<p>I went away for the weekend and missed pages of new posts. Welcome to our new posters.</p>
<p>My daughter has accepted that most of the schools that appeal to her have about a 60/40 female/male ratio. She is interested in some city schools that have inter-college socializing, so that might help.</p>
<p>We had a very productive week and my daughter has submitted 5 applications. I had forgotten how stressful October of senior year is.</p>
<p>MoltoB: Thanks for your post, you reminded me of another reason why I had thought of supporting S staying in state. (He wants to major in business.) By the way we had the talk about narrowing down what he wants from school. He still loves Texas, surprisingly definitely didn’t want to go to California, (so for the moment no more worries about USC.) Actually he seemed unenthusiastic about going to any other state but Florida even though he has been to other parts of the country. Do you suppose this is because in Florida we went to Disneyworld and Discovery Cove? …One more thing, he said he might not go straight to college and instead enlist in the Israeli army. I don’t think he really thought that one through. I didn’t see that coming.</p>
<p>paying3tuitions…way back when, you mentioned a book by Alan Dershowitz which sounded like a great resource for jewish students going off to college. I think you said that it’s called The Case Against Israel. I found one called The Case For Israel, which in it’s description, sounded more like the Q & A format you described, and The Case Against Israel which addresses Jimmy Carter and other leaders and their views towards Israel. Can you clarify which is the book you were referring to? I would like to get it for my S1 in anticipation of his going away to school next year.</p>
<p>I am also going to get him How to Get More out of Being Jewish which was also mentioned earlier in this thread.</p>
<p>Thank-you all for your great ideas!</p>
<p>Spectrum, my g/f’s son was about to attend college on a football scholarship. He got injured and shifted plans. He is now in Israeli army, after completing an extensive language program. Coincidentally, he is in same unit as another friend’s nephew, who is Canadian. </p>
<p>My g/f’s son was glowing at the induction ceremony.</p>
<p>Spectrum 2-Since you mentioned that your son was thinking about going to the Israeli army after high school—have you considered a Gap year in Israel or a summer program in Israel? I suggest you look at the Young Judaea and MASA websites to see if there is anything of interest. Also, if you are lucky, you will find some of the GAP programs offer college credit. The trick is for your son to get admitted to a college which accepts these credits from an Israeli institution. </p>
<p>Everyone I know who has done a Gap year or summer in Israel has a great time.</p>
<p>mdcissp: Thanks for that suggestion. Another good friend in the northeast also mentioned this. I’m going to hold onto that information. S was in Israel this past summer and this instilled a sense of passion for the land. It was a rare moment for me to get to pin him down to a conversation about college plans and he really wasn’t expecting it. He expressed a combination of fear and desire with regard to the military. This morning I scheduled some college tours for the winter break and also presidents day so we are finally going to get that going. He expressed several contradictions such as being happy near home and going to Israel. We may explore gap year educational opportunities in Isreal if he continues to gravitate in that direction. He has spent so much time involved in URJ camp and travel he has somehow never spent any time on a college campus. I think we have some catching up to do. I expect this year he will need to take a gap year from camp. :)</p>
<p>Spectrum2 - Before you have your son skip camp this summer. I remember reading somewhere (I have no idea where), that colleges actually look very favorably on Jewish overnight camp. They know that a big part of Jewish camping is that the kids are taught leadership skills and since the colleges want kids with leadership skills, it’s a plus. I don’t know much about the URJ camps, but my D’s go to a Federation camp and each year they move into a new type of leadership program and actually do programming at camp once they reach the high school level. </p>
<p>Welcome to all of the new posters. I can’t even imagine trying to read this entire thread from the beginning. My head spins when I have a few days to catch up on!</p>
<p>mdmomfromli: Jewish camp has been wonderful for S and has had a powerful influence on the person he is. However, last summer set us back some and I don’t see how he will get essays written, standardized tests studied for and campuses visited if he is away most of the summer, which he would have to be to go back to campl. I would love for him to go back this summer but I don’t see how he will get it all done if he does.</p>
<p>I am a huge proponent of Jewish summer camp (URJ camps) - sending my kids was one of the best things I did for my kids, since we live in a pretty non-Jewish area.</p>
<p>D (who is at UDel now, for the new people who haven’t read all my pro-UD posts), had a lot of URJ summer camp activities on her activities sheet that was part of her college apps. She was “Machon” between junior and senior year in HS, which is a total leadership experience. She also worked in her NFTY in Israel (LDor v’Dor) experience in both her activities sheet (learning from the rabbis - she did not write about sight seeing!) and her essays. It worked well with her interest in study abroad and ignited her passion for archaeology (which she might want to major in - for better or for worse – although not sure she will pursue after the anthro course she is taking now).</p>
<p>I know about all those summer college prep courses - it’s great to have experience on a college campus, etc. But, I am still of the mind that kids need to be kids. My S actually wants to skip the NFTY trip in Israel next summer and just play tennis (that’s not happening; he’s a good tennis player but that won’t be his ticket to college!). The NFTY trip will be 4-5 weeks. He can play tennis after that! Plus, when will he ever get this chance again! He has a friend who was talking to him about doing a program at Brown. Just not enough time for everything in the summer. </p>
<p>FYI - D was a B+ ish student (3.6 WGPA, 26 ACT) - the leadership served her well as she did not seek out leadership opps at school. S is definitely an A student (don’t know any test scores yet; he’s only a soph now) - I don’t think what he does in the summer is going to make or break his college apps. His scores, grades, transcript will speak for itself. Going to an Ivy League school would be great; but not his ultimate goal. We’re not putting all our eggs in that basket!!! He had a great summer (8 weeks) at his URJ camp this past summer and wouldn’t have traded that for anything!</p>
<p>I would want to see something clear about colleges looking very favorably on Jewish Summer Camps before suggesting Spectrum change his plans, especially given the financial burden Spectrum mentions. I am not opposed to the camps; it is a great experience for many kids. Local volunteer activites, however, might impress colleges more, as they involve helping those in need more and are much more of a cross-cultural experience. LIN’s child certainly did a very goo djob of relating them to her interests.</p>
<p>spectrum2: I’m laughing right now, because my son throws the “I’m joining the IDF” threat around whenever I get on his case. I actually know a girl who did join the IDF and it is more complicated than these kids think. This girl attended a Hebrew Day school through 12th grade and did a gap-year in Israel. She then went to Michigan for a year and the following summer joined the IDF. She spent 3-4 months in an intensive Hebrew language program before she even entered the IDF, even considering all her previous schooling in Hebrew. She is in an all female division and works with bomb/disaster dogs. The transition from suburban life to the army was not without its problems and her family often has difficulties working with the IDF liaison to get any information about what’s going on with their kid. As usual, teenagers romanticize the IDF without considering the realities of warfare.</p>
<p>Moltobene–very good point. Perhaps, however, these kids actually ARE “considering the realities of warfare”–after all, they are talking about a path which is far less dangerous and difficult than joining their countrymen who are risking their lives in pursuit of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda and safeguarding you, me and their families.</p>
<p>Wanted to mention seeing a summer program where your kid goes to an Israeli army base. It is not commitment to the IDF, but your kid will see what it is like in the army. Just look at the many summer and gap year programs in Israel. These are great experiences. </p>
<p>Hopefully the girl who is in the IDF will find a nice boy friend. Plenty of good boys to meet in the IDF. Maybe the parents should consider a trip to Israel to visit their daughter when she has break.</p>
<p>I don’t know if kids “romanticize the IDF”. If your kid wants to live in Israel, IDF is the best way to integrate into Israeli society.</p>
<p>Also, the economy is so terrible in the U.S., and the economy is thriving in Israel, that some kids might see a better path going to the IDF than staying here. Just look at how real estate is booming in Israel, tons of high tech companies are thriving, etc. vs. the terrible job market here.</p>
<p>All three of my children went to Jewish Summer camps(B;nai Brith) and still always talk about it as one of the most meaningful things in their lives. They each still maintain close friendships with the other kids they met.</p>
<p>BUT</p>
<p>The summer before Senior year (at least) should not be spent at the same camp your child has been going to for maybe 8 years in a row. Both my girls participated in community service programs/trips (a whole other subject we could talk about and compare one day). For my youngest in particular it was a life changing experience. Of course she had done community service in HS but this was intensive and far more real going to another country, speaking the language, doing real work alongside local inhabitants and seeing the difference in lives. It also gave her an unexpected opportunity to test and gain confidence in her ability to meet, fit in and live with a whole new set of strangers before having to go off and having to move into a dorm possibly hundreds of miles away. She had been apprehensive about it before the summer but now is confident. If you can afford summer camp, the better community service groups will cost you either the same or less. It really is something many kids ought to do before going off to college.</p>
<p>My son instead worked as a lifeguard the summer before college (and went back to that job after his first year). He’d worked before, but staying home (though he did visit the camp one weekend) making a substantial amount of money and having it for use at school, I’m convinced, gave him new insights on spending, saving, working and career.</p>
<p>@mdcissp: LOL, we didn’t get the IDF “threat” until S came back from his Birthright trip the summer after his second year of college.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, my youngest attended “camp” - increasingly competitive music programs at different places - every summer EXCEPT for the summer before senior year. Her plan was to do SAT prep, driving school, practice for auditions and get a job (this one didn’t work as well as hoped due to the economy). </p>
<p>While it was wonderful having her around, in retrospect she felt that attending something more than the one-week program she ended up going to would have been more productive…and more fun. All of her friends were out of town at their camps and internship programs, and we only spent a few days looking at colleges (since we decided that seeing them with students present would be a better idea).</p>
<p>YMMV.</p>
<p>Just to add some information about sending kids to Israel and trying to fit everything in…I spent all of my youth going to Jewish overnight camp, but as I got older I decided to try something new. I went on the Alexander Muss High School in Israel program and it was great. It was a very intense academic experience and had to be coordinated with my teachers back home so that I could continue my curriculum in Math and Science especially, but it was very much worth the extra effort. I think that it added value to my apps (although this was not even on my radar at the time). I then had the entire summer to do other things in preparation for senior year, etc.
For kids who like to travel and want to do something that not every other kid is doing, I highly recommend HSI.</p>
<p>The camp my D’s go to focuses on leadership development. The summer before going into Senior year, the kids go to another country and do community service projects for a week. They get back to camp and work as CIT’s as well as plan programs at camp. This is only a 4 week program, so the kids do have time left in the summer to do the work necessary on their applications. Every camp is different, I can only speak from our experiences. D1 has also done pre-college programs and I would have to say I think that the camp experience was better all around.</p>
<p>For those students who want to participate in a program in Israel during college that is intense and exciting (but not the IDF!): Magen David Adom, which runs the ambulance service, has a program for volunteers. The students can go for the summer, and they are trained as first responders for about a week; I believe that this training is in English. They then go out on ambulance runs with paramedics, and assist the paramedics on the calls. The program runs throughout Israel; several students are assigned to a particular town. Usually, the students are housed in absorption communities. They are not paid, but their housing is usually taken care of.
My daughter did this one summer and it was a fantastic experience. I believe that this was a big resume builder as well. She does speak Hebrew fluently (her reading is not that good), but not all of the students in the program did speak Hebrew. They probably need to learn some key words, though, to follow directions of the paramedics.
I think that there are other great volunteer opportunities in Israel also. Our community has a very strong relationship with our sister city and region, and the people there can always find volunteer positions for our students. Some of them volunteer at a Children’s Village, and there may be some environmental volunteering of some sort. If you are interested, you can check with your partnership if you have a sister city or region in Israel. Maryland parents, yours is Ashkelon I believe.</p>