I’m currently a junior and looking into colleges. I’m buddhist and would like to practice this more in college, however I am having trouble finding colleges with temples, buddist populations, organizations, etc. Does anyone know any colleges (looking for higher-tier colleges, in an urban or city setting is most preferred) that supports buddhists? Thanks!!
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CU Boulder – while not in a city setting, but an attractive, active college town in the foothills – has strong connections to the Buddhist community, there’s an active and involved Buddhist temple, a Zen center in town, and activities promoted by Naropa Institute, a private college founded on Buddhist principles.
Soka University of America is, of course, a college founded in the Buddhist tradition (Nichiren Buddhism, specifically). It’s a small but good school located in the greater Los Angeles area.
Columbia has good support for Buddhist students as well - not only on-campus (there is a Buddhist religious leader as one of the religious leaders in their campus support for religion) but also in New York (there are hundreds of thousands of Buddhists in New York and lots of temples and centers for Buddhist practice. I used to go to the Soka Gakkai center down near Union Square and meet with a practice group in someone’s apartment building).
Look at Naropa University (Colorado), Soka University (California), or University of the West (California).
I think many of the large state and private universities in California have Buddhist student organizations, like [this one at UC Irvine](https://bauci.■■■■■■■■■■■■■).
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The Pioneer Valley area of Massachusetts, which includes Amherst and Northampton, has quite a few Buddhist resources. This is home to the 5 college consortium which includes Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Hampshire, and UMass-Amherst. (The area was one of the Tibetan resettlement sites in the early 90s). There is also a great deal of strength in Buddhist Studies in the colleges.
@katliamom @juillet @Corbett @Hellofagal thank y’all so much!! I’ll check all those schools out. I’m happy to hear that about Columbia, it was actually one of my top schools!
Soka. It has very few students and an incredible amount of money.
Other than that, look for any good university in or close in to a major city, and you will find all the support you need.
Tufts is in an urban/city setting with a diverse religious population. Here are some links that will help you assess the level of services and size of the population.
Best of luck.
http://chaplaincy.tufts.edu/chaplaincies/
http://chaplaincy.tufts.edu/weekly-gatherings-2/
http://chaplaincy.tufts.edu/spiritual-interests-survey-data-2015/
From my understanding, Soka is funded by a branch of Buddhism that is not considered mainstream. If you’re going to consider it, I would carefully look into its teachings.
University of the West was founded by Master Hsing Yun. There are many good things about Master Hsing Yun’s Buddhism teaching, although I have no knowledge about the educational quality at University of the West.
The University’s affiliated temple, Hsi Lai Temple, is located in Hacienda Heights, Los Angeles county. The temple is quite something. It regularly hosts retreats and educational programs for children and adults in both Chinese and English. I would highly recommend the retreats and educational programs at the Temple. The Temple is inclusive, and you do not need to be a buddhist to join its activities.