<p>rodney: sorry I didn’t make that point more clearly. You are exactly right – the number of Jewish students is not in itself an indicator that a school supports Israel. We see a lot of that in CA.</p>
<p>D’s application essay was very clearly pro-Israel and that was the one content warning her AP Eng teacher gave her: that she might hurt her chances at a school that did not have a strong pro-Israel position. She explained that she had already filtered her list of schools for that and that she didn’t want to be somewhere where she couldn’t freely be supportive of Israel.</p>
<p>UC Irvine, and maybe UC Berkely. UCI has a very active virulent Muslim Student Union.</p>
<p>That being said, maybe those are places we SHOULD send our students, particularly our stronger ones to help counteract. One of my kids would take that challenge, the other woudn’t.</p>
<p>I heard that UMCP has several pro-Israel groups plus a very active Hillel. I disagree that a Jewish kid should attend UC Berkeley or UC Irvine in order to counter-act Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel sentiment unless your kid plans to work in the area of countering anti-Israel sentiment.</p>
<p>This is very much an “it depends” issue. UC Irvine has been very much in the news for anti-Israel activity, but different Jewish students have different reactions to their comfort level on the campus. [Is</a> UC Irvine safe for Jews? | Cover Story | Jewish Journal](<a href=“http://www.jewishjournal.com/cover_story/article/is_uc_irvine_safe_for_jews_20100413/]Is”>http://www.jewishjournal.com/cover_story/article/is_uc_irvine_safe_for_jews_20100413/) I know that there is lots of anti-Israel activity at Berkeley, but I also know many strongly Zionist students who are very much enjoying their time there. It depends on your kid. Do they want to avoid any confrontation, or would they be OK with activism if there’s also a strong Jewish community? Like crestor said, some kids relish that challenge, some don’t.</p>
<p>Being pro-Israel isn’t enough. I’m sure a school like Bob Jones University is strongly pro-Israel, but I don’t think it would be especially welcoming to Jewish students. :)</p>
<p>Rockvillemom; From your list of schools you want to visit and think might be a fit for your son, can you please tell us which schools are rolling admissions or EA? Also, what did you decide about Univ. of Pittsburgh? Thanks.</p>
<p>rockvillemom - Our hs does not rank - so that won’t factor in. Our school profile is kind of weird in that they don’t identify deciles or quartiles - they give a breakdown on the % who had a wgpa over 4.51 and the % that had a wgpa over 4.01, etc. His wgpa right now is 3.96 - so my hope is he can bump it up a bit junior year and get into the 4.01 and above bracket.</p>
<p>rockvillemom-I have never seen this breakdown, where can I find it? Thanks!</p>
<p>I was shocked to see a You-Tube of an anti-Israel speaker at the University of Chicago this year and that the University of Chicago allowed this kind of “free speech” (i.e. hatred) to take place. My point is this sort of thing is not limited to Cal Berkeley and Irvine.</p>
<p>There are so many dimensions to the topic raised in posts #562 -#566 and #569 it’s hard to know where to begin. So I posted a link to a source that follows these developments with some degree of definition. 2 page article linked above from the ADL (Anti Defamation League) official website, chosen carefully to match the concerns raised in THIS thread. On p. 2 it goes into some detail about U of Chicago, and there’s a link on the first page to a review of the UC Irvine experience.</p>
<p>I advise parents and college-bound Jewish students to read Alan Dershowitz, “The Case Against Israel” as a must-read before college. It’s in a Q & A format, Dershowitz has about 50 FAQ, including some ill-informed, challenging and vitriolic questions students might hear at any campus today. Then he provides factual nswers, which are about 2 paragraphs each. It gives a student language to stand up for themselves, anywhere.</p>
<p>Beyond that, there have been large-scene demonstrations at some campuses, especially at some UC’s, that are being discussed throughout the Jewish community with regret. IMO, it’s our responsibility to become informed and encourage your kids to do that as well. I wouldn’t send any kid onto any campus naive about how to discuss Israel today, whether with a professor or fellow students of every background. Become informed.</p>
<p>Rockvillemom, please post if you’d prefer if this discussion subtopic become a different thread than yours, or you’d like to keep it under this umbrella.</p>
<p>mdcissp - Elon and College of Charleston have EA - C of C deadline is early - October 15th. Elon is 11/10. Susquehanna and York College of PA are rolling. Eckerd is also rolling. James Madison is EA - think the deadline is 11/1. Delaware calls theirs priority - basically the same as EA - the deadline is either Nov. or 12/1.</p>
<p>Not planning to apply to Pitt - I hear good things about the school - but it is not what S2 wants in terms of climate or size.</p>
<p>mdmomfromli - it is in the school Profile - ask the GC for a copy - it is not online - I had to ask for it.</p>
<p>No, your child can apply to Smith for freshman admit. There are a lot of advantages to starting in Smith as a freshman, including participation in the freshman fellows program. If you don’t make it into the business school as a freshman admit, you can try again later…I believe after sophomore year. (When we went to admitted students’ day and they broke us out by admitted school within the University, there were a few parents that decided to come to the Smith orientation to ask how their child could make it in later since they had not made it in for freshman year.) Kids who apply to Smith and don’t make it in, but do make it into the University, are admitted to Arts and Letters.</p>
<p>You’re right…there are no guarantees that if your kid doesn’t start in Smith that they will make it in later…the requirements for getting in later are posted on the school’s website and interestingly, they are sort of vague about what it takes to get in as a freshman. (My personal theory is that my son’s math SAT in the high 700s may have helped, and perhaps his extracurricular, business-related experience, although I still have a hard time believing that a school as big as UMD was even looking at anything non-numerical. However, their application had a series of short answer questions in it unlike any other large school’s application that we saw, so maybe they did allocate a fair amount of time to the review! I do know that there are kids who made it into the scholars program at UMD and did not make it into Smith as freshmen, and vice versa…so the criteria are very confusing!)</p>
<p>Rockvillemom…if his weighted GPA is a 3.96 at a place like Wootten and he has some honors/accelerated classes, then Tulane will be not be a reach for him assuming his test scores are okay. We had kids with 3.0s get in with around 1800 scores. I think you can aim even higher…although I’m not sure you discussed his scores?</p>
<p>Elon was a little tricker at our school. We had a couple of kids deferred with 3.5s and also SATs around the 1800 mark.</p>
<p>Our high school also does not rank and only does weighted GPAs, but the profile has the mean weighted GPA…at our school it’s a 3.0. What is it at yours?</p>
<p>agreed that “pro Israel” is a complex topic. A few ways to identify support for Israel on a campus are to look at study abroad programs (the UC system only recently reinstated an Israel program), Jewish and Israeli organizations on campus and to pay attention to the number and types of speakers that come to a campus.
[Israel</a> Campus Beat : Other](<a href=“http://www.israelcampusbeat.org/icb/other/abouticb.htm]Israel”>http://www.israelcampusbeat.org/icb/other/abouticb.htm) is a website and newsletter that lists pro Israel activities on college campuses.</p>
<p>Here’s the link to CofC housing – everything from an old, converted motel (College Lodge) to modern residence halls with suites to historic houses.</p>
<p>D was interested in C of C but thought it had a “party” reputation and she is really not a partying kind of kid-- a pretty serious student. Are we wrong about the partying? (I know it’s everywhere, but more some places than others.)</p>
<p>RTR - I don’t have the average GPA info handy - but I think our hs skews very high. For example - to get into Tulane - pretty much a 4.22 wgpa and a 1365/1600 on the SAT or a 30 on the ACT. No one with a 3.50 was accepted. Everyone with a 4.20 or better was accepted.</p>
<p>Elon looks like a 3.91 wgpa average - with a 1250 SAT or a 28 ACT. Everyone with at least a 1250 SAT was admitted. All EDs were admitted. Right now we are thinking about ED at Elon. If his stats go up - I’d love to see him apply EA and apply to a range of schools and see where he gets in, where he gets merit money, etc., but if his stats stay fairly constant - might go the ED rote to have the higher chance at acceptance.</p>
<p>Gwen - I have heard that the partying issue at C of C is less than it used to be - the school is attracting more serious students than it did say 10 years ago - maybe stillnadine will weigh in on this one.</p>
<p>slight correction on Delaware - while they call their December 1 deadline “priority” - OOS students do not receive decisions until about march 20th. So, I really should not have listed it with the EA or rolling schools - where the goal is to get a decision in the fall or January at the latest.</p>
<p>stillnadine - thanks for the CofC housing link - we have not visited yet - so that was interesting.</p>
<p>Ready to Roll: Thanks so much for the info. about getting into Smith as a freshman. This is news as I thought you had to be a soph. to apply to Smith. The web site does not describe the criteria to be able to get into Smith as a freshman. Do you know how competitive is it to get into Smith Business Fellows as a freshman? Keep in mind, if you don’t get in as a freshman, try again as a soph. and still don’t get accepted, then what? I heard Smith is an impacted program with limited enrollment.</p>