Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

September 19, 2023

Anik Chartrand | PhD Candidate in English

Welcome back to the first day of school in 1953! Classes officially started for the first class of Brandeis GSAS students on Wednesday, September 30th. Hundreds of applications rolled in for the inaugural class, and 38 of the world’s best upcoming chemists, musicians, psychologists, and humanists were selected to study under the guidance of the graduate school’s directors: Dr. Saul Cohen in Chemistry, Professor Irving Fine in Music, Dr. Abraham Maslow in Psychology, and Dr. Simon Rawidowicz in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.

Fun facts about the inaugural class of GSAS Students:

• The first class of GSAS students came from over 30 distinct higher education institutions. Among them, several received their bachelors and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School of Music, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the University of California Los Angeles.
• The graduate roster included five World War II veterans and one Korean War veteran, who was said to have submitted their application for admission from the battlefield in Korea.
• Students hailed from 7 different states (California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and Rhode Island) and 4 countries (Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Sweden, and the U.S.)
• One of the first students was Music student Halim El-Dabh, who was born in Egypt, received his bachelors from Cairo University, and later studied at the University of Mexico. Sten Olof Envik of Lund, Sweden was another of the graduate scholars who came from abroad; he became a noteworthy research assistant for Dr. Abraham Maslow. A native of Czechoslovakia, Adam Frostig, was among the PhD candidates in NEJS. He studied at the University in Brno until the advent of the Nazis, continuing after the war at the State University of Munich.
• The Chemistry department offered one-on-one research classes with distinguished chemistry professors in the topics of organic, inorganic, and physical chemistry. CHEM 212, a bi-weekly set of lectures by faculty, graduate students, and guests, was on the list of required courses for chemistry graduate students, but no credit was given for this course!
• In NEJS, students could take classes in South-Semitic Languages, Modern Hebrew Literature, Maimonides, and Struggle for Reason in Jewish Thought.
• Psychology offered classes in Advanced Psychological Statistics, Experimental Methodology and Design, Projective Techniques, and Approaches to Psychotherapy.
• In Music, students were busy studying Improvisation of the Thorough Bass, Canon and Fugue, Homophonic Forms, and Aspects of Twentieth Century Music.

Seventy years later on August 31, 2023, 236 new GSAS students walked the same Brandeis campus lawns as their predecessors, heading to their classes in over 50 academic programs. We look forward to a year of celebration and excellence. Welcome back, class of 1953 – here’s to 70 years!

For fun photos from the beginning of GSAS, please visit our slide show.