<p>One of my friends got into Washington & Lee. His stats weren't that great and he told me a few months before that he knows a Jew who goes to W&L who can talk to one of the adcoms (who also happens to be Jewish).</p>
<p>He told me that being Jewish helps you get into colleges.</p>
<p>Is this true? Are Jews considered URMs?</p>
<p>Absolutely not.</p>
<p>NOOOOO. if anything a Jew might be an over- represented minority (if even that), but they’re definitely not URMs.</p>
<p>Jews are overrepresented. However, being Jewish will not cause you to get in or not. Religiously, it won’t matter, since colleges don’t discriminate based on religion. Racially, Jews are ethnic Whites, so still fall under Caucasian.</p>
<p>So no, not really. Unless there’s a really biased admissions officer.</p>
<p>I think being Jewish is a disadvantage when applying to top schools, especially if you are from the northeast.</p>
<p>As far as Washington and Lee… I believe it was this school that contacted my son, via mail, about a scholarship if he were to start a Hillel at the school. W&L wrote that it wanted to increase their Jewish population at the school. He had not applied there or even considered it. Did they get his name from College Board??? (Other than being BarMitzvahed and attending a Jewish sleep away camp, it’s not like he was heavily involved in Jewish life.) Needless to say, he was not at all interested (and W&L is a great school)!</p>
<p>Most colleges seek diversity - and this includes not just race or ethnicity but also religious diversity. So - a particular college might actually want Jewish students (or Muslim or Hindu, etc.) if increasing religious diversity is a goal. In this case - being Jewish or Muslim or Hindu might help in the admissions process. Just like being male helps at some colleges.</p>
<p>I think it does when jews are seriously lacking in student body. If you are a middle class, white and jewish, it probablly wont be a “big deal”. For example, im tryimg to get into fordham and i am also a Conservative Jew. I think adding Jewish diversity to fordham as it is (65%+) Roman Catholic, could help me. Good luck!</p>
<p>Jews account for 1.2% of the US population. Technically, for them to be underrepresented at a university, less than 1.2% of the students would have to be Jewish.</p>
<p>
Schools used to have “Jewish quotas” to limit the number, but they’re gone now. Just like they didn’t let Catholics or Blacks in.</p>
<p>it really depends… for example when me and my friends were applying straight out of highschool… all of us were applying to penn, cornell, harvard, and we were all just another jewish boy from nyc… they get tons of those… but if i applied to emory, or vandy, i would be a way more diverse and interesting applicant… theres an extremely large jewish population in the north east… very little in the midwest and the south…</p>
<p>^^^Correct. He may have been well-received at Washington & Lee since it is a southern, conservative LAC with fewer Jewish applicants.</p>
<p>Why do people act as if Jewish is a race. Its a religion/people and there is Ethiopian Jews (me), Sephardic, Cuban and many more races. I agree that they generally are overrepresented in college but it MAY be a tipping factor.</p>
<p>Pulling the Jewish race card? LOL. This is great entertainment.</p>
<p>It might help at a few schools who are actively trying to enroll more Jewish students. (If the Jewish community is too small, it might deter some prospective students.)</p>
<p>But no, I haven’t heard of wide-spread affirmative action for Jewish students.</p>
<p>I wish…</p>
<p>If there is any, it’s so negligible as to not matter. Unless you apply to Brandeis.</p>
<p>“Our peoples control a monstrously unequal share of the wealth in America. All 2% of us averaged the second highest gross income of all religious groups in the country. Yes, please recognize my hardships and act affirmatively in my favor :)”</p>
<p>The short answer is no. But some HJS (historically Jewish schools) such as Hebrew University and the American Jewish University will favor those of their own religion.</p>
<p>Not all “diversity factors” are race, so it’s not necessary to debate whether Jews are a race, a culture, a people, or what.</p>
<p>Schools can be interested in increasing diversity any way they want–more students whose parents are farmers, more students from Europe, more Republicans…They can also need more theatrical lighting designers, more glockenspiel players, more math majors, whatever it is they need to “build the class.” That’s their prerogative.</p>
<p>If there is a school that’s interested in increasing the number of Jews (and there are some), then it can help.</p>
<p>I met an Orthodox Jew at Princeton Preview who said he was actively courted by several top schools who are looking to increase their Orthodox Jewish population. But your run-of-the-mill Jew(ish) applicant? No.</p>
<p>It can be. In 2003, when my son was applying to college, USC was actively recruiting Jewish students. They even had an admission officer specifically tasked with that responsibility. Why? USC has had a less than sterling reputation with the large Jewish community in Southern California. Every decade there would be one problem that alienated the local Jewish community, which is one of the largest in the country. </p>
<p>See the following articles. </p>
<p>[Day</a> of the Jewish Trojan - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://articles.latimes.com/2002/dec/11/local/me-jews11]Day”>Day of the Jewish Trojan)
[W&L</a> trying to attract more Jewish students - Roanoke.com](<a href=“http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/261744]W&L”>http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/261744)</p>
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</p>
<p>[Jewish</a> Achievement](<a href=“http://www.jewishachievement.com/domains/edu.html]Jewish”>Jewish Achievement)</p>
<p>
And the big donation they just received; that must have been because of the Jewish population, too. Because correlation totally implies causation.</p>
<p>Honestly, that’s pretty annoying. 4.6% is more than four times the portion of the US population (1.2%). If they had 19.2% Asians, would they not have enough and need to go out and recruit more? If they had 50% Catholics (only 2x US fraction, as 4x would be 100%), would they be worried about not having enough Catholics? They had to recruit Jews (neither underrepresented nor generally disadvantaged) to double the students and make one third of the faculty Jewish? Where does that even come from?</p>
<p>“We only have 19.2% Asians, but we want 34.2%, so let’s make a third of our faculty Asian.”</p>
<p>“We only have 2.3% Muslims, but we want 4.1%, so let’s make a third of our faculty Muslim.”</p>
<p>I just don’t get it.</p>