Brandeis University Overview

Brandeis University is a private not-for-profit institution located in Waltham, Massachusetts. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

What Is Brandeis University Known For?

• Brandeis has an impressive student to faculty ratio of 10 to 1.
• The 1% student loan default rate at Brandeis is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• Although it may not be available for every major, the doctor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at Brandeis.
• In 2019-2020, 71% of the faculty were full-time.
• A student who earns a bachelor's degree from Brandeis makes roughly $70,327 a year. This is 72% more than their peers from other colleges and universities.
• It takes the average Brandeis student 4.1 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

Brandeis University Rankings

Brandeis is ranked #315 out of 2,018 schools in the nation for overall quality on our 2023 Best Colleges list.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

Brandeis has been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#165	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Brandeis.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#5	Best Linguistics & Literature Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#5	Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#6	Best Music Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#8	Best Fine & Studio Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#8	Best Drama & Theater Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#8	Best Foreign Languages & Linguistics Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#9	Best Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#14	Best Business & Commerce Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#35	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#45	Best Psychology Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Brandeis has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#18	Best General Business/Commerce Schools	College Factual
#27	Best Fine & Studio Arts Schools	College Factual
#32	Best Public Administration & Social Service Schools	College Factual
#34	Best Visual & Performing Arts Schools	College Factual
#40	Best Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies Schools	College Factual
#60	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Schools	College Factual

Where Is Brandeis University?

Contact details for Brandeis are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	415 South St, Waltham, MA 02454-9110
Phone:	781-736-2000
Website:	www.brandeis.edu/
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/brandeisuniversity
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/BrandeisU

How Do I Get Into Brandeis?

You can apply to Brandeis online at: https://www.brandeis.edu/admissions/apply/index.html

Admission Requirements for Brandeis

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	recommended
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Brandeis?

You'll need to do what you can to make your application stand out if you plan to apply to Brandeis. The school screens its applicants carefully and has a fairly low acceptance rate of 33%. So, don't just throw your admission packet together at the last minute!

Approximately 62% of accepted students are men and 38% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 51%, and the acceptance rate for women is 21%.

Average Test Scores

About 62% of students accepted to Brandeis submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 640 and 720. Math scores were between 680 and 790.

Brandeis received ACT scores from 25% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 31 and 35. Math scores were between 27 and 33. Composite scores were between 31 and 33.

Can I Afford Brandeis University?

The overall average net price of Brandeis is $53,888. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Brandeis, approximately 29% of students took out student loans averaging $5,451 a year. That adds up to $21,804 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Brandeis is 1.2%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Brandeis University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 3,493 undergraduate students at Brandeis, with 3,465 being full-time and 28 being part-time.

There are also 1,947 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 3,465 full-time undergraduates at Brandeis, 40% are male and 60% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Brandeis University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	520
Black or African American	192
Hispanic or Latino	288
White	1,513
International Students	698
Other Races/Ethnicities	254

Geographic Diversity

Massachusetts students aren't the only ones who study at Brandeis University. At this time, 44 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 101 countries are represented at Brandeis. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and South Korea.

Online Learning at Brandeis University

In 2019-2020, 5,438 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Brandeis has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 21st most popular in Massachusetts for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of Brandeis

During the most recent year for which we have data, the full-time undergraduate tuition at Brandeis University was $57,615 for both in-state and out-of-state students. The following table shows how Brandeis is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Computer Programming	#12	#12
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	#16	#16
Computer Software & Applications	#22	#22
Medical Illustration & Informatics	#49	#49
Biological & Biomedical Sciences	#52	#52

Online Growth Rankings of Brandeis

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Brandeis University was 169.9%. This is the #309 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Brandeis regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of Brandeis majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Business Administration & Management	6%
Business, Management & Marketing	6%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at Brandeis ranks compared to all other partially online schools that offer a specific major. Note that the majors may or may not be offered online at Brandeis.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Computer Software & Applications	#1
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	#4
Computer Programming	#4
Medical Illustration & Informatics	#6
Biological & Biomedical Sciences	#7
Information Technology	#10
Computer & Information Sciences	#31
Business Administration & Management	#143
Business, Management & Marketing	#181
Health Professions	#197

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Brandeis University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Economics	160	0	163	2	325
Public Policy	113	0	58	14	185
Applied Mathematics	47	0	100	0	147
General Biology	135	0	0	0	135
Business Administration & Management	0	0	124	0	124
Computer Science	86	0	30	2	118
General Business/Commerce	100	0	0	0	100
Child Development & Psychology	78	0	10	3	91
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	0	75	0	75
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	53	0	13	7	73
Area Studies	64	0	3	3	70
International Studies	66	0	1	0	67
Political Science & Government	52	0	0	3	55
Mathematics	35	0	8	6	49
Anthropology	30	0	9	3	42
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	29	0	6	5	40
General English Literature	33	0	4	3	40
Chemistry	28	0	9	2	39
History	34	0	3	1	38
Sociology	30	0	4	1	35
Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution	0	0	33	0	33
Philosophy	26	0	6	0	32
Information Technology	0	1	30	0	31
Natural Resources Conservation	30	0	0	0	30
Fine & Studio Arts	24	0	0	0	24
Ethnic Studies	21	0	2	0	23
Physics	11	0	1	11	23
International Business	0	0	21	0	21
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	21	0	21
General Education	20	0	0	0	20
Writing Studies	20	0	0	0	20
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	19	0	0	0	19
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	19	0	0	0	19
Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences	0	0	13	5	18
Computer Information Systems	0	0	17	0	17
Music	8	0	5	4	17
Educational Administration	0	0	14	0	14
Medical Illustration & Informatics	0	0	13	0	13
Computer Software & Applications	0	0	12	0	12
Drama & Theater Arts	12	0	0	0	12
Biotechnology	0	0	11	0	11
Classical Languages & Literature	5	0	5	0	10
Community Organization & Advocacy	0	0	10	0	10
Genetics	0	0	9	0	9
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	0	0	8	0	8
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	7	0	0	0	7
Computer Programming	0	0	6	0	6
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	0	1	0	1
Other Public Administration	0	0	1	0	1
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	1,395	1	859	75	2,330

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Mike Lovett under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.