<p>looking for small private schools no more than 4-5 hours away. where do you recommend for "A" student? </p>
<p>Muhlenberg safe?
Dickinson - Jewish enough?
Colgate?
Bucknell?
Lafayette?
Lehigh?
Union?
F&M?
Syracuse - not that small but safe?</p>
<p>4-5 hrs from WHERE???</p>
<p>There are Jewish kids at all those schools. </p>
<p>Have you thought about Brandeis?</p>
<p>What kind of “Jewishness” are you looking for?</p>
<p>Hi Cooper11 - All of those schools have been discussed in some level of detail on the Jewish B thread. You may want to search that. The Jewish B thread has sort of evolved into an all things Jewish regarding college thread! My D is an A/A- student and that is my favorite thread because of the perspective of the parent posters. Unless you are focused on the Ivy’s then, I think that thread will be a great help to you. After all the safety/match schools for an A student are the reach schools for a B/B+ student, so there is much overlap.</p>
<p>Also, where are you located and what is your D or S interested in majoring in, if they know.</p>
<p>From what I understand Dickinson has built a new very nice Hillel.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Lehigh - yes - I’m visiting next week.
Bucknell - very small Jewish population
Syracuse - yes and “safe” for an A student</p>
<p>There are so many…Brandeis, Tufts, JHU, GW, Northwestern, Wash U (St.L.). Need to know more of your geography to be of any help.</p>
<p>I’m interested in this, too, for my S (current HS soph). However, I’d like to know of some options that are not $50k+/year.</p>
<p>also, “A” student is relative and it’s important to know where this puts you in relation to your class rank (or approximation thereof) and SAT / ACT scores. </p>
<p>What do you mean by “safe?” Safe to be Jewish there or safety school for your stats?</p>
<p>You also need to figure out whether you just want to know there will be some Jewish kids on campus, or whether you want a Jewish life, and to what extent.</p>
<p>I am not sure about the percentages of Jewish students at Dickinson, but for sure they have active Jewish programs. There’s a building for the Jewish organization and they have Jewish Studies programs.</p>
<p>Seriously? don’t 80% of the Jewish parents on CC have kids with “A” averages?</p>
<p>maybe this would help expedite this:</p>
<p><a href=“http://reformjudaismmag.org/_kd/Items/actions.cfm?action=Show&item_id=1278&destination=ShowItem[/url]”>http://reformjudaismmag.org/_kd/Items/actions.cfm?action=Show&item_id=1278&destination=ShowItem</a></p>
<p>whoops - meant 4-5 hours from nassau county, long, isle, ny. was concerned that Dickinson and Bucknell didn’t have many jews as a % of total population. I think # is growing at Bucknell. They now have hillel on campus. didn’t visit dickisnon. just applied early decision at Colgate. Got a nice feeling walking around campus. like a family similar to sleep-away camp. I saw the post about “b” ave. grade students which I why I posted this one about “A” students - see my Colgate early decision post on chance me. Not many replies. Has more details about me.</p>
<p>looking for fellow Jews on Campus not necessarily for Jewish activities or reigious purposes. </p>
<p>BTW - my competitive HS doesn’t rank. GPA is 93%</p>
<p>cooper11, some research suggestions for you: Look at the Reform Judaism magazine that rodney posted, look at the Hillel.org website, search the parents forum for threads with the word “Jewish” in the title. The Hillel.org website gives an estimate of the number of Jewish students on campus, which is what you’re looking for. Take a look at the websites of the schools you’re interested in to see if they look up to date or somewhat staid. Search on the word “Jewish” in the CC forums for these schools. Finally, if you’re affiliated with any Jewish organizations (a synagogue, a youth group, a Jewish student group at high school), ask people for their recommendations.</p>
<p>looking for parent and/or student perspective based on personal experience not doing more research. Our list of college is now done. dropped Tufts - too tough</p>
<p>My d just graduated from Colgate. Its Jewish enough- a fairly active Hillel, a bunch of Jewish kids. They have meals for Passover but what I liked is that at the cafeterias on campus, they made Caesar with or without croutons, had matzah and had special Passover dishes.
I would say my daughter picked it for the “camp” feel. She had ups and downs being there although in hidsight, she said she was glad she was there. She had an amazing relationship with her professors and had great classes. The downside is, make sure you realize how far “real life” is from Hamilton</p>
<p>My D2 is at Bucknell. It seems many of her fellow students are Jewish, </p>
<p>Ironically, I attended there many, many years ago and my boyfriend of 7 yrs. from Bucknell was Jewish. We did not make it in large part because I was not Jewish. His family would not accept me.</p>
<p>Skidmore, Bard, Vassar, Stony Brook, NYU, Columbia (if competitive), Fordham (you’d be surprised), Wesleyan, Hampshire, Amherst, Williams (10%, but good Hillel, beautiful bldg. and Jewish Studies Courses, but not major), BU, Brandeis. Plus many others mentioned above. Sarah Lawrence.</p>
<p>For women, I would definitely add Barnard to the list.</p>
<p>Brown has a very active Hillel. My son has recently starting attending informal Judaic Study discussion groups led by the Rabbi. The meal plan also offers a Kosher option.</p>
<p>Columbia
NYU
Georgetown
GWU
Yale
Penn
Goucher
Maryland College Park
Brandeis</p>
<p>I’m not sure Parents are on target suggesting such top-tier schools for a poster who said (in post #11) that Tufts was dropped from his list because it’s “too tough”.“A” student in high school, or not, I don’t think that’s the research approach of a student who will thrive at some of the tippy top schools suggested in the previous several posts. </p>
<p>To the OP: if you want to know about how many Jews are on the campus, because your Jewish interests are more in the social than observation/religious ones…that’s a fine motivation! There’s an old joke about how “Schapiro goes to shul to find God, but Markoff goes to shul to find Schapiro.” It’s great to be looking out for other Jewish people; I applaud that, but I’m trying to refocus your research style or initial question to net some valuable results for you, on your specific campus list. </p>
<p>I echo the above posters who encouraged OP to use a Search function here on CC, and to consult the Hillel statistics, and the URJ (Reform Judaism) magazine’s annual survey. </p>
<p>In this Parents Thread, try “Jewish” for searchword and read away. Also, use the name of each specific campus you listed in the Jewish “B” student thread.</p>
<p>Your opening post is asking for something so broad that nobody can really throw off an answer for you that is satisfying. I think you have to dig a bit more, that’s all. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Sorry - when the OP described her student as an “A Student” I thought of some schools where I have friends who were A-students matriculated. They had great times and got great educations.</p>
<p>So, anecdotally, my S, graduated from Colgate last year, had 4 roommates freshman year and two were Jewish. D2, a current Bucknell student, had 3 roommates her first year and one was Jewish. And there were at least 3-4 or more other kids on her hall that were Jewish.</p>
<p>I don’t think they were anomalies. </p>
<p>Is every student at these schools Jewish? No. Is every student a WASP? No.</p>
<p>I do not think a Jewish student would have any problem at either of these schools in terms of finding other Jewish students, practicing ones religion or facing any discrimination or isolation. If you have problems at either of these schools, it is for other reasons–just like at every other school.</p>
<p>Ends up my son was admitted to Colgate via early decision and is very excited!!! Best of luck to everyone and thanks for the comments.</p>