<p>thanks for posting that article, rockvillemom. that is something I worry about as we research schools for D’12.</p>
<p>even Brandeis is not immune from this - there were protests on campus last spring against the graduation speaker, Michael Oren, Israeli Ambassador to the US.</p>
<p>It would be interesting to explore the financing of the anti-Israel efforts</p>
<p>I find it absolutely disgusting and hateful for anti-Israel protests to be held on some U.S. college campuses. It is good that Hillel and Stand With Us pro-Israel groups learn how to deal with such animosity. You need to be sure that your kid will be comfortable and know how to properly respond with everything that goes on these campuses.</p>
<p>Yabeyabe2: Thanks for the information on BU. My daughter really wants to go to college in an urban environment, but I’m a little concerned about the non-nurturing part. I also have to confess that she is actually an A- student. I still feel that a lot of the schools discussed on this thread are good possiblities for her. She is not a candidate for the most selective schools that have high Jewish populations.</p>
<p>I can’t think of a school that is nurturing and urban, unless Clark is Worcester counts as urban or close suburbs, such as Brandeis, Tufts, Goucher or American (although technically in the district has an utterly different feel than GW) suffice. An A- student may be right for Case Western, Miami, Vanderbilt, Tulane, GW, BU, NYU or Northeastern, none of which is usually described as nurturing because of their size (although all are good schools). </p>
<p>Granted, not every kid needs nurturing, but I believe a great many kids do–especially those B students who would do better if they were more motivated or organized.</p>
<p>I don’t recall Case as that big undergrad - DD applied (and was accepted) and she only wanted modest sized schools (though not necessarily LAC’s) We didnt perceive it as unnurturing when we visited (after acceptance) , though we may not have paid close attention as she was leaning more to her other admits. </p>
<p>The school she has enrolled it (and will attend next year after gap year is finished) is RPI, which is also urban (sort of) and nurturing (sort of) if rather better for A- than for B students (and again, DD is a B student with an asterisk, as she was 3.7W at TJ - but she is ADHD and could definitely use help getting organized - we are hoping RPI has seen lots of very bright but ADHD kids before)</p>
<p>At about 4500 undergrads, I think of Case as midsized, with the about 5500 grad students making it pretty sizable overall. Penn was about that size undergrad when I was there and it is a difficult size to be nurturing, even with good intentions. Although certainly well below the state flagship level, that is still a size where large lecture 101 courses are common, as are grad students running the smaller discussion groups and sometimes small classes. </p>
<p>Also, as at many highly thought of universities, there is more of an assumption that kids are organized and self-starters, otherwise they would not have been able to compile the resume to be accepted.</p>
<p>On the sliding scale from nurturing to cold and impersonal, I think most midsized schools fall, not surprisingly, in the middle, with help available, but more likely to be upon request, rather than proactive.</p>
<p>Of course, many kids do not want small classes taught by professors, because it is harder to hide when sleepy, unprepared or daydreaming or to text or websurf during class. But a studnet who seems to be unhappy or struggling is a lot more likely to get spotted and helped in a small class where a professor can sound the alarm.</p>
<p>DD’s size limit was ABOUT 5000, which precluded UVA and VTech for us, eliminated Syracuse and OOS flagships from her list of safeties, and Cornell from her list of reaches. So I guess the search felt small school oriented, as we were facing lots of constraints due to size, esp combined with DDs career interests in Arch and engineering, which precluded most genuince LAC’s (we didnt want a 3+2 as we thought the disruption of changing campuses would be a bigger cost than the smaller size would be a benefit)</p>
<p>Most of the schools she looked at had limited graduate programs, and we had a lot of discussion of class sizes, TA’s etc. Case was unusual among most of the schools we looked at in having such relatively large graduate schools.</p>
<p>“Also, as at many highly thought of universities, there is more of an assumption that kids are organized and self-starters, otherwise they would not have been able to compile the resume to be accepted.”</p>
<p>Ah, the magic world of GT-LD. I don’t mean to be obnoxious, but if someone could have waved a magic wand and taken away my DD’s ADHD. executive functioning issues, etc, and left her IQ and other gifts, we wouldn’t have been looking at Case, except maybe as a safety. </p>
<p>The second tier schools are going to be a mix of the organized and motivated and not so brilliant, and the and the not so organized and motivated, but brilliant. We were looking for schools where the latter would be as common as the former.</p>
<p>Since we are visiting this school next, I was looking at the website again and saw this new FAQ page on Hillel and Jewish life:</p>
<p>[Susquehanna</a> University - Student Life: Religious Life ? Jewish Life: FAQ](<a href=“http://www.susqu.edu/studentlife/23961.asp]Susquehanna”>http://www.susqu.edu/studentlife/23961.asp)</p>
<p>The Jewish population is small - but they do have a Hillel House and a Jewish studies minor. They do have High Holiday services and a Sukkah program planned. There’s no doubt that it is a smaller Jewish community than we would like - but everything else looks good - so we’ll see.</p>
<p>We don’t need a huge Hillel, but make sure that there is enough there Rockville Mom that your son is not turned off to participating in activities. You will see when your son is at Hillel, meets the director and other kids, to see if there is a potential fit.</p>
<p>Sussquehanna is wonderful. I know that the Jewish population is small, but everyone I met there was friendly and welcoming. I imagine that extends to Hillel as well.</p>
<p>I hope that all of you on the East Coast are OK today with the weather!
Size and nurturing: it IS possible to be very large and nurturing. Penn State does it. Really and truly. It is just a matter of paying a tremendous amount of attention to student life, running well with many layers of caring professionals, having a good system of advising, having academic and social support built into the system, and creating smaller communities within the larger community.
My impression is that Pitt is doing it for many students. Students involved in Hillel at Pitt are definitely nurtured.
I know that many of you will doubt that this can happen at a very large school, but it can!</p>
<p>Levirm: I agree that a large school can still be nurturing. My older daughter is at Penn, and they do many things to help freshmen aclimate. She actually had house parents living in her dorm freshmen year who hosted weekly study breaks with great refreshments. The school also does a great job communicating with parents. I do think that a student at a large school needs to be enough of a self-starter to take advantage of the available resources.
My younger daughter is considering adding Pitt to her list because of all the positive things we’ve been hearing.</p>
<p>College4three, how did you come to visit Susquehanna? </p>
<p>Levirm, having grown up in PA, I know a ton of Penn State alumni and they are roughly 200% more positive about PSU than the Rutgers alumni I know are. Pitt, if they marketed more aggressively, would compete well with BU–Pittsburgh is not Boston, but it is a good college town and Pitt has bigtime football and basketball, plus a lower price pricetag.</p>
<p>Momjr, I am glad to see that the 12x increase in Penn’s cost since I attended has gone to some good additions; when I was there, my parents were never communicated with by Penn except to send $. We did not have house parents, but did have resident faculty–but they tended to “nurture” only attractive girls, and in ways which could lead to lawsuits now!</p>
<p>Yabeyabe2: I’m happy to report that it is a kinder and gentler Penn than in our day. Fortunately my daughter’s resident faculty were a very nurturing older couple. She was happy that there were some “grown-ups” around.</p>
<p>Visited Allegheny yesterday with D. In the English brochure I noticed that they have a course on Jewish Literature. Other than knowing that they have a Hillel there, I don’t have any details on Jewish Life. D does not like it when I ask about it, as she really could care less.</p>
<p>Holliesue, re “D does not like it when I ask about it”–been there, done that, got the death stare! And then made things worse in the car by trying to defend myself on the grounds that it might be a good place to meet girls interested in Jewish guys. I only survived that one by being needed to drive the car home.</p>
<p>Many folks on this thread will benefit from your excellent Campusvibe reports on Alfred and Alleghenny (sorry Albright did not make the cut!).</p>
<p>Recent reviews of RIT and F&M are also there.</p>
<p>yabeyabe2- The only school I asked the Jewish question at was Hiram as I know they have very few Jewish students and was curious to hear their response. D was not pleased with me at all! (D is also very proficient at the “death stare”!)</p>
<p>Hollie, I have thought about writing an autobiography of my year sparenting teens, entitled “My Life As An Embarassing Idiot”</p>