver.</p>
<p>how would u say brandeis is for a muslim student... i really like the school but im still a little concerned</p>
<p>waleedk87 -- in case you haven't already found it, here is link to a page about brandeis' muslim students' assoc:
<a href="http://my.brandeis.edu/clubs/msa%5B/url%5D">http://my.brandeis.edu/clubs/msa</a></p>
<p>the best way for you to get answers to your question would probably be to contact the club itself or one of the students listed there.</p>