A letter/essay to the future Class of 2011, from a recent Brandeis grad, with meager insights into the quote-unquote "real world"-delivered with maximal humility-realized retrospectively, formatted serially and delivered for your consideration: I would like to submit some advice a bit prematurely, like a plaid-wrapped present in July marked "Do not open until Xmas!" for the graduating class of Brandeis this year. Toward the beginning of fall semester when we lavish all sorts of warnings and encouragements on the fresh-faced, doe-eyed first-years entering our institution, I would like to reverse the trend and give a bit of early advice to the seniors before the market is flooded come graduation. These are a few realizations, organized in list format, that I wish I had known my senior year-which is not to say that I'm reclining in my weathered rocking chair on the porch of hard-earned experience after only a year or so away from Brandeis, but instead I'm just trying to share a few thoughts.

I remember the 2008 to 2009 academic year as a very bleak time, and I can recall a few specific conversations with a friend in a secluded corner of the student center, commiserating over coffee and talking about the future. This was at the time when the housing market and economy were crashing and burning in Armageddon proportions and just as the conflict over the Rose Art Museum began to develop.

I had my doubts and disillusionments about Brandeis as an institution, which I won't delve into specifically, but suffice it to say I felt a bit left-behind or forgotten. I believe this feeling is symptomatic of being up close and personal with the same school for four or more years, and I would like to further point out that seniors (speaking for myself and the people I've known) have a tendency to treat Brandeis as a kind of punching bag toward the end of their tenure at the University.

Back then, if you asked me point-blank if I liked or did not like the school, I probably would have launched into some discussion about values or brought up some trite, teenage-whining grievances. Given a little distance and perspective (and once again pointing a rhetorical finger towards the rocking-chair porch idea above) I feel I have to bring up a few things about Brandeis that students might be aware of, but that I did not appreciate until they resolved themselves fully in time.



A) Brandeis kids are (read: tend to be, on most days, in most ways) very smart, but, thankfully, not too smart for their own good.

I'm aware I'm risking reader outrage by leading off with what could be misinterpreted as an insult, but in fact it's quite the opposite.

From my time at Brandeis, I've found the balance between being intelligent and "having-to-appear-intelligent" is in a really excellent ratio, and it's something that I took for granted until I moved away.

Currently, I work for an elite school in the Midwest where the everyday niceties, foibles and fun of the institution are utterly crushed by a culture of hyperintelligent competition.

Not only is it a boring and lonely place where people agonize over making eye contact, but the overwhelming compulsion to demonstrate smartness prevents any type of intellectual risk-taking and curtails any interactions that are just fundamentally human.

At Brandeis, I found in all of my classes that people were willing to put themselves out there, admit that they don't know everything and be simply curious and interested in the world around them. Without this kind of spirit, I don't think you can learn meaningfully- perhaps you can learn all sorts of facts, but the very mission of the liberal arts breaks down without the ability to strive for better understanding through doubt and diligence.



B) Although the tenuous economy may cause a desire to curl up in a prone position, Brandeis still has name recognition. Now, do the legwork.

This bullet point is more of an "It worked for me; it can work for you" than anything else. Yet time and time again, I hear stories of friends who have found a place in the "real world" based on their own tenacity as well as the name that Brandeis carries.

Speaking for myself in science, Brandeis has a fantastic reputation. From what I've heard from my friends and other graduates, what people know of the institution also translates to medical school, law school, business and more. I think the important part is to do the legwork of writing letters, getting yourself out there and remaining cautiously optimistic. Truncated version: no silver bullets, but plenty of silver linings. I suppose this advice can only be taken on faith for now, and I understand the limits of that-maybe clip this part out, tuck it under your pillow, and vindicate yourself a few months from now? Truth be told, Class of 2011, I have much more faith in you and your abilities than in tooth fairies.



C) A spirit of ingenuity and invention permeates the best of what Brandeis has to offer its students.

I can say without hesitancy that the times I enjoyed most at Brandeis were not school-sponsored events or planned-out activities, but rather when a group of kids came together with an idea and invented new traditions on the spot. Any programming run out of Cholmondeley's, for instance (rock and roll, comedy, a cappella, the list goes on), is done on essentially a budget of zero dollars with zero oversight and it works spectacularly. It also moves me to see students coming together for nonclub activities-celebrating an engagement, campaigning and volunteering for a cause, throwing a party for charity.

At most colleges, where the culture revolves around frats, sororities and the trappings thereof, I count myself lucky (and inspired) to have witnessed all the new ideas popping up around campus and the support that those crazy ideas received by the general community in my time at Brandeis.

As a small bit of advice from an alum, I would encourage the administration to pursue endeavors that empower students to invent as they please-Festival of the Arts is a good, institutionally sponsored example of this. First-years, pay attention to the projects your peers are doing, and seniors, take that spirit of ingenuity out into a "real" world that is sorely in need of it.



Twentysomething life can be thoroughly uninventive, and it is my sincere hope to be able to witness the many smart, inspired things that the Class of 2011 and further iterations of Brandeis grads will bring to the table. Happy (early) graduation.

Editor's note: The writer is a member of the Class of 2009.