<p>Diversity: Brandeis is 9% Asian-American, 4% Hispanic, 3% African-American and 7% international. That’s 23% of the student body. Is that diverse enough for you? I can’t say. That’s up to the OP.</p>
<p>Thats not diverse at all. Total undergrad is 3200 and total jewish enrollment for undergrad is 1650. LOL are you kidding me? so the 23% (736) of the students are of color/international and the other 77% (2464) are white/jewish. No diversity whats so ever given the size of its undergrad population.</p>
<p>one of the rubrics that I look at is retention and graduation rate (how many freshman stay at the school and how many students graduate in 6 years). In those areas, Brandeis is clearly better. 94.5% of Brandeis students return for sophomore year, which is quite high and Brandeis has an 88.3% graduation rate. By contrast, Stony Brook has an 88% retention rate (which is also high), but only a 58.8% graduation rate. So either lots of Stony Brook students are leaving after sophomore year or, more probably, many are taking many years to graduate.</p>
<p>Obviously, there are other measures by which Brandeis is superior, for example, SATs at Brandeis range from 1280-1460 and at Stony Brook are 1080-1280. None of these factors mean that Brandeis is a signficantly better school, only that by some of the markers people use, Brandeis comes out ahead. However, Pseudonym has a good point. Stony Brook is truly diverse in a way that neither Brandeis, nor frankly many top schools, can approach.</p>
<p>The African-American and Hispanic population at Brandeis is underrepresented in comparison to the national standard. The Asian population is overrepresented (it is 4% nationally). </p>
<p>BTW, Jewish does not equal white. 57% of the student body at Brandeis identifies itself as “white, non-Hispanic.”</p>
<p>This so-called shortage of diversity issue is endemic to most public versus private institutions. The typical private school that is plurality or primarily white and Christian with a significant minority/international population of say about 25% (like Brandeis’) is no more diverse than one that is plurality white and Jewish with the same minority population. The difference between Brandeis and these other private, non-sectarian institutions is that it was founded on the very proposition of non-discrimination among religions. There are three chapels at the heart of the Brandeis campus built in the 1950’s that are equal–one Protestant, one Catholic and one Jewish and,in more recent years, a Muslim prayer room was added. Four Chaplain are employed by the university to serve each of those major faiths. Non-discrimination and diversity are the hallmark of the institution. On the issue of education, Stony Brook is a good school, and may have some particularly strong departments (whether or not objectively better than their counterparts at Brandeis) but, as mentioned, it is an entirely different educational experience from Brandeis just as it would be different from other small, private research universities-e.g. Tufts, Johns Hopkins, Wash U, The University of Chicago etc.</p>
<p>BTW, Jewish does not equal white.</p>
<p>Really good point. I’m both Jewish and multiracial, and while I’m generally perceived as white and experience a lot of white privilege, that’s not exactly the same thing as being white. I do find it troublesome that people are assuming a large Jewish population causes a lack of diversity. Just because Brandeis isn’t as diverse as Stony Brook doesn’t mean it’s less diverse than schools with smaller Jewish populations and similar racial statistics.</p>
<p>midatlmom, it’s worth remembering that graduation rates have a context outside of what the college does or has to offer. You can’t have meaningful socioeconomic diversity without having people who need to work full-time or close to it in order to pay for school, for example. Or who have to take a semester off or go part-time to take care of a sick parent who lacks an alternative support system. Not to mention SB has more people doing degrees in engineering and the hard sciences that require more credits and take longer to finish (e.g., you can theoretically finish a Stony Brook BME degree in 4 years, but if you don’t hate yourself to begin with you’re pretty damn sure to by the time you’re done).</p>
<p>I completely understand your point about graduation rates, Pseudonym (although you should note that these are 6-year graduation rates, not 4 year rates). However, what that also means is sometimes, because people are going in and out of school, the school lacks a cohesiveness that schools with a higher graduation rate have. For example, if 10-20% of the class leaves in a given year, you might find that your friends or colleagues are gone and that your social or academic life suffers. Not a dealbreaker and this occurs at many top public schools, but it’s something to consider.</p>
<p>Thanks for the views, I am planning to study psychology or neurology, and i know that brandeis is good for that. in addition i also got into clark u, suny geneseo. now i am also considering genseo. =(</p>
<p>Wherever you end up, you will be happy. =]</p>
<p>(guess who?!)</p>
<p>psychology and neurology are truly very strong and popular majors at Brandeis. I had Prof. Robert Sekuler for intro to psyc and he was amazing. [Robert</a> Sekuler](<a href=“http://people.brandeis.edu/~sekuler/]Robert”>http://people.brandeis.edu/~sekuler/) You also need to consider location. An earlier post mentioned Brandeis being too far from Boston. That’s ludicrous. It’s, at most, a half hour to get into Cambridge and then another 15 minutes to get into the heart of Boston on our free bus. There’s also a commuter rail stop right on campus that takes about 25 minutes to reach North Station. off-peak trains from Stony Brook take almost two hours and require a transfer to reach NYC. [LIRR</a> Stony Brook Timetable](<a href=“http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/lirr/html/ttn/stonybro.htm]LIRR”>http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/lirr/html/ttn/stonybro.htm) Geneseo is a good school, but known more for liberal arts than sciences. You also have the issue of location. I wouldn’t want to be in such a deserted area, but maybe you do.</p>
<p>Hi I have the same problem in deciding between the two colleges like kayler, the only difference being that I have to pay full tuition for Brandeis which is 40 K without adding all the housing and food expenses. My Stony Brook tuition is 10K with 3.5 K in scholarships. I have also been selected for a university scholar (some honor program). </p>
<p>My interests include going on a path to a medical career, so i’ll probably attend a college with a strong science background. I enjoy doing sports, exercising and breakdancing while not studying. Diversity is alright for me in both schools I guess since I’m asian and both schools have a big percentage of the ethnicity. </p>
<p>If anyone has any advice or suggestions please tell me. Thanks!</p>
<p>Brandeis will be a significantly better academic experience and, due to its much smaller size and sense of community, probably a significantly better social experience as well. Is that worth the difference in cost? It depends. If the cost difference has to be funded entirely by loans, that is a real burden that may not justify the academic and social benefits. On the other hand, if your family has the ability to send you to Brandeis without you incurring all the difference as debt, then I’d say that the academic difference alone would be worth it. Good luck.</p>