I second (third?) Skidmore as a match for him.
If St. Olaf is under consideration, and I think it is definitely worth taking a serious look at, this might be a good place to get some info regarding Jewish student life on campus as suggested by @MYOS1634.
https://www.stolaf.edu/orgs/list/index.cfm?fuseaction=orginfo&OrgID=441¤taction=listallorgs
St. Olaf is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) but don’t let that turn you off. ELCA, despite the sound of the name, is in general fairly liberal on social issues as is the college.
Several excellent and appropriate recommendations have been made. Assuming the 4 hour travel can be accomplished by air, and not just by car, I’m going to plug some of the best upper-midwest colleges: Carleton, Grinnell, Beloit, Oberlin, Lawrence U., Macalester, and Kalamazoo.
I know people who attended these colleges. I’ve visited several of them. My kids applied to and were admitted to a couple of them (but attended UChicago and RISD). I’d classify them all as “colleges where it’s safe to be a thinker.” That was my son’s main criterion, and I think it’s a useful way to identify colleges that are open to thinkers, to individualists, to those who want serious intellectual challenges – and also places with a strong sense of community. Not dominated by “Greek” life, parties, or major intercollegiate sports.
@brantly OBERLIN! My daughter is a very happy first year there. There is a significant Jewish student population there and a Hebrew Heritage House as an alternative to traditional dorm. No Greek life. For a music lover, the conservatory is a wonderful resource and there are non-conservatory musical performance groups if your son is interested in performing but is not conservatory level. In my daughter’s experience, the ultra PC reputation is exaggerated. Yes there are activists on campus but it also is a serious place where students love to learn. She has taken courses in several different departments already and they have been challenging and interesting. She is also not a partier and has found many like minded friends.
Last year, the top merit award was around 25K, if that is a consideration.
My daughter found the student blogs very helpful when she was trying to get a sense of student life there.
This is a serious concern. I have read extensive news reports and heard first-hand about how Oberlin is not comfortable for Jewish students. The issue is anti-semitism from the extreme left, including marginalizing and excluding Jewish students from events, holding American-Jewish responsible for policies of the Israeli government and taking it out on them personally.
A few Ohio LACs are a 8-9 hour drive to NYC, not sure where in NY you are @brantly.
Denison - does have some Greek life but it is not residential. Merit possible. New Michael D Eisner arts center opening next year/following will host music, theater, dance depts. Hillel.
College of Wooster - some Greek life, but “All Clubs and Sections at Wooster are local organizations and have no affiliation with inter/national fraternities and sororities.” - merit very likely, would be a safety. Hillel.
Kenyon - Hillel. Again little Greek life.
This site goes into it some more for these schools. http://www.hillel.org/college-guide/search#radius=100¢er=43055
I think I might have been one of the first to suggest Skidmore. The school is lovely, and so is the town. The music ensembles welcome students whomare not majors. There is also a music scholarship…I forget the name, but I’ll find out…which is highly competitive, but very good.
One non-major student we know won the concerto competition…so much fun to hear her play with their orchestra…which she did for all four years of undergrad school.
Here you go…
@brantly I am familiar with those news reports and I don’t believe that they reflect current conditions at Oberlin.
Oops! I’ve been trying to post this and watching it disappear without posting to the thread. Just realized it’s because I probably included a verboten link. If I end up with multiple identical posts I apologize to all!
Let me try again with a cleaned up version:
I don’t know if Jewish students feel marginalized or targeted but when I suggested Oberlin I had forgotten about the whole Israeli/Palestinian tension issue at Oberlin. It may not be something most kids feel but it might make the OP’s son uncomfortable.
Google “Oberlin students for a free Palestine” and you’ll find active pages for the group, as well as news stories about the group and some of its protest activities.
^Dig deep to find out more.
Originally, I was a little afraid of both Oberlin and Vassar because of publicized incidents where anti-Israel sentiment seemed to become extreme and tip into a hostile environment towards Jewish students. Son ruled out Ohio as too far away anyway, but Vassar was a top choice for him, especially since my spouse had gone there.
So, when we visited Vassar, our tour guide, in listing his extracurricular involvements, mentioned he led a Jewish organization on campus. The whole tour, he was overflowing with enthusiasm for Vassar. After the tour, I broke the family touring rule of “no questions by parents.” I went up to him privately and asked what it was like to be a Jewish student at Vassar. He said that there had been some intense pro-Palestinian stuff, but that he had chosen to become a tour guide specifically because he is an active Jew on campus and people would be able to ask questions like mine. He said he was very happy and comfortable at Vassar, as a Jew, and so were the members of his Jewish group. His take was that incidents like the one the WSJ reported are rare and not typical of the Vassar experience. His candid discussion made me feel better.
The other thing about Vassar vs. Oberlin is that Vassar is in New York and not far from some of the most Jewish areas in the country. It has a number of Jews and feels pretty safe for Jews overall!
Vassar stayed on son’s list, and even was one of the five colleges he considered for early decision. It is a great college.
If you are considering Oberlin, you might contact a student leader of a Jewish group there and ask similar questions.
Clark University would be a safety and probably a big merit award for him. They have no Greek system. They are ranked as a National university but they identify and run like an LAC. Their whole MO is inclusiveness.
Israeli/Palestinian politics pops up on a lot of campuses (and has done so for decades), and often gets dominated by the nastiest and most racist people because those who are not nasty and racist get tired of all of the nasty racist yelling and disengage.
True, but the debate is much more inflamed at some campuses than others. My kids attended a peer of Oberlin and when I googled "Palestinian, [that school] I came up with a few stories about speakers discussing Palestinian non-violent resistance or the peace process . When I did the same for Oberlin I got stories like, “How Oberlin Has Repeatedly Failed To Confront Anti-Semitism on Campus”, and “Seriously, Jewish Media, Stop Scaring Jews Away From Oberlin.”
I’m not saying the OP should avoid Oberlin. I just think it’s good to approach a school with one’s eyes and ears open.
If St. Olaf is under consideration, please keep in mind that Carleton, just across the Cannon River in Northfield, has a significant Jewish student community. In fact, Shabat is a no-conflict time on Carleton’s campus (unlike Christian Easter–when my son encountered displeasure from an advisor for missing a supposedly mandatory student TA meeting).
Not within the 4 to 5 hour drive limit, and neither would be a match nor a safety, but you may still want to consider Emory University & Washington University in St. Louis. After all, college is a time for exploration & growth.
WUSTL and Emory wouldn’t be matches/safeties.
More on F&M. Franklin and Marshall Data from my panhell rep: 35% involved in Greek life. 44% of women are in sororities. With a bit of math, we deduced 24% of men are in fraternities.
@jym626: Yes, that’s why I made that point in my post. Just encouraging the applicant to stretch a bit–especially if religion is a concern.
Didnt see anything about religion- and the OP’s thread title was for matches and safeties- hence my comment that those schools are not.