<p>RPI shares a Hillel with Russell Sage? What is Russell Sage, I wonder? But here’s the link.
[RPI-Sage</a> Hillel - Home](<a href=“http://hillel.rpi.edu/]RPI-Sage”>http://hillel.rpi.edu/)</p>
<p>Ok - Russell Sage is a very small women’s college. Now we know.</p>
<p>Chocchip–Drexel is in the middle of West Philly, near Penn. I am told they are not stellar with aid.</p>
<p>Oy. Swastikas on the doors of dorm rooms? Yeah, I realize that was three years ago, but that is frightening. (Still pretty recent). I wonder, because WPI is in Worcester, as is Clark Univ., if their Hillel’s ever do stuff together. Thanks for the info, rockvillemom, I will definitely make several calls as the time gets closer. Same with RPI. They show 10% Jewish (combined with Russell Sage), which isn’t bad…more than I thought it would be…since RPI has so many boys, maybe that’s why they’ve combined their Hillel with an all-girl’s college…</p>
<p>yabeyabe2: thanks re: Drexel…when the time gets closer I’ll do a more thorough search.</p>
<p>Here’s something from the WPI Hillel link: </p>
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<p>This suggests some kind of link between them, which would probably be good because Clark is likely to have more females than males and WPI the reverse [although as one female engineer told me about the great female to male ratio when she went to engineering school, “the odds are good but the goods are odd”]. It also suggests that WPI Hillel was dormant and is restarting so it is unclear how active it is. You might want to email the advisor whose email is on their site.</p>
<p>My mom attended Russell Sage as a Jewish woman in the mid nineteen forties. It was an all women’s institution – maybe still is. She majored in chem.</p>
<p>Perfect, Shawbridge, and everyone else for the info. That’s great. A good place to begin my search. I have plenty of time. Still working on getting S1 out the door first. By the time S2 is ready for college, maybe the Hillel at WPI will have grown a bit…I’ll definitely contact them down the road.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your help…I was amazed that there really was a “need” for this type of thread and it had not been adressed before…glad rockvillemom (and me!) got plenty of suggestions for our respective situations. It’s nice having a network of knowledgeable people willing to help us out! Can you believe over 20,000 hits? Unbelieveable.</p>
<p>Have you guys considered Rice University or The University of Texas: Austin?</p>
<p>ShawSon doesn’t know where the Hillel on campus is. I’m not surprised. He’s like me (scarily in some ways). Too intellectual/skeptical to embrace religion at his age. So, we didn’t even ask about Hillel. </p>
<p>ShawD is more likely. She’s picked up more of the family heritage and will join and embrace things. Her favorite college age cousins are active in UMDCP Hillel – both parents are professional Jews. Whether she joins/embraces Hillel will probably depend upon how it feels and if the kids feel right. She’s quite interested in biology and I found a summer science program for her at Smith. She said, “Dad, repeat after me: summer science camp for girls. They are probably all fat and pimply” and not a 5’8" size 2 TJMaxx fashionista dancer like her. I said you’re just stereotyping so we looked on the program’s website and unfortunately, well, I didn’t have any ammunition other than “you shouldn’t discriminate against people who are fat and pimply,” which doesn’t work for at least my teenage girl who is generally nice to everyone. [She did get an internship in a university molecular biology lab, which was terrific.] But, to go to Hillel, she would need to feel that she will fit in. We’ll try to find the Hillel on some campus visits and on admitted student days.</p>
<p>Ah, Shawbridge, now you’re just bragging, LOL, not that I blame you. My daughter was/is a size 0/2 fashionista (won’t do TJMaxx) but at only 5’2" it’s not so impressive.</p>
<p>DD was never in a really Jewish environment until college. She also took several religion classes. We are seriously non-observant, but she was pleasantly surprised to discover that she liked Judaism more than the other religions.</p>
<p>Her real introduction to Jewish life came from all the semi-Orthodox boys who pursued her because of her pre-Raphaelite hair. They could tell she was one of the tribe. After being called a “Jew-tease” (I kid you not) because they were so disappointed to discover that she is non-observant, she started wearing mini-skirts to openly communicate her position.</p>
<p>Now she has a boyfriend with one Jewish grandparent, three southern Waspy grandparents, and a very Jewish name. Hers isn’t.</p>
<p>All that said, she could not escape from Barnard/Columbia without an immersion in Jewish life even if she wasn’t looking for it.</p>
<p>What is the point of this post? At urban northeast schools the sheer volume of Jewish life will be very palpable even if the student never attends any Jewish themed evens.</p>
<p>I must say my S, who attends a school very similar to Shawson, hasn’t had much to do with Jewish life, but he has attended Shabbat dinner on many occasions. He says his non-Jewish friends go too. The Jewish studies/Hillel building is gorgeous and right across from the Admissions Office. In fact, they did info sessions there. S said that having to get tallit fringe on his face to find a seat at the info session assured him that at the very least the school wasn’t anti-Semitic.</p>
<p>Long Island schools have been mentioned. I would recommend Hofstra, but not Adelphi and not CW Post. The academics at the latter schools are not worth the sticker price.</p>
<p>Stony Brook has strong academics and very strong Jewish life. I think some of the boys discussed here could be admitted OOS. The sticker price is very friendly, too.</p>
<p>The same Hillel director has been there for 30 years, and he and his wife are very dedicated. He turned my Marxist best friend into a Reconstructionist Rabbi, and there is an active shul within walking distance. Reform.</p>
<p>dylandlima: I would think that a B+ student that could get into Rice would need perfect SAT’s or a really strong hook. As for UT Austin, I would expect that in some schools a B+ would be top 8% of the class I would expect that since so much of the school is filled with Texans it would be much more difficult for OOS B+ students to get in. Really that’s a guess I’ve not heard any history on it. However with the manditory admissions percentage going down there is more room to accept OOS students at UT than in years past. </p>
<p>For those of you with kids considering a business major. I have heard that specifically for business it is good to go to school in a place near where you want to work since jobs are connected to networking. For this reason I’m giving a lot more consideration to the location of the schools S considers beyond if it would be a good place to go to school for 4 years. I’m just wondering if anyone elso has heard or thought about this.</p>
<p>Spectrum2, school year internships are certainly an area where nearby schools have an edge. It is good to check alumni networks, too.</p>
<p>Re Long Island schools, unfortunately, like NJ schools, they often have very few kids around on the weekend, because they head home. Stony Brook certainly has this issue and Hofstra just dropped football because even when its team was winning, very few kids came back to campus for games.</p>
<p>Did anyone here read that there is a budget problem in TX which may impact tuition at UT Dallas? I thought TX mainly escaped the recession because it never had a real estate bubble.</p>
<p>I don’t know that much about WPI, except that the location is really bad. I know that there are lots of schools where the location is less than ideal, but I think that WPI maybe tops the list. RPI, however, I’ve heard really great things about. Drexel, too, is fantastic but very expensive. Anybody interested in West Chester U in PA? It was the site of one of the 2008 Presidential debates and looks like a nice campus, not too far from Philly.</p>
<p>Just looked at West Chester University’s website - another school I had barely heard of - might be a viable safety school for a B student. Could not find much on Jewish life - trying ti find a Hillel website and came up with one for the greater Philadelphia area. Anyone know more?</p>
<p>When we lived in the west Phila suburbs, West Chester was largely a commuter school.</p>
<p>I recall it having a nice campus; a largely commuter population; and a good reputation for preparing teachers.</p>
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<p>My friend’s daughter (Jewish) goes there, just finished freshman year and loved it. She was co-valedictorian of her class, so I really don’t know accessibility for B students. They do recruit girls, though - even my D, with her SAT/ACT scores, got a ton of emails from RPI encouraging her to apply (if that means anything - not sure it does). I know my friend’s D got a lot of merit aid.</p>
<p>Early reports from my friend were that they did have Yom Kippur services on campus (although D’s daughter didn’t go).</p>
<p>Also - RPI is easily accessible by train (Amtrak, I believe).</p>
<p>West Chester is about half a commuter school. It has dorms, and a great, charming town, but draws mainly locally, so lots of the kids have their lives centered elsewhere. It is very popular among kids from the affluent Philly suburbs and the city kids who are most like them. For that reason, it’s not a total safety school, because it gets tons of applications – it only accepts about half of its applicants. But it’s definitely a place where B students thrive.</p>
<p>As for Jewish life there . . . I have no idea, but I would be shocked if it weren’t vibrant. There are plenty of Jewish kids in the demographic group it serves, and Jewish families in the surrounding community. The only issue would be that everyone probably celebrates major holidays with their families rather than their classmates.</p>
<p>re: west Chester University; I found another link to FAQs that says about 400 Jewish students involved with Hillel (out of 9,500)…we have a close friend whose daughter graduated from there last year; special education major…she was a “B-C” student in a competitive NJ public school; low SAT’s…but a very diligent “worker bee”…</p>
<p>absolutely loved West Chester…she was very involved with Jewish life there…</p>
<p>here’s the blurb I found:</p>
<p>West Chester University
West Chester Hillel is an active student organization planning events for the 400 Jewish students on the 9,500-student campus. Students participate in a variety of monthly programs including bagel brunches, holiday celebrations, and Israel programming. Students also enjoy citywide events sponsored by Hillel in Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Thanks Rodney - looks like a possible academic and financial safety.</p>