Any advantage to being Jewish?

brandeismom
Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:19:12 +0000

Brandeis is a secular school that values diversity. Due to the nature of its student body and historic support from the American Jewish community, it generally has no shortage of Jewish applicants. Why would you think it would offer an admissions advantage? see also Brandeis’ common data set item C7 – religious affiliation is marked as “not considered.” http://www.brandeis.edu/institutionalresearch/pdfs/CDS2008_2009.pdf

In fact, the percentage of Jewish students in the student body has been declining over the last several years.

Brandeis seems to want students who want to be there. Your d would be best served by going to interview and being prepared to show them why she wants to be at Brandeis and simply “I’m Jewish” would probably not be the best reason to offer.

I am not suggesting that students for whom the unique quality and nature of the Jewish community at Brandeis is an important factor in determining “fit” try to ignore this fact in an interview, but I think it can be a mistake to think that it is all one has to present.