@maya54 I finally did research on U of Iowa- you are right, on paper it looks exactly like what he’s looking for. I realize I’m all over the place with this search, but that is because the disparity in his GPA and ACT. My only question about Iowa is, it’s only 3 % Jewish. Is there a vibrant Jewish community? Also, I don’t agree that it’s an absolute safety. The engineering program is in the top 20 and and the average GPA is a 3.8. Besides that, it looks amazing. There are a lot of out of state students, nice campus, sounds like a nice town, sports, and the engineering department is a nice size. Also, they do direct admit to engineering which is nice. By the way, I think I have said this before, he doesn’t care if there are Jewish kids, at least he doesn’t think he cares…I’m the one that cares.
@oliver17 Once the numbers are below 10 to 15% Jewish, for the most part, a student will only get a sense of a Jewish community if they seek it out–go to services, Shabbat dinners, birthright, take Jewish study classes etc.
But if they don’t seek it out, they might be the only Jew in their friend group, dorm floor etc.
If that is what your child is used to–they will be fine.
On the other hand, my d’s were raised in a very Jewish community. Being Jewish was part of the fabric of our community. Probably 50% Jewish, the rest Christian, Muslim and Sikh.
So when we were looking at schools, having a more sizable Jewish population was important. D’s did not want to be the only Jewish kids in classes, their dorm floor, etc. Nor did they necessarily want to seek out targeted Jewish activities. They didn’t want to work on being Jewish.
As it turned out, probably most of their friends were not Jewish, but there were Jewish students all around, so it did not have to be a unique label.
As it turned out, both D’s did participate in some Jewish programs, but it was not because they felt the need in order to connect to other Jews.
Any schools that have decent Jewish life on the NACAC list?
http://www.nacacnet.org/research/research-data/College-Openings/Pages/College-Openings-Results.aspx
It’s been a very long time since I looked at this but I think Arizona State does or at least did.
Hofstra has a very active Hillel.
Thanks!
Any others jump at you? Most of these are in states where there’s not much Jewish life and/or seem “Bible Belt”, or are unknown to me…
Are you familiar with this website http://www.hillel.org If you go to colleges and search you can put the school name in and it will tell you the number of Jewish kids, and the percent if you click on the school. It also give a little more info. I scanned the list and the schools I recognized are Drexel, Rutger and U of Vermont and both u of Arizona and Arizona State. Chapman has 350 Jewish kids ( 6 %) I
Syracuse and the SUNY’s on the list.
look carefully at the list…Many schools are only open for transfers. Arizona has very large jewish population and has openings…
I know Oberlin isn’t a “B” school, but thought this article was relevant to the need for this thread.
Yes. Oberlin and many other U.S. colleges and universities. See: http://www.amchainitiative.org/
It’s horrifying.
Speaking of Oberlin . . .
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/30/the-new-activism-of-liberal-arts-colleges
anyone on this forum of kids going to the Claremont consortium college outside LA(pomona, pitzer, scripps, CMC, harvery mudd) . they’re getting a new hillel director and I am hoping to see if there is interest in a birthright trip. For years they haven’t had any birthright trips. i think pitzer might be considered a B school , others are more selective.
I had a kid who did their birthright back in 2010. He was contacted to attend and was even able to earn a stipend. No wait list at all but enough to put a trip together. I don’t know what has happened since then though. At that time the consortium was about 10 percent Jewish.
Pitzer has become a “reach for everyone” school with acceptance rates below 15%, unfortunately. 
Pitzer College again had an admission rate of 12.9% for the Class of 2020. It’s certainly not a “B School.”
@maya54 I scheduled a tour for U of Iowa next week. Thanks for the suggestion, my son is very interested in the program.
@oliver17 My daughter will be attending UT Austin in the fall in the Moody School of Communications. We do live in TX although are originally from Long Island( husband) and CT. My husband went to University of Hartford and I went to Syracuse University. This week we attended UT orientation for my daughter and we so impressed with the school. This is the first time my husband saw the school and he loved it. We were wary of size and jewish population but my daughters classes she registered for have 18 - 35 kids in each class. She does have one large English class. As for the Jewish population, there are a large percentage of Jews kids from not just Texas but a few from out of state. Because it is a state flagship university, there is not a large OOS population but quite honestly, most the towns that people mention that they are from in TX, I’ve never heard of. This week, my daughter took it upon herself to sign up for Hillel and she will be living right across from the Hillel building in the fall (Callaway House). I spoke to the person in charge of Birthright and they will be doing a trip during December break with 80 kids and again in June 2017. My daughter will definitely be attending one of these. Yes, we live in the Bible Belt but Austin is different from the rest of Texas. Much more liberal and there is a focus on cultural diversity.
As far as the Engineering program goes, it’s one of the toughest programs to get into along with the Business School
( No. 1 program in the country for accounting). To put it in perspective, you typically need to be in the top 7% of your class in TX to get into UT but that does not necessarily mean you get into your program. Lots of kids that meet the auto admit criteria can’t get into their major (maybe test scores were low, etc.) so they end up going to another college. As a fyi, my daughter was top 20% of her class and got in because of her work experience in the field that she is pursuing. Her acceptance was based off a holistic approach.
BTW, she so wanted to leave TX for college but ultimately decided to attend the best school in the country for her major with a large jewish population. I would encourage you to have your child apply. It’s a big school but doesn’t feel that way once you meet with each individual college. Good luck!
my D went to UT. Loved it. Our suburban high school with many jewish kids sends 5 jewish kids a year. Three jewish frats, and a jewish sorority. A second sorority is trying to make a comeback, and they are doing ok. Most of the jewish kids seem to live in one of the two private dorms. It is a great place to go…
Agreed, my son didn’t go to UT Austin but several of his Jewish friends from camp days did . There is lots of opportunity for Jewish life if if the student seeks it.