<p>hello guys! I am a sophomore girl at a jewish high school and have the same concerns as many of you on this thread- I am an A- student and am wondering what colleges there are that are semi-top tier and in the new york/new jersey area that have a strong hillel and relatively large jewish presence?</p>
<p>elnamo - checkout hillel.org the website has a listing of colleges by Jewish percentage. For anything over 15% will feel significant. Then go to the schools websites and search for thier Hillel’s websites.</p>
<p>Deskpotato:</p>
<p>Great You Tube video. I’ll share it with my boys too. </p>
<p>Elnamo:</p>
<p>Welcome to this thread! Have we got colleges for you 
</p>
<p>Can you please give us more information? A sophomore in h.s. is still young…do you know yet what type of school you may be looking for? In the middle of a city? In the middle of nowhere? Something in-between? Thousands of kids with screaming sports fans or a quiet, small campus? A Liberal Arts college or what? Do you have any idea yet what you may want to study? Are you from NY/NJ? How far do you want to go or how close do you want to stay? Maybe after you think about and answer some of these questions, we can narrow down some choices for you!</p>
<p>thank you so much! well I am actually from new england but I really like the NY/NJ jewish community and am kind of involved with jewish life there (I have many friends and connections in the NY/NJ area, I go there a lot, I do a jewish youth group that is based there, etc.); so for those reasons I’d prefer to be there, also I live only 2-3 hours away. I am, although not yet 100% sure, interested into going into Pre-Med, so I think university would be more of an option for me than liberal-arts colleges. also, i would prefer to be either in the city or in a suburb that isn’t too in-the-middle-of-nowhere. Also I’m looking for a school of the ivy league or somewhat top tier (maybe of the NYU, BU, Georgetown, MIT, Duke, Stanford, Vanderblit, etc. caliber)</p>
<p>Hi All,
Can anyone tell me about Jewish life at CW Post/ LIU in Brookville NY. I am considering auditioning there as a voice major. On the Hillel website it is listed as a Small but Mighty school without any other information.
Thanks</p>
<p>Birthright question for the group (my kids went to Israel on NFTY trip to I don’t have experience). My friend just emailed me that she wants to sign up her son for Birthright (he’s at Temple Univ), but she had a question: Does it matter which trip organizer you use or do you just look for the dates you want?</p>
<p>I know that several of you had kids who went on a Birthright trip (or are awaiting one). Any insights?</p>
<p>Elnamo:</p>
<p>I’m from NE too! :)</p>
<p>I’ll have to give this some thought, but this group is quite knowledgeable and I know they can help you narrow down some choices. Why would you rule out Liberal Arts Colleges if you may want to be a pre-med? Think about that option, you have plenty of time.</p>
<p>Would you consider UMaryland in Baltimore? Vassar? Haverford (Not too far from Philly, I think)…</p>
<p>What do you think, group?</p>
<p>Hi Cama: LINYmom…do you know anything about the Jewish Life at CW Post?</p>
<p>elnamo…obviously Brandeis is a good possibility for you. You might also like Muhlenberg if you are pre-med, it’s excellent…a different flavor than some of the schools you are considering but it might be worth it for you to see if a small school with a rich campus life appeals to you. Also, would Barnard work for you?</p>
<p>To be honest, I think every single one of the
schools is going to have a significant Jewish presence and active Jewish life.</p>
<p>The “problem” arises when you move away from that level of selectivity and region of the country–then you might be walking into an “only Jew in the class” situation that not every kid would be comfortable with. Which is the beauty of this thread/group–helping people sort out the choices among that next cohort of schools.</p>
<p>Do you have a tentative school list already? I’m sure the collective wisdom here could give you an assessment of Jewish life on those campuses.</p>
<p>Yeah, I thought of Barnard too :)</p>
<p>Also, have you considered Lehigh? I LOVE URochester, but it may be too far from where you want to be. Great school, though, nice Jewish population and great for pre-med. Kinda far from the city, though.</p>
<p>@LINYMOM</p>
<p>I am an occasional lurker on this thread. D1 is at this moment on a Birthright trip that is entirely kids from her college. A friend of mine has a D on a different trip which is made up of kids from several schools in the DC area. D1 did all the planning and arranging herself, so I do not know the logistic details. However, she felt strongly that it was good to go with others from her school, so she did not investigate other options or dates. I would suggest your friend check the Temple Hillel and find out what they organize from Temple.</p>
<p>@LINYMOM: The trips vary from one trip advisor to the next. Some are most athletic/adventure- oriented, others more religious, still others more pluralistic, etc. Each trip advisor gives a thorough description of what its group is like. The dates are largely the same. I know that there are some trips that are regional, too. There may be a group from LI.</p>
<p>@elnamo:as the others have mentioned, Barnard, Lehigh, Brandeis are all good options. Don’t rule out Tufts. </p>
<p>@cama: two of the three kids I know at LIU are Jewish and observant. I think it’s one of those places where Jewish life requires some initiative.</p>
<p>elnamo - University of Pennsylvania comes to mind - along with Muhlenburg and Brandeis. Washington University in St. Louis would also be great - although it is in a different are a of the country - would work well in terms of prestige level, Jewish population, in a city and pre-med. Same with Emory and Rice. As others have mentioned - once you are looking at top tier universities - you will not have any problem finding a Jewish population - that issue is really more prevalent with lesser known school sand smaller, more rural schools.</p>
<p>Sorry I didn’t reply about CW Post. I don’t really know anything about it - never on the radar of my kids. I have a Jewish friend who went there 25 years ago, but I don’t think there’s any useful information there.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for the Birthright info.</p>
<p>Cama-I am also a Long Islander and know nothing about Jewish life at CW Post. I think LINYMOM and I may have unwittingly answered your question!</p>
<p>I was just on the CW Post campus last night for an All County choir concert. It is 15 minutes from our house and surrounded by Jewish communites, but aside from some students who commute there as undergrads and graduates, I would say there is NOT a strong Jewish presence among students who live on campus. Overall, there is probably a large portion of the student body who commutes, but I don’t really know what the numbers are.</p>
<p>Most Long Island Jews leave Long Island for school. The Jewish undergrad population on campuses like CW Post, Adelphi and Hofstara is low and does not reflect the demographics of nearby Jewish communities.</p>
<p>LINYMOM -</p>
<p>My D was on a Birthright trip this break and she loved it. She went on a trip made up of kids from different colleges. There were kids who live on LI (as do we) and even a boy from Alaska! She had a number of tripmates from California as well. She loved not knowing anyone and made a ton of friends. Tomorrow, she’s meeting a boy from her trip in the city and going museum hopping. She is not active at all in Hillel at her school. Her trip seemed fairly secular in nature.</p>
<p>My friend’s D is on a trip now with a different sponsor and there were several other kids from her college, including one from our town. My D has two friends also on a (different) trip now, who attend different schools (one is actually at Temple) but planned to go together. The two groups apparently encountered each other the other day in a museum!</p>
<p>My friend said her D’s trip has a rabbi on it and they have talks about religion every day. They offered to name or Bar/Bat Mitzvah kids who hadn’t been at the Kotel and most of the group was doing it. My D’s trip did not have a rabbi on it and they talked about culture and spiritualism but nothing specifically religious. They apparently offered to do the naming, etc. thing but none of her tripmates did it. She had both a naming in temple and a Bat Mitzvah and didn’t feel the need to do it over again.</p>
<p>About the most interesting thing she told me was that she really enjoyed the peacefulness of being on the female side of the Kotel without the men there. She had railed against this practice before she left and I was really surprised by her change in view. I was more wary of her being arrested for trying to get on the men’s side.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone, for the Birthright info. I just emailed it all to my friend.</p>
<p>Would be wonderful if DD could go, but since she’s already been on a “peer trip” to Israel (with NFTY), i think she can’t apply.</p>
<p>LINY, you should check into whether that is true. I have heard talk from friends that kids do get to go even if they have done other trips. I have not researched this, but you should before drawing your conclusion. JMHO. My dd is still in hs, so we are not there yet.</p>
<p>phillyartmom: I actually looked at the Birthright website before I posted so it is their up-to-date eligibility. I had heard that you had to wait 6 years after another peer trip, but there was no mention of that on the website. I do hope it changes as DD would love to go again and I’d be happy for her to go again if I didn’t have to pay!</p>
<p>Just want to share that I went to a MLK Breakfast today (held by a Baptist church) to represent a client, but I got a lot out of it personally. Thought a lot about the African-American struggle for equality and the Jews’ different (but in some-ways-similar) struggle in this country. There were several educators honored at this event, and it was clear that, regardless of your culture or ethnicity, education, ambition and personal responsibility are the common factors to success. I was so inspired today.</p>