<p>chocchipcookie, sadly, the two schools are not near each other. The two schools are quite different except for one thing: The students and alumni of each school love the school. They are 2400 kids v. 14000 kids, mentors seek you out v. have to work hard to get noticed (but you can get noticed), few Jews v. active Hillel. Both are in college towns, but one is pretty isolated. She liked the town and the kids. We’ll have to call about the Jewish Students Association. I suspect that she will go to med school, grad school or some health related grad school – I won’t take bets. The small school would I think enhance her chances of med school but reduce her chances of a top science grad school (but I don’t think she’s a researcher at heart; she loves people and working with people too much). On the mentoring, people at the small school would likely seek her out. She even got an offer of that while she was there. At the large school, it can happen but you have to make it happen. She would try. But, it would be harder to stand out against a much bigger number of students. </p>
<p>We are in a Boston suburb. Fewer Jews than many but at her schools, she’s been friends with lots of Jewish kids. ShawWife and I aren’t especially observant – I grew up with that and rebelled to a certain extent – but we do say Shabbat blessings most Fridays, celebrate Pesach with our families (remarkably, I can still come up with 3 variations of melodies for many parts of the Hagadah and can lead a seder without a problem after lo these many years). Our kids equate being Jewish with family closeness, I think, more than going to synagogue. </p>
<p>We’ll see after the April visit (we’re going to Canada for Pesach and will visit from there). Then we’ll know where we stand.</p>
<p>momjr, I will get her a flight pass on Air Canada, that entitles her to flights to the Eastern US or Canada whenever she wants. More expensive that tickets bought months ahead but much less expensive than tickets bought near to when you are flying. You get 10 one way flights but they need to be used in 12 months. So, she can come home for holidays or visit relatives when she wishes.</p>
<p>^^^Oy, there is a huge difference in the number of students at each school!</p>
<p>It sounds like from what you are describing that I would tend to agree with some of the other posters here about pursuing the smaller college too. Nothing like one-on-one attention. How big is her h.s.? 2400 is small, but maybe just what she needs. So many of us on this forum tend to think smaller is better for that certain student who needs that extra attention, push, whatever it may be. I would consider that for my S2 in a few years too.</p>
<p>I guess, then, I would ask her if being so isolated in a small school with lots of individual attention is the way she wants to go. (for 4 years) If you say that there is a large Jewish presence in a community only 2 hours away, she could possibly go there if she wanted to, perhaps, instead of flying home for high holidays or Passover…or fly to where your canadian cousins are! That may be enough of the Jewish-ness for her…</p>
<p>Yikes… on the other hand 14,000 is A LOT of kids! Probably much larger first year lecture halls…will she be visiting larger one for the first time in April? Was this her first time visiting smaller one?</p>
<p>My only concern, Shawbridge, is how bored will she be at a tiny student population school that is so isolated? As a freshman she might do better in the smaller school, but with it being so isolated, will she tend to get antsy and want to go off campus to visit a nearby city? I guess those will be the questions you’ll grapple with after visiting college #2. Best of luck to you both as she decides!</p>
<p>ccc, thanks for your advice and concern about size. Her HS has something like 90 kids per grade, with an average class size of 12 on a 40 acre campus. [Life is tough]. But, by comparison, anything will feel big. ShawSon attends an LAC with 400 or so kids per grade. I guessed that it would be a perfect school for him but we had a concern it would be too small (he wanted to apply ED to Brown and I said, “hold off, this school and another one may be the best schools for you”). So far, he’s not run out of social or other things and is very happy. I’ll let you know how the next visit goes. [I thought school #1 might be the perfect school for ShawD, so we’ll see].</p>
<p>Shaw,
everything about the small school sounds right for your DD. Time for research. Is there a Jewish club? Where is nearest synagogue/shul/temple? Call and speak to Rabbi. Are there other religious groups on campus; if so, call their offices and see what interfaith activities exist.</p>
<p>Both are interesting articles!
Thanks Hugcheck and Vitrac! :)</p>
<p>Shaw:</p>
<p>With your D’s h.s. being so small, then 2400 kids at a college doesn’t seem so small for her afterall! Sounds like you guys have your answer. The Jewish component will work itself out…</p>
<p>Totally agree with that. We’re ten minutes from a city that has a very different demographic then our HS and I wouldn’t use them. But the HS I found here on CC (on paper at least) looks to be very similar to ours. I don’t take any of the Naviance stuff as gospel but when you have a big enough data points, it’s a great starting point. Worked for me. Son has all his decisions in from the colleges. No rejections, one WL and two schools that offered alternate locations.</p>
<p>I have a few questions regarding filling out applications. Our high school gave out a copy of the Common Ap, I started looking at it, which is what has raised some of my questions.</p>
<p>1) I have seen references to kids preparing a resume or personal statement. Are there any places you would suggest to look (books, websites, etc.) for a good way to do this or present this.</p>
<p>2) does this personal statement or resume get attached to the common ap, to flush out the EC area?</p>
<p>D will be doing her applications towards the end of the summer and I want to make sure I have it figured out before I turn it over to her.</p>
<p>Mdmom: our hs guidance office had sample resumes so you had a format to follow. If I remember correctly, DD added it to the common app where it said you provide more info. The place on the app where you list ECs was not sufficient and really didn’t low for you to provide all details. </p>
<p>Good idea to get the resume done now. I am actually keeping a running list on my computer for DS so it will be easy to do when the time comes .</p>
<p>Often we read, or say here, something like: “…the true number [of Jewish kids] is most likely higher as not everyone lists their religion on the application.”</p>
<p>And I’ve been wondering, is that really any comfort? If a student or family doesn’t identify themselves as Jewish, or perhaps doesn’t “identify” as Jewish, in what way will those students’ presence on campus enrich or benefit or make more comfortable, kids like ours who do?</p>
<p>Especially in this climate with so many anti- Israel sentiment, boycotts & demonstrations, and so many celebrities exposed as closet anti-semites, what good are closet Jews on campus? It’s not like with most Blacks or Asians or often even Hispanics whose presence is palpable. </p>
<p>I’m NOT railing against anyone who does not identify or identify themselves as Jewish. I’m not for “outting” anyone. I just wonder what comfort saying there “really” are more provides.</p>
<p>MDMom: Our guidance office provided a resume format that I didn’t like, so we used one that I found in one of the college guides. It’s important to keep it to one page (2 sides), and to list the most importance ECs first. The resume helps a lot when filling out the applications, so work on that first. I think my daughter also uploaded it to attach to the common ap. She also gave a copy to the GC and teachers that wrote her recomendations.</p>
<p>MHC: I’ve always wondered about those numbers also. I think that some of those kids might not indentify as Jewish, but some might just not answer on principle. I think that the number of kids involved in Hillel and Jewish activites is a better gauge of Jewish life on campus. When we were researching colleges, I checked the Hillel calendar to see how many acitivites were scheduled. When my daughter and I visited Penn for accepted students day, we stopped by Hillel and I saw that they were offering three different sedars.</p>
<p>mdmomfromli, the “personal statement” is the essay!
I thought that the best book on this was called, “On Writing the College Application Essay.” (You can find it by googling it.) It had some writing exercises that the student could start to do to get “warmed up” for the process. There are also books of successful college essays that you could read for examples.
What a great idea to start the resume and personal statement early! The summer between 11th and 12th grade, I followed some advice on cc and asked my daughter to think of a moment in her life that really had significance, to describe that moment very explicitly, and then to elaborate on why it was significant, why it changed her thinking, her opinion, or her view of something. I asked her to do four of these (on four separate days). This jump-started her on the process of writing her essay. The format ended up changing, but she picked the best idea of these four and went with it. This was way less painless than the process that my other kids went through (basically procrastinating and staring at a blank computer screen for hours, occasionally writing down an idea in a spiral notebook. S2, the one who always had to do his homework in the kitchen while I was cooking, even asked me to SIT THERE while he did this lol!)</p>
<p>Regarding religious preference on Common App and other apps - some kids just object on principle and skip it. Others come from a home with one Jewish parent and one Christian parent and are not sure what to put - so they skip it. I agree with momjr that the number of students who actively participate in Hillel is a better gauge of the Jewish community.</p>
<p>levirm - I had no idea the personal statement was the essay! How funny. I kept reading references to the personal statement and figured it was something different. I have the book you suggested. D is a great writer, so I have no worries about the essay. </p>
<p>OK, so now I only have to worry about the resume. </p>
<p>momjr - good idea to do that first. </p>
<p>Anyone have a particular format for the resume that they liked that they could point me to?</p>
<p>I made her make a list of accomplishments, EC’s, awards, etc. last summer. We will update that at the end of this year.</p>
<p>She has a very busy summer and will have two weeks towards the end of the summer to get a significant portion of her essays done. So I want all of the ducks in a row so that she can hit the ground running!</p>
<p>Our school has the students write up a resume on Naviance so the guidance counselor and the teachers who write up recommendations have access. They also have the students write up a brag sheet for the GC.</p>
<p>It was much easier to do a resume in Word. We looked at a couple of apps and followed their questions in regards to awards, school activities, community activities and followed that.</p>
<p>Depending on the application, there is a personal statement and an essay question. My S is looking at schools not using the common app, so we already know that he can use the personal statement for all of them, but then there may be separate essay questions to also submit.</p>