Summary
Brandeis University is a Liberal Arts college that finds value in challenging what you know and expanding your knowledge and how you think about majors and desired classes. This University is for students who want to challenge their thinking, find rigor in education as a means to challenge themselves, and don’t follow society’s trends of what’s acceptable—going back to when the University was initially founded in 1948 by the Jewish community in support of their pursuit for higher education, in a time where that was heavily discouraged for this group of people. When the University opened it also welcomed women, another group ostracized and not considered fit to attend universities. From the beginning, Brandeis’s mission has been about inclusion and forming a community of challenged thinkers where they have the space to “answer questions and have your questions answered.” (BU1), Through the analysis of Brandeis University’s website using the ideal reader and purpose analysis techniques, a perfect candidate for Brandeis will be represented, a student looking to expand their thought bubble and look beyond society’s perspective of acceptable and unacceptable.
Analysis
At Brandeis University, they are building a community of forward thinkers who challenge schools of thought and belief. “A Brandeis education is a vigorous exploration in critical analysis, creativity, and self-expression.” (BU1) Throughout the academics page of the website, the University shows how it’s looking for creative thinkers who don’t want just a textbook secondary education, but a place in which they can further question what they know and learn what they do not. Academically you have to be willing to work hard as a student at Brandeis because education and the fostering of learning are held at an extremely high value, unlike other universities where you are there just to get a degree.
What is the Brandeis population actually like outside of academic boundaries? In the second sentence of the About page, they paint a picture of what they are looking for: “There is no other place like Brandeis. As a medium-sized private research university with global reach.” By starting the first paragraph of the page in what Brandeis is and who they are as a university, you are clued into what Brandeis demographic is as a student body. Starting with the primary identifiers for the student population at Brandeis, through a perceived mission statement, letting us know three prominent identifiers of what a Brandeis student is. Firstly they say, ‘there is no place like Brandeis,’ showing that these students defy the normal bounds of what is perceived as higher education. The next part of their opening stance is ‘private research universities’ showing that a typical student has the means to pay for a private university education. The last part of the statement is that it is a ‘university with global reach.’ They state this throughout the website, but it is genuinely reinforced with their statement on ‘global reach,’ letting you know that this University has a diverse population of students and is socially conscious on a global scale.
Brandeis’s academic page is constructed in a way that creates a calling for students they are looking for while managing to not outwardly show what they don’t want in a student. “A Brandeis education is a vigorous exploration in critical analysis, creativity, and self-expression.” (link) The blanket statement of what a Brandeis education is leaves no room to question what being a student at Brandeis is like; making it clear within the first few sentences of their academic page. Immediately stating how a Brandeis education is ‘vigorous exploration in critical analysis.’ Using vigorous to show the difficulty level of their curriculum while hinting at it being self-led through the words ‘exploration.’ The strength of starting with exactly what they are looking for shows how this is a selective university with high academic standards for its students.
After giving an overall summary of what academics means to Brandeis, they have pop-ups that take you to each of their different colleges that show how many majors each school has. Brandeis initially indicates that because they deal primarily in Liberal Arts, their options in Schools are mostly Schools of Arts and Sciences. Though this is true, the University ensures that they have a wide variety of majors and minors within the undergraduate school and a variety of masters and doctoral programs in the Graduate school. They also use signifying sentences in the blurb, such as, “Almost half our students double major and some even minor in a third discipline” (BU1). The language in the blurbs tells you how high of a degree you can achieve and often what a Brandeis student does to reiterate the idea of increased rigor and high achieving among Brandeis students. Brandeis wants to inform you that throughout the pages; they are a University of rigor and diversity.
Response
In life, I want to pursue pediatric psychology, and I enjoy challenging myself academically. I also surround myself with people who like to be challenged and work hard. One of my key characteristics is being socially aware. I believe in civil rights, women’s rights, and equity for all. Due to my stances and academic self, I would want to go to Brandeis. A very equitable University that also intends to challenge students alike. Earlier in the year, we read an Interview, “To This Scholar, For-Profit Colleges Are Lower Ed,” conducted by Anya Kamenetz with sociologist Tressie Colton. In this interview, Tressie Colton spoke on ‘The Education Gospel,’ invented by Economist W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson. They say, “The Education Gospel is about the faith we have in education and what a significant role that faith plays in what we call our opportunity structure… we trust education will have a positive effect on our lives and society.” (Kamentez, 1) Through my analysis of Brandeis, I believe they reflect the education gospel’s positive effects. Brandeis provides a place of higher education where education is prioritized. All in all, I would attend Brandeis University.
Work cited
Brandeis University. Retrieved March, 15, 2023