Hi, looking for additional colleges to explore for non-religious jewish boy applying next year from California.
3.8 GPA
32 ACT
Rowed crew for 3 years – very good – but not good enough to get recruited.
Wants 2000 - 6000 students.
Interested in business and economics.
Right now we like American and Tulane.
Interested in Emory and Lehigh but have not visited.
Where else should we visit? Other suggestions?
If he’s non religious, what does Jewish have to do with the question?
What is it about American and Tulane that you like?
Most important, what’s your budget?
He’s not a B student, but this is still the definitive thread for you:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/931514-colleges-for-the-jewish-b-student.html
Oops, missed the business and eco part, never mind.
@chardo. Because the Jewish people are both a cultural and ethnic group aside from the religion.
The selectivity for BC Carroll school and Morrisey are nearly identical. Both a a reach for the OP profile. But it’s still a good name to consider and certainly possible for the OP
Best of luck OP and enjoy the process.
This is a great list. Thank you!
@privatebanker I’m well aware of that, but I want to know specifically why the Jewish part matters to OP. What is he looking for?
Basically some schools feel too non-Jewish. Including religious schools and very conservative schools. One school we visited (wake forest) made a big deal about having a Jewish fraternity because Jewish kids did not feel comfortable in the other fraternities. This felt like a cautionary message. He does not care to participate religiously, but wants to feel comfortable.
@joannaas I get that. Though I will say you never know. My two Jewish sons from NY love their southern schools. Never felt uncomfortable, even embraced being a little different. One is in a fraternity, I think one of 2 Jews out of 70+ brothers. He passes out matzoh during passover, says come on you’re all Jewish this week. They love it.
Anyway, back to the other critical question, what’s your budget?
No budget. We won’t qualify for financial aid. Which schools are your sons enjoying? I feel like the south might be good because it’s warmer.
No budget meaning don’t know, or unlimited?
One at Georgia Tech, other graduated Alabama.
3.8 is weighted or unweighted?
Brandeis, as mentioned above, seems to hit every parameter you’ve mentioned.
http://www.brandeis.edu/programs/business/
https://www.brandeis.edu/economics/
Both D3 and Club Rowing, and there’s nothing like rowing on the Charles:
(I tried posting links but they didn’t pass the moderation filter)
And it seems to hit exactly the non-religious Jewish-friendly sweet spot. (Non-sectarian, and not a Jewish majority, but definitely a strong cultural presence.) Just under 6K students, and a match for his stats. (High match if 3.8 is weighted; match if it’s unweighted. If it’s the high-match scenario, then an ED application could still make it a likely admit, as it’s a yield-sensitive school whose ED admit rate is considerably higher than RD.)
Muhlenberg has a large Jewish community. The environment is very friendly and welcoming. He would get some merit there, too.
I’m Jewish and not religious. I had the exact same question. The only schools I would have avoided would have been a handful of evangelical Christian schools like Bob Jones U or Oral Roberts U.
Hillel publishes a guide every year ranking schools by their Jewish population. The have separate lists for public and private and rank both by percentage of overall student population that is Jewish as well as total number of Jews enrolled. Look on the Hillel website.
If you do go to visit Lehigh (in Bethlehem PA), then it would be easy to check out Muhlenberg as well; it’s only about 10 miles away (in neighboring Allentown PA). Muhlenberg is smaller and less selective than Lehigh, but it has an unusually high percentage of Jewish students. Hillel currently estimates Muhlenberg as 25% Jewish, which puts it at the #16 spot nationally in terms of percentage.
Muhlenberg sounds like it could maybe be a Jewish name, but it’s not; the school was founded by German Lutherans. Somehow Muhlenberg has become a “hot” option for Jewish students, despite its Lutheran affiliation.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/bs-mtblog-2011-03-lutheran_college_hot_among_jewish_students-story.html
Most strong colleges in the U.S. will have plenty of Jews (and Asians). And those may actually exceed the officially stated percentages. For example, an atheist of Jewish descent and cultural traditions will put “none” for “religion” on the religion spot on the application. There is a place on the application for religious affiliation and a place for racial identity, but no place where one is required to list an ethnic identity— so a nonreligious Jew’s Jewish heritage goes unrecorded.
I think this thread may be emphasizing the Jewish part more than the other parts, when it may not need to.
Many of the colleges other posters (evergreen, etc.) have listed above seem like great suggestions that match the size and interests you stated. I second many of them, and especially think you might want to check out Skidmore so that you can see a college with a good business major at the lower end at your size range, since the other schools you already visited are at the higher end of that range.
Thank you! Other schools like Skidmore? It looks good on paper.
Is ease of getting home to California a factor?
Admittedly I was hoping for only one flight. That is a real issue.