Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

August 27, 2015

By Simon Goodacre | Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

On August 24, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) welcomed its 62nd class, including 82 doctoral students, 226 Master’s students, and 22 postbaccalaureate students. The incoming students have traveled from from 23 countries and 36 states to join our 58 graduate programs. “We are excited to welcome students with so many backgrounds,” said Laurie Nichols, Director of Admissions. “Our ability to attract students from around the world is a testament to Brandeis’ sterling reputation in graduate studies.”

The Office of Graduate Student Affairs organized a day’s worth of activities to help students acclimate to life at Brandeis. “We really wanted to expand orientation this year,” said Steven Weglinski, Senior Coordinator of Graduate Student Services. “Incoming students learn the most from their peers, so our main priority was making sure there were plenty of students serving as orientation leaders.” These volunteers advised incoming students about everything from parking to teaching undergraduates and navigating the academic structure of the university. “Orientation is a meaningful initiative,” said orientation leader Alex Luu, a second-year student in Computer Science. “I feel more engaged with Brandeis through this experience.”

Student Orientation Leaders Photograph by Simon Goodacre

Eric Chasalow, the Dean of GSAS, addressed the incoming class in the morning, advising them to take advantage of the cross disciplinary conversations at the university. “You never know where connections to your work will come from,” he said. “I am a professor of music, but that doesn’t stop me from attending a science lecture from time to time. Believe it or not, sometimes it informs my work in music composition.” Susan Birren, the Dean of Arts and Sciences, emphasized the excitement of research and discovery, telling students that when they graduate “you may know more about your specialty than anyone else on earth.”

We caught up with a few students throughout the day to find out why they chose Brandeis and what they are most excited about now that they are on campus:

	Brian Porter is a master’s student in Philosophy from North Carolina. Brandeis was recommended to Brian based on the strength of the scholarship produced by the faculty in our Philosophy department. He is excited by the curriculum: “I can only take so many classes per semester, but there are about nine that I want to take in the Fall. I guess that’s a good problem to have!”
	Kaitlin Seegman is joining the Brandeis community from Los Angeles to study Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. “When I got on the phone, I just really loved the people in the program,” she said. “There are a lot of resources for WGS students at Brandeis that a lot of other schools don’t have, including the WGS Center. I am also really excited to work as Sarah Lamb’s research assistant in the Fall!”
	PhD students Minu Varghese and Pooja Chandrakar came from India to study granular matter and pattern formation in biological systems. “Our field is very specialized,” said Chandrakar. “We were excited to find Brandeis because the Physics department here will enable us to keep researching in our area of interest.”

“Meeting our new students has been very energizing,” said Chasalow. “Graduate study is a challenging but very rewarding time in a scholar’s career, and I can’t wait to see what contribution these students make.”