<p>A few more observations about Jewish community in particular and about isolation in general.</p>
<p>Re Jewish community: Hillel.org is a fine place to start looking for info on Jewish life on campus. It’s accurate on numbers of Jewish students. But on other info it is sometimes incomplete and sometimes hyperbolic. (For instance, info on the availability of Kosher food is often incorrect.) To find out more, click on the links Hillel.org provides to the individual colleges’ websites. And to dig deeper, start an e-mail dialogue with the president or recruiting chair of the Hillel chapter.</p>
<p>In any case, raw numbers of Jewish students definitely don’t tell the story. A campus with relatively low numbers of Jewish students may have a relatively robust Jewish community, and one with high numbers can be pretty anemic. It also depends on what the student is looking for. If, for instance, a kid wants regular Shabbat morning services, most LACs will be left off the list. </p>
<p>Re small, isolated schools in general: Please make sure your kid understands the dominant campus culture before deciding to attend. I’m the parent of a student who transferred out of one of the isolated LACs being discussed in this thread. Terrific academics, great advising, magnificent physical setting, but she did not understand the predominant campus culture before she made her decision. She quickly found she did not fit it, and she is not the sort of kid who feels comfortable being part of a subculture that is outside the mainstream. A very middle-of-the-road kid. The physical isolation compounded her unhappiness: no escape. She transferred to a mid-sized university, where she has been very happy (now a senior).</p>