OP, are your parents putting pressure on you to get into an Ivy or Ivy equivalent? Friends? Your rabbi? Sibling or other relatives? I am sad for you that you are already so knowledgeable and nervous about college applications. A 14/15 year old should not be fixated on this process to the degree that your posts indicate you are. I’m the mom of a rising 9th and 12th grader and went to a HYP for undergrad myself, so I know about high expectations, but I also know about the importance of mental health and that one’s college in no way, shape or form is an indicator of a person’s worth.
OP, I think you are really grasping to show you are different. There are going to be hundreds of applicats of orthodox Jewish faith who practice as you do.
Two questions that you need to address before you get any further in this college searching business:
What types of colleges/universities will your parents consider are appropriate for you? For example, are the only options that would be OK either religious institutions or Ivy/Ivy-peers? You need to know if cheap-local-state-U would be OK too.
What can your family afford? Ask your parents to run the Net Price Calculator at the websites of each of the places on your current list as well as at several of the public colleges/universities in your home state. If the money doesn’t look like it will work out, then go spend some time in the Financial Aid Forum to learn more about this issue.
My parents, in pretty much every sense of the expression, don’t care what college I end up at. Private, public, religious, atheist (they said good things of Reed College), liberal, conservative, they just want me to be happy. I want to attend an elite university for myself. I live in an area where people attend the local private high, the local community college, and stay here forever, which I can’t stand. The goal is to go as far away while still maintaining a top tier education. The Ivies and Ivy equivalents are what I’m aiming for.
My family’s policy is “attend the school you want, and we’ll find a way to pay for it”. So that’s not a tremendous issue as far as we’re concerned. The only thing that can drill us is plane tickets and movers if I go far away.
As a rising soph, D1 wanted to “go as far away” as possible. Yet, she never applied outside the northeast and landed at her #1, a fine school, 3 hours from home. Kids change their minds as they learn, grow, and evolve. The only point that remained consistent was her target major.
CC has heard, over and over, that, “we’ll find a way to pay for it” The wise families take a hard, advance look at the reality of costs and their ability to actually pay the bills. Plenty of kids “trust now, moan later,” when they are hit with reality, at the last minute. So, be wise.
When you “want” a top school, you have to have that level of thinking these schools expect. That’s not assuming all these random sources are legit. Or assuming that what you “want,” is what these highly selective college care about. Rise to the challenge and start learning what it takes, for these individual colleges. Learn, so you can filter. Right now, you seem full of misconceptions that will undermine you, too willing to believe whatever someone says. That’s not the level of thinking.
How would you describe the confirmation class on a resume? Because if it’s appropriate to list as a college EC, it should be something that you would list on your resume if you were applying for a job. You need to be able to describe the confirmation process in a way that would make you more marketable to anyone reading your resume.
What else would you list as your EC’s? You should be taking your interests and beginning to plan how to expand them into leadership roles and community service in the coming years.
For example both D’s sang. So they were members of an accapella group and each of them became the group’s leader. Not only did they manage the group, schedule meetings, arrange music, but they also did community service with the group–they sang in nursing homes, raised money for cancer research through concerts they planned, etc.
That is how you need to expand upon your activities so that they show passion, leadership and commitment.
Well most kids this day in age stop practicing the religion after their bar/bat mitzvahs (before high school) if they even do that. Basically the idea of the confirmation is to show that you are sticking with the religion, showing deeper commitment, etc.
We also, in part, do community service as part of it, which I already have to list (along with other projects) for NHS and LHS.
@codemachine Listen to what you are saying. You are being very judgmental by saying that others do not make a commitment to Judaism if they do not follow the steps you have chosen. And more than that, you are saying that someone who is religious is somehow on a higher moral ground than someone who is not religious. Now those attitudes may be accepted in your orthodox community, but trust me, even a hint of that attitude will not be taken well when you are try applying to a secular school.
Do you expect that your adherence to religion is going to make you more marketable in the real world? Are people who are not religious less trustworthy, less hard-working, less committed to goals? I am not here to change your beliefs. But I will say that expressing those beliefs is not going to help you get admitted to college.
Perhaps I didn’t phrase it correctly. I was always told to pick EC’s you are passionate about and that you can show passion for. Mine include band, varsity golf, computer science, and religion. Basically it’s to show that I can show dedication and passion for religion as well as secular EC’s. Not to place myself on some sort of “moral and spiritual high ground”, because that fundamentally is not religious.
@CodeMaster Personally I would list any courses you took or any community service that you did as part of the confirmation process.
So you might write:
Temple Beth Torah, Dover, NJ–Bible and Torah Studies (2014 to 2015). Attended evening classes twice a week that analyzed the role of religion in modern life.
Dover Soup Kitchen, Dover, NJ–Volunteer (2014 to 2015). Helped prepare and distribute meals to the poor twice a week.