<p>My impression of the Jewish environment at just about all of the colleges mentioned on this thread is that, if you’re Jewish but not particularly observant, being an Jew is a total non-issue. These campuses are filled with intelligent, sophisticated students, and there is minimal (if any) prejudice.</p>
<p>If you’re a Jew and fairly observant or culturally attuned, the campus and Hillel is what you make of it. You can get involved as much as you want, become a leader in Hillel on campus if you want, participate in the services if you want. For someone in this category, it is probably a good idea to meet the Hillel leaders and the appropriate rabbi.</p>
<p>As someone on this thread pointed out, the Jewish population at Dartmouth is “only” 10% of its undergrads, while the Jewish population at UPenn is 30%. I don’t know why the difference, but those differences might make someone favor one school over the other.</p>
<p>But none of this deals with “Isolation” on rural college campuses, does it. Sorry, OP; we’ve hijacked your thread!!</p>
<p>And although the topic has been hijacked, the observations are probably just as valid for Baptists or Catholics in schools where there is no culture for them. Lack of an environment or critical mass of other Jewish students more easily leads to becoming less observant, treating it as something irrelevant or even to be left behind along with all the other “quaint” notions or prior “unsophisticated” political beliefs of high school or home. Without the traditions of home and along with social and work pressures of school, it becomes easier to attend class on Rosh Hashannah or Yom Kippur.</p>
<p>Whereas a presence shows that others, possibly ones you admire or respect, still treat it as important, relevant and vital. Perhaps, as with all the other things being learned, you might even form a more sophisticated, mature or spiritual approach to your religion</p>
<p>And of course, a larger population makes it at least more likely that you will find (occasionally at least) dating partners of your own faith.</p>
<p>Another observation about the Jewish population. Somehow half my friends at Harvard ended up being Jewish. So it often felt more Jewish to me than it really was. I think you could have similar experiences at other colleges.</p>
<p>A few more observations about Jewish community in particular and about isolation in general.</p>
<p>Re Jewish community: Hillel.org is a fine place to start looking for info on Jewish life on campus. It’s accurate on numbers of Jewish students. But on other info it is sometimes incomplete and sometimes hyperbolic. (For instance, info on the availability of Kosher food is often incorrect.) To find out more, click on the links Hillel.org provides to the individual colleges’ websites. And to dig deeper, start an e-mail dialogue with the president or recruiting chair of the Hillel chapter.</p>
<p>In any case, raw numbers of Jewish students definitely don’t tell the story. A campus with relatively low numbers of Jewish students may have a relatively robust Jewish community, and one with high numbers can be pretty anemic. It also depends on what the student is looking for. If, for instance, a kid wants regular Shabbat morning services, most LACs will be left off the list. </p>
<p>Re small, isolated schools in general: Please make sure your kid understands the dominant campus culture before deciding to attend. I’m the parent of a student who transferred out of one of the isolated LACs being discussed in this thread. Terrific academics, great advising, magnificent physical setting, but she did not understand the predominant campus culture before she made her decision. She quickly found she did not fit it, and she is not the sort of kid who feels comfortable being part of a subculture that is outside the mainstream. A very middle-of-the-road kid. The physical isolation compounded her unhappiness: no escape. She transferred to a mid-sized university, where she has been very happy (now a senior).</p>
<p>Sorry – There’s no way I can believe hillel.org is accurate on the number of Jewish students when it’s telling me that only about 7% of the graduate students at Dartmouth are Jewish. Maybe at Oral Roberts only 7% of the graduate students are Jewish, but I have a lot of trouble believing that’s true at Dartmouth.</p>
<p>There is no confirmation of those numbers on the Dartmouth Hillel website, but it sounds quite reasonable to me. About 10-15% is fairly typical for smaller, more isolated schools (the ones that have significant Jewish populations at all).</p>
<p>I’m no expert on grad school demographics, but why does 100 Jewish/1377 grad students surprise you, JHS?</p>
<p>Yes, something’s got to be wrong with Dartmouth’s stats on Jewish population. It goes against common sense and would much more likely be comparable to the other schools it’s so often compared with – Wms, Amherst, Brown, Harvard, etc.</p>
<p>And I can’[t let this piece of mis-info slide by:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s because many of them hold Friday night services instead, when they can include the attraction of the Friday night dinner. Torah is often read then. So that’s different from home, but a minor adjustment really.</p>
<p>Adding two more new ideas to the discussion stew: When schools such as Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Oberlin are pushing into 25-30% Jewish population, why does everyone keep “isolating” Brandeis as so Jewish, when their Jewish pop over the past decade has hovered around 50%. Is it so different? Well, perhaps in the wide diversity of kinds of Jewish services on the Brandeis campus. For example, at Amherst there was one kind of service at Hillel (middle-of-the-road, gender-equity Conservative) at least when my S was there. If he wanted a REform service, he could go to UMass at Amherst for more choices. Oberlin rotated so that one week was gender-equity Orthodox, another Conservative, another Reform. Whereas at Brandeis, I recall reading about 7 kinds of services available every week. Still regarding Brandeis I remind nonJewish kids who might be interested, “if 50% or so are Jewish, that must mean that the other 50% are something else, so you won’t feel all alone.” </p>
<p>For other indicators of “robustness” of Jewish life, I encourage kids to notice whether the Hillel has a resident rabbi serving on that campus, or if the rabbi is shared among several campuses; and if so, which one is the home campus for the rabbi. I admire the volunteer leadership, but there’s nothing like a rabbi working professionally all the time, without final exams, to keep events going and galvanize the student leadership.</p>
<p>Many students arrive on campus and begin to explore their faith heritage, so even if a student is only marginally connected to ANY religion, it’s worth noting if the college has the organization to nurture that curiosity in the future. Students who considered their church or temple youth groups “dorky” at home get to college and find it’s a whole 'nother animal, in a good way.</p>
<p>Last vegetable to toss into the stew: religious organizations now welcome people from many backgrounds. This is very different from 30 years ago. Half the attendees at the Amherst and Oberlin hillel shabbat dinners (only mention these b/c my kids went so I know those best) were nonJews, curious to explore or go with friends, and have good food. As well, there is more communication among the faith groups than ever before, with the clergy working together at times, too. Did you know, for example, that the Oberlin Hillel is now Hillel/Halaal and combines the Jewish and Muslim student organization under one roof. </p>
<p>“It’s a different world, Tevye.” I often imagine parents telling their kids to “go to hillel and meet Jewish kids…” and there they meet a curious Catholic.</p>
<p>Brown and Harvard are in a completely different league from schools like Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams. They are urban – not rural. Many (obviously not all) Jewish students prefer an urban (or suburban) college to a rural one. Many more applications, many more matriculations.</p>
<p>For an observant Conservative student or an Orthodox student, Friday night dinner and services are vital and wonderful, but they do not take the place of Saturday morning services. For such students, the lack of Saturday moning services is not a “minor adjustment.” For them, attending services on Saturday is a religious obligation and a vital part of their lives. No Saturday morning services on or within walking distance of campus can be a deal breaker.</p>
<p>And clearly, wjb, if Saturday morning services are important to someone, that will be one of their top criteria when evaluating schools. No question about it.</p>
<p>So right , VeryHappy. We know this from personal experience. My son is a senior with this criterion. (He’s obviously more observant than his mom, who is online on a Saturday afternoon. ) In many respects a LAC would have been a great choice for him, and he kicked the tires at several. Of those he looked at, only Amherst has regular Saturday morning services within walking distance, and they are at UMass Amherst (there is an active 5-College Consortium Hillel). The problem would be finding a few other like-minded Amherst students to walk there with him on a Saturday morning. Too lonely, otherwise.</p>
<p>So having a particular type of Jewish community at or near the top of your list of criteria makes things both harder and easier. Harder because many excellent schools are arbitrarily eliminated from consideration. Easier because the universe of possibilities is narrower. My son was able to formulate his college list fairly easily last spring, and it hasn’t changed.</p>
<p>wjb, he shouldn’t have trouble finding Amherst students to walk with him on Saturday mornings, but if he has to go alone, it’s a very pleasant walk through the center of town. I love the walk, and do it fairly often. There is also a very convenient and free bus service connecting the campuses.</p>
<p>"Yes, something’s got to be wrong with Dartmouth’s stats on Jewish population. "</p>
<p>Maybe the grad population. The grad #s everywhere are probably less accurate, as grad students may “hang” less around campus generally to have their preferences registered accurately. The other #s seem quite reasonable to me.</p>
<p>“It goes against common sense and would much more likely be comparable to the other schools it’s so often compared with – Wms, Amherst, Brown, Harvard, etc.”</p>
<p>It doesn’t go against MY common sense. The schools that are on the lower end by and large have been known for this, for years. Princeton used to be famous for it. Proximity to an urban center does not completely explain it; year after year Tufts will be up there, and Wellesley will be far closer to the 10%.
There are just two variables: applicant preferences and admissions policies: that seem to yield fairly consistent differences among the schools in this regard.</p>
<p>There’s a snooty country club about a mile from me here, it’s pretty well known, and I’ve been led to understand that I can’t join it. There’s another one nearby where I’d be among an overwhelming majority. Go figure.</p>
<p>There are whole towns here that are known for having these various characteristics as well. Within a few miles of each other.</p>
) In many respects a LAC would have been a great choice for him, and he kicked the tires at several. Of those he looked at, only Amherst has regular Saturday morning services within walking distance, and they are at UMass Amherst (there is an active 5-College Consortium Hillel). The problem would be finding a few other like-minded Amherst students to walk there with him on a Saturday morning. Too lonely, otherwise.</p>