A Sense of Place
At Brandeis, you'll experience New England at its most beautiful. In fall, you will enjoy the spectacular display of autumn colors as you walk around around campus. Winter brings "tray tobogganing," snowmen, snowball fights, and hot cocoa with friends at Chums, our student run café. In spring, the campus is awash with thousands of bright flowers while students artwork is up for all to see during the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Arts.
Brandeis is located on what was once farmland. The architecture itself at Brandeis reflects this youth, with buildings by famous architects such as Max Abramovitz, designer of the the renowned United Nations Headquarters.
Campus landmarks include: the statue of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in his swirling bronze robes; the new Carl and Ruth Shapiro Student Center, open 24 hours a day and, of course, our beloved Usen Castle, with its stone turrets and secret passageways (where you can live in a pie-shaped room!)
Brandeis's college town, Waltham, Massachusetts, offers the advantages of urban living without being overwhelmed by them.
Located in suburban Boston, Waltham has all the basics plus a lively restaurant scene - New England classics like clam chowder and fish and chips, or be more adventurous and go for Tuscan, Cambodian, Ecuadorian and West African.
Waltham also has a movie theater focusing on independent and foreign films, plus two beautiful 200-year-old mansions, Gore Place and the Lyman Estate, with acres of lawns and gardens.
Boston is easy-to-reach - nine miles from Brandeis. The commuter rail running at the base of the Brandeis campus takes students into North Station in Boston. The University operates a free shuttle van that goes from Brandeis to downtown Boston and Cambridge.
"Beantown" hosts one of the largest concentrations of students in the world, giving this historic old seaport a youthful edge. Boston is Federalist brick townhouses and the clubs of Lansdowne Street; the Monets and mummies of the Museum of Fine Arts, and the cafés lining Newbury Street. It’s lobster on the waterfront and high-voltage espresso in the North End. It’s concert venues and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, plus 400 years of history which you will encounter everywhere in the form of landmark buildings, Revolutionary War battlegrounds, and the flavor of Europe in this unique section of America.
Boston is small enough to navigate by foot, but with the added convenience of a safe subway system. It’s really a city of villages: Beacon Hill, residential and quiet; the Victorian Back Bay with its colleges and clubs; Allston and Brighton with their burgeoning student population.
Boston has some of the most devout sports fans found anywhere, cheering the Red Sox, Bruins, and Celtics. Boston and Brandeis were made proud when the Patriots won their third Superbowl, as the team is owned by Brandeis benefactor Bob Kraft.