Quote/Unquote

“The children and young people in our schools need strong, caring, independent-minded, imaginative teachers today more than ever. At the same time, teaching is hard work, and learning to teach is hard work, perhaps harder than it’s ever been.

"Future teachers deserve to learn how to teach in the company of others who share and demand passion, curiosity and commitment, who will challenge and support them with equal vigor. That’s the environment we try to create at Brandeis, so that our graduates will go on to be the bold, creative and just teachers to whom our children and youth have the right. Our aim is to graduate teachers who love their work and yet remain perpetually restless with the status quo.”

— Professor Dirck Roosevelt
Director, MAT

Why Choose the Brandeis MAT?

  • Our 12-month, full-time intensive program immerses you in developing the understanding, skill, judgment, and resilience you need not just to survive but to thrive as a teacher in these challenging times.
  • Our year-long guided teaching internship gives you the experiential basis and opportunity to explore that you deserve.
  • Our academic rigor and emphasis on inquiry provide intellectual power and excitement that you will carry into your own classroom.
  • Our outstanding faculty and dedicated mentor teachers work closely with you to provide guidance and a good balance of challenge and support.
  • As an MAT student, you work closely with your fellow students and faculty in a cohort model that provides support, camaraderie, powerful dialogue and room for risk-taking.
  • Our focus on child study, teaching for understanding and social justice help you keep your eye on the reasons you went into teaching in the first place.
  • Our induction program gives you continued support, after you graduate, during your first years of teaching.
  • You can afford it. Our tuition is lower than you think, and generous scholarship support is available. Our program structure means you forego only one year of employment — and the MAT degree usually confers a salary advantage. Furthermore, we have an enviable placement record. To learn more about scholarships, costs and financial assistance, e-mail MAT@brandeis.edu; to learn what our graduates are doing, click on "Alumni."
  • You can afford it, and it’s worth it. It’s your future, too. Invest in it.
  • Brandeis is a special place to study. The faculty are world class; the students are questioning, engaged, diverse and warm. Cordial and collegial relations among faculty and students are the norm. Social justice is an honored commitment. The campus abounds in artistic and other resources. Waltham is a lively, diverse community. And Boston is just down the road. Learn more about Brandeis and its environs.

Why Choose Teaching?

  • The children and youth of America urgently need bold, capable, committed teachers.
  • You need to do meaningful work, and teaching is as meaningful as it gets.
  • Teaching is actually a growth field, despite the economic crisis. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, US schools will need 3 million to 5 million new teachers over the next decade.