Jewish College Life - Take 2

tokyorevelation9 · March 8, 2007, 4:30am

<a href=“http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/20068/Choosing_The_Right_College%3A_Tips_For_Jewish_Students_And_Parents<%2Fi>.html[/url]”>http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/20068/Choosing_The_Right_College%3A_Tips_For_Jewish_Students_And_Parents<%2Fi>.html</a>

What is your college (or prospective college’s) Jewish Community like?
What kind of facilities does your college have, or what do you want your prospective college’s Jewish life to be like?
Does your school have both Chabad-Lubavitch programs and Hillel?
Do the two groups “get along”?
What kinds of student groups are sponsored by Hillel, Chabad, etc…?
Do many students do Taglit/Birthright Israel?
Does your school have a separate department of Judaic or Jewish Studies?

This is just a thread to talk about Jewish College life, ** and that only **.

Just_Browsing · March 8, 2007, 10:12am

My school, Brandeis, is probably the only plurality Jewish secular school in the country.

dg5052 · March 11, 2007, 12:05pm

My d is interested in Conn College, Skidmore and Dickinson. We know they all have Hillel on campus, but because the numbers of Jewish students are small, can anyone give a little better insight into the quality of Jewish life on those campuses?

HeavenWood · March 11, 2007, 12:27pm

The numbers of Jewish students are small because the colleges are small, but proportion-wise there’s a lot of Jews.

huskem55 · March 12, 2007, 2:04pm

conn’s hillel is small, but very active.

VeryHappy · March 12, 2007, 2:06pm

My son is a senior at Conn. He himself is NOT active with Hillel. However, the school always has its Fall break over Yom Kippor, rather than Columbus Day like most other schools. I always thought that was very considerate.

paying3tuitions · March 13, 2007, 3:02am

Welcoming this thread. Great idea.

Does everybody know about this resource:

<a href=“http://www.hillel.org/HillelApps/JLOC/Search.aspx[/url]”>http://www.hillel.org/HillelApps/JLOC/Search.aspx</a>

I hope the link works! If not, just google up “Hillel college” and go to the button on left menu, “Guide to Jewish Life on Campus”

Type in the college you’re wondering about and read the stats.

Then, of course, look at each individual college for its Hillel website, and email their contact info for more.

hatzlacha; strength to ya!

paying3tuitions · March 13, 2007, 3:55am

Heavenwood, that’s an important distinction.

Studies show >20% enrolled Jewish population feels “vibrant” and yet LAC’s range from 10-30%, so know what you’re getting into. At universities, check out % for graduate students and undergrads, since they might interact during Hillel, services, political discussions, etc.

If the % sounds too small to make you happy, next step is to find out if the Hillel or other organiations are strong and dynamic. They’ll always say they are…but the point is, if you don’t like organizations but want to have some chance to meet Jewish students, then the % enrolled becomes more important to you :)

Plus other considerations: Academic offerings (check and count up courses in many departments, such as “Near East Studies” “Comparative Relgion” “Women’s Studies” “Semitic Languages” etc.

See if the professors are adjunct (only teach a course and then go home) or actually are with the college fulltime, as an Assistant Prof, Assoc. Prof, or Full Professor in the department.

Can you major or minor?

If there;s a rabbi, does s/he serve that school’s Hilllel or rotate with other schools? Do you see your denomination’s services (Reform, Conservative, ORthodox, Reconstructionist, unnamed), and if not, are you ready to try a different kind?

So many things to consider…

Can others think and add more things to look for?

Thanks for starting this thread, tokyorevelation9

candace · March 13, 2007, 10:11am

It is true you need to look at how many active members there are in Hillel type organizations. My daughter is looking at a school that has only 50 active members, but the school is very small. This is the first year of their Hillel affiliation, so it might collapse if active members graduate and newer members don’t keep it going. Could people talk about their experiences with smaller schools in the South? Skip the schools like Emory, Tulane and Vanderbilt. My daughter is interested in smaller schools in North Carolina and South Carolina maybe Virginia. How about: High Point, Elon, Queens of Charlotte, UNC Asheville, Winthrop, Furman, Wofford. I know some of these are bigger. Is a rural location more of a problem? Being near a city, means more access to synagogues.

momonthehill · March 13, 2007, 1:46pm

paying3tuitions: great points…especially about the academic offerings. D and I ruled out one small college in the midwest that she was initially interested in, based upon the fact that they didn’t offer any classes in Hebrew there, as well as the fact that their Hillel/Jewish student group website looked like it hadn’t been updated in a year or two. Which brings me to another suggestion…

If you’re interested in a school, check out their Hillel organization’s website, particularly the calendar of upcoming events. If there events listed are out of date (especially if the site hasn’t been updated in a year, or more), it could just be that the site’s webmaster is busy, but if it’s been a really long time, it might be sign that the current Jewish community at the school has dwindled and/or is not very active.

Definitely call the Hillel organization at the school that you’re interested in. Ask them a specific question, such as, on average, how many kids show up for services, or other events. Ask them if they can send you any literature. My D has been accepted at Penn State, Ohio State, among others. I contacted the Hillels at both OSU and PSU: Both were friendly and informative and sent me brochures of their upcoming events for the coming quarter/semester.

dg5052: At one time, my D was interested in Dickinson, so I did some (mainly online) research. Their Hillel looked like a small but active group and I think that I recall that they had their own free-standing center…? If I also recall, I think that Dickinson has a decent number of Jewish students for a college its size. Have you tried contacting them? And I, too, would be interested in hearing more about Skidmore’s Hillel group, (since I don’t think that you can access their Hillel’s website) for future reference, for my D2. Good luck to your D.

Tokyorevelation9, thank you so much for restarting this thread and getting the topic back on track.:)

dg5052 · March 13, 2007, 4:54pm

Momonthehill, we have just visited Skidmore and Dickinson–my d stayed overnight with a girl that the Hillel director at each school connected her with–it was a gamble, but it paid off. She liked both girls and their friends very much, and she LOVED both schools. At Dickinson, Hillel has its own building right next to the Admissions Office. I didn’t see a building at Skidmore, but Hillel had a huge banner hung in the student center.

dstark · March 13, 2007, 9:36pm

An edition of Reform Judaism had the following list in an article titled “The
Top 60 Schools Jews Choose”:

<pre><code> Private Schools

NYU
Boston University
University of Pennsylvania
Cornell University
Yeshiva
GWU
Syracuse
Emory
Northwestern
Tulane
Harvard
Columbia
Brandeis
Washington U. St. Louis
Tufts
Brown
Hofstra
Long Island University, Brooklyn
U Hartford
U Miami (FL)
Yale
American
Barnard
Northeastern
Oberlin
U Denver
Vanderbilt
Wesleyan
U Rochester
Drexel

Public Schools

U Florida
U Maryland, College Park
Rutgers
U Centeral Florida
York U (Toronto)
Penn State
U Michigan, Ann Arbor
U Wisconsin, Madison
U Texas, Austin
Florida International U
U Albany
Indiana U
McGill U (Montreal)
U Arizona (Tucson)
Queens College (NY)
Binghamton U
California State U, Northridge
CUNY, Brooklyn College
Florida State U
Ohio State U
U Western Ontario
U Illinois, Urbana, Champaign
UC Santa Cruz
Michigan State, East Lansing
San Diego State
UCLA
UC Davis
Arizona State (Tempe)
30a. U Mass Amherst
30b. U Pittsburgh
30c. U Washington

The article apparently lists by absolute number of Jewish students,
</code></pre>

which I guess is why the lists are large university heavy.

<pre><code> The magazine had several articles on college selection, admissions and
</code></pre>

financing. I don’t know if the link still works.
<a href=“http://www.reformjudaismmag.org%5B/url%5D”>www.reformjudaismmag.org</a>

I can vouch for Michigan. Thousands of Jewish people at the school.

lolabelle · March 13, 2007, 10:21pm

At Tufts, I think every third person is Jewish – if not more.

And my brother calls his school: Jewniversity of Pennsylvasia.

dg5052 · March 13, 2007, 10:21pm

That’s a great list of schools–as long as you are looking for a large school. The difficulty lies in determining what is an appropriate Jewish community for a kid who wants/needs to be at a small liberal arts college.

My d would love to stay in the Southeast, but unfortunately, there are no small LAC’s in our area that have any sort of acceptable Jewish population–and she won’t look at Tulane because she’s afraid of being evacuated for hurricanes.

If anyone has any brilliant suggestions in this regard, I would love to hear them!

Xanatos · March 13, 2007, 10:28pm

“Acceptable” Jewish population?

dstark · March 13, 2007, 10:36pm

Enter your own variables to get stats on smaller schools.

<a href=“http://www.hillel.org/HillelApps/JLOC/Search.aspx[/url]”>http://www.hillel.org/HillelApps/JLOC/Search.aspx</a>

For example, if you enter south and student population under 2500, you will get a list of schools. Click on a school for more information.

HeavenWood · March 13, 2007, 10:38pm

Acceptable Jewish population. IE a school where you won’t be made fun of and/or deal with ignorant people concerning Judaism.

2forcollege · March 13, 2007, 10:40pm

Thank you for this thread! Even though my D isn’t all that excited about joining a Hillel, I hope she will miss our Shabbat dinners enough to go now and then.

Any ideas on encouraging kids to at least check out the Hillel on their campus? I don’t want to push, but “encourage”.

dstark · March 13, 2007, 10:43pm

If you contact Hillel, your kid will be put on a mailing list, and maybe get a phone call.

Of course, you will then also be on the fund raising mailing list. ;)

momonthehill · March 13, 2007, 11:13pm

dstark: Funny that you should display that list, we (H, D and I) were just referring to it earlier this evening what with the RD decisions starting to come in.:)

2forcollege: I don’t know at what stage of the college search you’re at, but maybe you could contact the Hillel at the school(s) that your D is interested in and find out about upcoming events to check out, maybe even during a visit to the school. Also, maybe the Hillel could match your D up with a current Hillel student to correspond with or familiarize her with the school…?

Jewish College Life - Take 2

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