I’d say Brandeis and UR are very similar in the caliber of students and their interest in learning. There is a real difference, however: UR is not political. That’s on purpose. Brandeis is overly political with what I’d call open warfare breaking out between factions. This has included the administration versus the faculty (and art museum), stuff about the Middle East (which has become vitriolic as Brandeis bends over backwards) and a recent mess that involved a conservative student exposing on a conservative website highly inflammatory public tweets made by an African-American student representative and then what I’d call a blunt political assault on the conservative student by the student council.
As for UR, they’ve made a conscious decision to stay out of polarizing matters. They are more and more devoted to green living but even there they avoid arguments about imposing solutions.
In terms of place, Brandeis is near Boston but it’s in Waltham and you really won’t be part of the city. Rochester is not Boston but it’s easier to deal with. Brandeis has a greener, more suburban campus arranged in a big ring. UR is more a traditional New England style campus. Both campuses are, however, relatively self-contained.