Bulletin Staff
REHOVOT, Israel — If universities took out classified ads, that’s how the Weizmann Institute of Science might sell itself.
Samuel Safran, dean of Weizmann’s 40-year-old Feinberg Graduate School, said he would like to see more American Jews enroll. It’s not that the school has any openings, but he is unhappy that more Americans aren’t applying.
“We have a Chinese contingent. We have some students from India,” he said. But in the last eight years the number of American students has dropped to fewer than 10.
The benefit of having American students is that “when they go back to Harvard or Berkeley [for post-doctoral work or teaching], then we would have someone we know there,” Safran explained.
“It’s just good for international relationships to have our graduates at as many prestigious institutions as possible.”
Weizmann has 850 students — 500 in Ph.D. programs, 200 in master’s programs and 150 in post-doctoral research. About 90 of the 850 are foreigners. All instruction is in English.
The institute was founded in 1934 by Israel’s first president Chaim Weizmann, a chemist. In the years since, it has expanded to include 60 buildings — including Weizmann’s original lab — on 300 acres of well-manicured greenery.
For an American student, Safran said, Weizmann offers an education in which the ratio of student-to-instructor is 2:1. He claims the level of instruction is as good or if not better than schools such as Cal Poly, Harvard and MIT. Safran should know. An American who made aliyah with his family in 1995, Safran received his own graduate degree from MIT.
Safran also notes that Weizmann, unlike many American schools, puts its graduate students directly into labs as part of research teams. None are teaching assistants because Weizmann doesn’t have an undergraduate school.
He also pointed out that all courses taken at Weizmann are automatically accredited in the United State because the institute is also chartered in New York.
So why aren’t more Americans choosing Weizmann for graduate work?
Safran asserts that when undergraduates ask their professors to recommend a graduate school, “the professor in the United States wants a good student to stay there.”
He said university research scientists compete for the best up-and-coming talent to assist them in their work.
And despite Weizmann’s reputation and the fact that its professors are well-represented in scientific journals and at professional conferences, the school is a long journey for American students. Safran depends on Weizmann donors to spread the word and help attract would-be students.