Brandeis University

Date: Apr 03 2008
Major: Anthropology (This Major's Salary over time)
Brandeis is…a place where you could spend your first year living with someone from Namibia, walk through the quad and see 4 hookahs, have lunch with a group of kids who have all accomplished something extraordinary by age 19, enter a room where everyone is from a different country and speaks a different language, or walk on stage completely covered in Latex for the annual Liquid Latex show.

Brandeis is also a place where you must spend the customary 15 minutes at the start of each meal bashing cafeteria food, complain about having nothing to do after going skydiving and mountain climbing earlier in the year, or take classes with the most energetic, brilliant, and friendly professors imaginable only to say that the class you signed up for is providing you with too much information on that topic and therefore youre wasting your money.

In short, Brandeis culture revolves around hating Brandeis. If you mention you love it, expect an awkward silence.

With that said, it's not all that bad. My good friend is going to Istanbul over the summer for FREE through the University, and there are many other amazing opportunities if you just decide to pursue them.

Almost everyone is very smart and great for all types of conversation—be it intellectual or not. The majority are very friendly/quirky types who really enjoy meeting new people and trying new things, as long as they aren't the ones coming up with the idea.

People don't get hyped up enough about the activities provided on campus, so many just decide there's nothing to do.

The parties are divided into groups: there are the kids who party with the Greeks, the kids who party in the Mods, the kids who party in Ziv, and the kids who party with 10 friends in their room. After a while, you begin to realize you're seeing the same party people over and over again in each respective place. Then…the choices are to leave campus to go to clubs or different universities. Most people are too lazy for that though.

Socially, I've found that everyone is open to being friends save a few cliques, and those kids are pretty annoying/strange to begin with. Just be warned: If you come here, your dating standards will go waayy down.

I have yet to be disappointed with a professor. In my experience, other students are eager to help classmates and study together in groups.