deciding between 2 colleges

<p>I copied the following from the Beloit website--I'm sure if you use the link to Becca Wachter, she could put you in touch with several more religious Jewish Beloit students. You have to use the link to Spiritual Life and then click on Student Clubs.</p>

<p>Am Yisrael
Meetings: time and location to be announced
Student contact: Becca Wachter.
Mission: Am Yisrael aims to foster Jewish identity among Jewish students at Beloit College. The club is dedicated to providing a voice for Jewish and Israeli students on campus and to promote Jewish culture on campus by providing both social and religious experiences. We warmly encourage all interested students, regardless of their religious background or nationality to participate in our events and enjoy a cultural experience.</p>

<p>Last year, our club's activities have included celebrating Jewish holidays, having Sabbath dinners together, watching Israeli movies, spending a weekend in Madison (where we had the choice of attending either a reform/secular/orthodox service at Madison's Hillel on Friday). As we're planning the activities for the club's coming year, we are eager to hear students' input and ideas.</p>

<p>Stop by our booth at New Students Days Fair to learn more about us and meet some of our members!</p>

<p>Pyewacket, </p>

<p>This looks better than what's on the Hillel website by itself. Sound as if the poster really needs to speak with the Beloit Hillel advisor and Becca Wachter to get more details.</p>

<p>We've found that there's often significant disconnect between the information about individual colleges’ Hillels on the Hillel.org website and the information that appears on individual colleges' Hillel websites themselves. Individual websites almost always provide deeper info, and sometimes it contradicts the info on the Hillel.org website. </p>

<p>But the Hillel.org website always has good links to individual schools' Hillels. (Sometimes it’s tough to find the Hillel info by going directly to a college’s website – with the Hillel.org website, you get to the right place right away.) It's important not to stop with the info you get on Hillel.org. Be sure to check with the individual Hillels by digging into websites, e-mailing Hillel directors or student leaders or, as cami suggests, making phone calls. Good luck, mjb.</p>

<p>Hi Mjb -- Wanted to support the other parents' advice for you to please contact the Hillel advisors at both schools. If you can possibly afford it, it would be great if you could spend a couple of days, including Shabbat, at both schools. If the Hillel advisor (or admissions office) could set you up with an observant student host, you would have a much better feel for what you could expect at both schools, and a better basis of comparison. Also, you could visit classes and get a stonger sense of what it would be like for you to live in these two places. Congrats on two wonderful acceptances!</p>

<p>Thank you for all of your suggestions, they mean so much to me. I have contacted the Hillel advisor at Beloit who put me in touch with a few active students. I have yet to hear from them, but it has only been a day, so I will give them some time, hehe. I think you are all right about visiting goucher again to see if my first impression was right, I hope that I can arange that. This whole process has been very scary for me mostly because I don't know what i want out of my school and what level of Jewishness i will be comfortable with. anyways, now im rambling. thank you for your great advice, i hope that i can make the right decision.</p>

<p>I'm sure that you will make the right decision! :)</p>

<p>With such good schools you can't really make a wrong decision :)</p>

<p><a href="http://my.brandeis.edu/news/item?news_item_id=104510%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://my.brandeis.edu/news/item?news_item_id=104510&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>You might be interested in this link to an article that discusses different level of Jewish identity and participation on college campuses.</p>