Brandeis University Top Questions

1) No! Brandeis does have a thriving Jewish community, but the student body as a whole is very diverse. There are lots of different types of people here and religious affiliation does not shadow over other important characteristics. 2) Somewhat. This is not a huge party school. However, Brandeis students love to have a good time. There are plenty of parties and other great activities for student to get involved with. It is certainly not a boring campus.

In a charming way. The people who are awkward are more awkward than anyone I've ever met, but the majority of people I know are not awkward.

You can definitely feel a large Jewish community present here, but I think it's really cool and it doesn't dominate campus life at all, it also gives us a lot of random days off due to Jewish holidays. With the unattractiveness, there are definitely good looking people here, probably not as many as other schools though. As far as the social scene goes, if you want to party every friday and saturday night, there is somewhere for you to go. I am really happy with my social life here.

The party scene isn't huge, but there are often parties both on and off campus on the weekends. Lots of students hit up the bars in Waltham on one weeknight that's unofficially designated as "Brandeis' bar night." Much of the student body is not extremely attractive, but there are still exceptions to the rule. Although there is a high concentration of Jewish students at Brandeis, the school isn't religiously affiliated, and it seems to be accommodating to all of its students.

Short answer for the first one: No, no, no. It's not really Jewish, it's more Middle Eastern. Long answer: It's inaccurate. Even though 60{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of Brandeis is apparently Jewish, the other 40{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} are from all over the world and come in all sorts of colors, shapes, sizes and religions. The whole religious aspect is really interesting -- it's not a secular school, because religion is very present on campus. However, there's no actual religion officially associated with the school. Thus, people are very open about expressing their religion, or lack thereof. For instance, I am proudly an agnostic because I don't care. The awkwardness depends on whether you look for it or not. However, it's fun to talk about Brandeis's awkwardness. It's a self-perpetuating stereotype. The school is indeed super-PC to a fault. Sorry, we don't have a Student Union, we have a "Campus Center." Sorry, we don't have Resident Advisors, we have "Community Advisors."

Absolutely not. There's a ton of diversity here. And while we definitely have a lot of Jews and you feel Jewish culture on campus, both Jews and non-Jews seem to enjoy this very special aspect of Brandeis. Students here seem to be both smarter and happier every year. I'm so happy with social life and find that nearly all friends agree.