In late August I’ll be going to Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts from Orange County, California where I’ve lived up to this point of my life. Besides the obvious precaution of getting bulkier clothing for the winter, do you have any other advice or insights on Massachusetts life as regards to culture, food, and so forth?
No advice or answer for you, but I have been meaning to congratulate you on your recent graduation from high school. And further congratulations on getting accepted to such a prestigious school.
Active Steampunk group centered around events at the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation.
Try the chowder.
That’s my alma mater! Congrats!
I loved going to college just outside Boston. We’d take the Purple line (commuter rail) into North station at least 1-2 times a month. Lots of college students in Boston during the year, so it can have a young vibe. Go to The Head of the Charles. Cambridge shuts down practically, for all the high school and college students in town.
I lived in San Diego as well, but grew up in Western NY. Comparatively, I feel the people in MA are friendly, but reserved. Be nice and polite and you’ll be treated fine. Pull an “entitled (west coast) college student attitude” and you’ll get it back in spades.
Brandeis is an insular campus (that is, not spread along urban streets), so you’ll mostly be interacting with classmates. Huge percentage from NYC/LI/NJ. I found it strange at first and felt very different, but after a few weeks people stop being as linked to where they came from and settle in and are more themselves. Get involved! It’s not a huge school, so the more activities you try out, the more you’ll meet people you like.
I’ll be up in July as my daughter is doing a high school summer program. This year was our reunion (25 years), but I couldn’t go. I’m psyched to see how it’s changed.
I loved my time there.
Find proper footwear for the winter, much more important than clothing. You can throw a big coat over anything and be fine, but good boots are key. If you want to be greeted favorably pretty much anywhere in the greater Boston area get a Red Sox cap.
Welcome to the Hub of the Universe!
There are lots of good restaurants in Waltham, and a couple of excellent ice cream places.
I have to second the Charles River Museum of Science and Industry. Waltham used to be a center of precision watch manufacturing, and this is part of what’s preserved. They have quite a collection of old machinery, much of its still working, and they’ll demonstrate it for you. The Steampunk stuff is only a small part of it.
You also have to drive by the “Churchj on the Half Shell” – Sacred Heart Church at 311 River St., Waltham. It looks like this:
Most of the interesting stuff in Waltham, like the Moody Street restaurants, is not really in walking distance from Brandeis. You can take the commuter train downtown, sure, but then you might as well go into Boston and Cambridge where there’s a whole lot more to see and do.
The former watch factory is now renovated into tech-startup offices and expensive apartments. I worked there for awhile, cool place, even has a museum of the Waltham Watch Co. in the lobby.
I’ll second the motion about preparing for an unpleasant climate, if all you know is SoCal. Last winter was especially harsh. But you can get what you need more easily here than at home.
I lived a few years in Waltham, 2001-2004. I agree with ElvisL1ves, the only particularly interesting area is Moody Street, and it’s not convenient from the campus. Lots of nice restaurants and bars, a decent independent movie theatre, some small international grocery stores. Plus a surprising number of porno shops. Of course, I’m sure a lot has changed.
The weather sucks, the traffic sucks. Waltham is nicely positioned near the intersection of the 90 (the Mass Pike, the major interstate highway for the northern US…you can hop on and drive to Seattle, as I did) and the 95, which is basically a ring road around Boston, so it’s convenient to get anywhere, as long as your willing to drive for 2 hours.
I think calling roads “the <number>” is a west coast thing. Around here we just say the number or, less often, “I” and the number. The section of I-90 in Massachusetts is always called the Mass Pike, or just the Pike. People say “Take the Pike until it turns into I-90” and I’m sure most of them have no idea that it’s I-90 the whole way.
I lived off Moody street in my 20s. There’s this Chinese Restaurant called Tiki House on Moody’s my friends and I used to order take out at 2:00 am after a long night of drinking in Boston. (Well…long by Boston standards).
You can also rent kayaks at a boat house off Rt 30. It’s kind of fun to rent one for the day and just kayak around the Charles. I tried taking one out to Cambridge, but there are a bunch of dams along the way and it gets tedious portaging the canoe around them.
Other than Moody St, Brandeis and Bentley, I think the only thing notable about Waltham is it’s proximity to Boston.
Twenty-mumble years ago my wife was doing her doctorate at Brandeis, and there were lots of good Indian restaurants.
Of course, you’re near Boston, Cambridge, and tons of colleges.
Not all the west coast, just California (and maybe just L.A.).
Especially as a freshman, most of your day-to-day social activity will happen on campus. Campus shuttle would run by the local grocery store, and we would take the rail to Boston, but mostly we hung out on campus. We didn’t look for Waltham for a lot of entertainment. Lack of cars, IDs and cash kept us on campus!
Live your first year on campus. You may find after freshman year you’d rather live in Boston/Cambridge and commute to campus (easy peasy on the commuter rail - I do that trip every weekday).
Moody Street has, IMO, been on the decline for several years from its heyday as a dining destination. It still has a few standouts, but the days of strolling along Moody to choose a good dinner and do some shop-browsing are over. For the time being at least. It may rebound. A few interesting places have popped up lately including The Gaff, Moody’s and (been there awhile) Solea. I think Moody is down to 2 Indian restaurants, and the block containing The Skellig is a shadow of its former self.
That said, as others have pointed out if you’re going as far as Moody it’s just another 15minutes on the train to Porter Square in Cambridge or North Station in Boston so if you’re a real foodie you can still easily access tons of choice dining.
Reiterating and elaborating.
I moved from more temperate climes to the cold north for college and proper footwear meant **waterproof **boots. I bought mine from LL Bean, though there may better options now.
Yes! Waterproof footwear (waterproof to at least the ankle because you’ll be stepping into 2"-6" icy sludge when you cross the street) is the most important item.
Beyond that your main goal is keeping out the wind. A good scarf and gloves that keep the drafts out of your neckline and sleeves are way way way more important than a puffy down coat.
I keep struggling with an Australian friend about this. She wears a puffy coat but can’t manage to wrap her scarf correctly so she’s always cold. When she lets me wrap her scarf for her she’s much more comfortable.
I lived in Waltham (right off Trapelo Road) the summer after I graduated and before I went of to grad school. That was 40 years ago so I’m not going to make any restaurant recommendations. Boston and Cambridge are great walkable cities. It is a great place to go to school, maybe the best.
Agreed. I moved to Boston for grad school. Even as a grad student I found the city to be a wonderful place to be a student. There are just so many students here in the Boston metro area. When I was a student I found this to mean a vibrant young community filled with people I could relate to and learn from. Now I find you all to be worse than a plague of locusts. 
But you keep the place energetic and casual and always interesting.
I recently had a thread where I talked about how I’m moving from Sacramento to Boston for graduate school. If I can find it I’ll provide a link.
I lived in Watertown (town west of Waltham) for six years. Waltham is a little bigger and has the Pike and Route 128 interchange. (In Mass, roads are “Route,” whether they’re US highways, interstates, or whatever.) I had a car so I was able to get around (except rush hour on Route 20, that was brutal). Moody Street looks hip and happening.
I’d recommend a bike. I wouldn’t ride it on Route 20 but generally, the Boston area is a great biking city. I used to bike from Watertown to Boston (Copley Square) or to Cambridge (Cambridgeside Galleria) regularly. I sometimes rode to campus (went to Harvard) but it required crossing Fresh Pond Parkway which gave me the heebie jeebies.
Definitely visit the Mt. Auburn Cemetery when the weather is nice!