<p>ah, sorry. I seized upon an excuse to advise people technically on how to do a search.</p>
<p>Thanks for being a guinea pig. Did I say pig? Oh noes.</p>
<p>Rodney –
For Miami of Ohio …from our NY high-achieving HS…B to B+ students have been admitted. Naviance shows admissions with weighted GPA’s ranging from 3.3+ (most about 3.3 - 3.7)and SAT’s 1600 - 2100. I am fairly sure most of these students were not athletic or other “hooked” admits, because the bulk of the admits are in a tight GPA & Test range (and…a couple of the kids from our HS that I know that go there were not hooked admits…other than full pay!)</p>
<p>Has anyone found it a helpful process to look through a college’s EC’s, for example: Israeli Folkdancing ?</p>
<p>The list is a fine idea, although once it gets past a certain length, it becomes hard to work with, unless divided by regions (for example, you could easily list 100 suitable public colleges). I suggest that absent excellent boards or hooks, someone with a 3.5w GPA is seldom going to be admitted to the following schools on the list, and perhaps others:</p>
<p>Bard
Boston U
Brandeis
Bucknell
Carnegie Mellon
Case Western
Davidson
Franklin & Marshall
George Washington
Lafayette
Lehigh
Northeastern
Pitzer
Pomona
Skidmore
Stanford
Tulane
UCLA
U Delaware
UMDCP
U Miami
U Michigan
U Penn
U Richmond
U Rochester
USC
U Wisconsin
Vanderbilt
William & Mary
Williams</p>
<p>Many schools have breakdancing clubs/teams too. Not sure that means anything about ethnic diversity, though. My s was president of his school’s breakdancing club. Pretty amusing…</p>
<p>Wow - thread has been busy today! Someone asked about Miami of Ohio - good choice for a B student and has an active Jewish community. Not on S2’s list due to weather and distance - but it would work otherwise. I know a male student who last fall was deciding between ED at Brandeis and Miami of Ohio and chose Miami - he was accepted - and deferred admission for a year to do a gap year program in Israel - so using him as an indicator - should meet anyone’s test of Jewishness.</p>
<p>Someone else asked about finding out about Jewish life at campuses - in addition to speaking to a Hillel rep and a Google search - I have also tried to schedule a secondary tour/lunch with students who are active in Hillel - we did this with S1 when he was finalizing his decision. I had reservations about being Jewish at Wake Forest and the meeting I set up with a senior who was also a Hillel member really made the difference.</p>
<p>stradmom - thank you for making a list of the schools discussed - I had not thought about doing that. The only correction I want to make is on High Point - I actually recommended against that school, based on my conversation with Paul Ringel, the Hillel advisor. It met S2’s needs in every other way - cost, size, location, major, climate, etc., but there are very few Jewish kids there, the Hillel advisor admitted the Hillel was quite inactive and I have heard anecdotal accounts of anti-Semitism - it is no longer on S2’s list and I would not want someone to read this thread and come away with the impression that I had researched it and thought highly of it for a Jewish student as that is not at all the case.</p>
<p>Ditto UNCWilmington.</p>
<p>college4three - in my post 498 I wrote a bit about Elon. There is also an Elon forum if you look in the alphabetized college list on CC. There is a thread on there specifically about Jewish life at Elon as well.</p>
<p>Vitrac - when you say ditto UNC Wilmington - are you saying not great for Jewish life? I think that’s what you meant. I had looked at that school also - met a lot of my criteria - but I had a feeling it would not be very Jewish - can you elaborate?</p>
<p>
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<p>My first attempt at a list for D1 used the Hillel list for any schools that had Israeli Folkdancing. I’m not sure I’ve seen it as a standalone EC on college websites, but maybe that’s because I wasn’t looking too hard. Sometimes the big involvement is community wide. For example, students at our local public flagship who wanted to do Israeli dance were more likely to go offcampus.</p>
<p>Random thought: I would love a Wii Israeli Dance game. :)</p>
<p>Besides looking at Hillel and for Jewish ECs - look at whether or not the school has a Jewish studies minor. Susquehanna, for example, has one - which really surprised me. My feeling is if the demand is there for a Jewish studies minor that is a great sign.</p>
<p>So here’s S2’s list - as it stands at the moment and with everyone’s much-appreciated input:</p>
<p>small-medium colleges: Elon, Gettysburg, Muhlenberg, Eckerd, Susquehanna and York College of PA</p>
<p>medium-slightly large universities - College of Charleston, James Madison, Delaware, and Towson</p>
<p>reaches - Bucknell, Tulane, University of Richmond, University of Miami</p>
<p>I’m happy with this list - I think I have a number of schools that he should be able to be accepted at. I also have plenty that are well under $50,000 per year. Progress has been made!</p>
<p>good list!</p>
<p>Just want to reply to a couple of Univ of Delaware questions that came up today. </p>
<p>It has a great main street with lots of food places (including Cosi, which my daughter love), cute shops and other stores to get necessities. Christiana Mall is about ten min away (currently adding Target there). While driving around, we saw every box store and chain that you could imagine. In the student center there were bus schedules, so it looks like it’s easy if you just need to go shopping. We thought it was a great suburban area. Also, only a $6 train ride to Philly. When we were there in April, we met students who were going to a Phillies game that night and another group going down to Baltimore to see the Orioles.Everything, including other cities, seems pretty accessibled to us.</p>
<p>Want to mention a few tips/ideas to help those going through this for the first time:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Start early. We didn’t start making a list or researching colleges until mid-way through S1’s junior year. I have started the process 6 months earlier with S2 and feel much more relaxed about it.</p></li>
<li><p>Break up the college visits where possible. With S1 - we did one week long spring break road trip to see 5 colleges in 4 days. It was a little overwhelming and spring break was a crowded time to go. For S2, we are doing 2 in June, a few in the fall, a few next spring, etc. I think spreading them out more will give him time to digest what he has seen and learned in between visits and it will be less stressful as well.</p></li>
<li><p>Have at least 2-3 early action and/or rolling schools on your list. This was one of the biggest mistakes we made with S1, as we had only one EA school. While he was accepted there, he wasn’t that thrilled with it. So, we really were in limbo until late March which was very difficult. S2’s list has many EA/rolling options.</p></li>
<li><p>Broaden your horizons. S1 only applied to 6 schools. He was accepted at 4. Was not crazy about the EA school and one of the acceptances was at an OOS school that we could not afford. So, in the end, he really had only 2 schools to choose from. Just from this thread - I see at least 3 other schools that could have been on his list. While he is very happy at his college, if I had it to do over, his list would have been longer. While it will vary from one family to another - I would suggest 8 - 12 schools as a target.</p></li>
<li><p>Watch the price tags. All of S1’s schools, except the EA option, were quite expensive. His list needed options where he was high stat enough to get merit money and it needed more schools that were simply less expensive. I have been very conscious of this with S2 - and with a few exceptions, most of the schools are closer to $25,000 than $50,000.</p></li>
<li><p>Have fun. When I think back on S1’s process - I remember stress, stress and more stress. I am hoping that by starting earlier and planning more thoughtfully, S2’s process can actually be a pleasant experience. We’ll see.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Rockvillemom: Can you please elaborate why College of Charleston is on your list? My son said he wants to look into it. What is special about this school? Thanks.</p>
<p>Things I like about it - just about 10,000 undergraduates - so not too big, but not too small. In the city of Charleston - plenty to do - very walkable city - no need for a car. Fits a “B” student academically. Wide range of majors including business. Affordable - I think tuition, room and board are around $28,000. About 800 Jewish students - very active Hillel and has a Jewish studies minor. I think I already put the links in a day or two ago. Offers early action - October 15th deadline.</p>
<p>See my post #427 for the links.</p>
<p>The only negatives are lack of a football team and a low graduation rate compared to some of the other schools on this thread. I have heard the graduation rate explained that many kids are in-state and start at C of C and then decide to transfer out of state - not sure about this fact. I know they have been building more dorms, but I believe a lot of upperclassmen live off campus. Have not visited yet, but know several students there who seem to be very happy.</p>
<p>I know that UMD-CP has way more than 15,000 students, but the business school is very good and has about 2,000 students in total. So, he would have a small school inside a big university. If he doesn’t make it into the business school right away, he can try again for junior year if his grades are good. </p>
<p>BTW…the Hillel is right across the street from the business school.</p>
<p>The business school may be a reach unless your B kid is from a school like Thomas Wootton or has higher test scores. But it’s worth adding UMD to your son’s list and going to see it if he is admitted.</p>
<p>Hi RTR - you got me on the hs! Anyway, we really are not considering UMDCP. I do regard it highly for academics and the business school in particular - but I just think at 25,000 it is too big for S2. Too many kids from our hs go there - it’s like a continuation of hs rather than a broadening of one’s horizons. I have problems with the off campus housing, off campus safety, and the PG county police dept. does not exactly warm my heart. I just don’t think it is what we are looking for, but for those who want a large university, it has possibilities.</p>
<p>That’s right…I think you said that early on…sorry. My S is going to UMD-CP (and is a direct admit into the business school) so I’m hoping it works out for him. But he didn’t want to go to our state school because it felt like a continuation of high school for him…okay, not to mention that it’s in the middle of nowhere and not as highly ranked as UMD. He did pick UMD over many other state schools and two privates (Tulane and University of Miami). </p>
<p>Our school is very similar in profile to your high school and I’ve discovered that it does make a difference when the GPA is taken into account.</p>