<p>hyeon, I think there are two separate but related issues here. One, after a Muslim student matriculates what facilities are available on campus to make him/her comfortable.
And two, does being Muslim help in admissions? </p>
<p>This is somewhat counterintuitive but in fact the colleges that have the smallest critical mass of Islamic students can be exactly the ones that offer an admissions advantage to Muslims. </p>
<p>This is very similar to the dilemma facing high achieving African-American and Hispanic-American URMs – and to an extent Asians – do they go with colleges that have a good number of “people like them” and take their chances with the competition or do they pursue colleges at which they will be extreme minorities but that they will be in demand as a demographic builder?</p>
<p>Small colleges especially those that are located in rural environments or are in the South or Midwest don’t attract a lot of Muslims. Going against the cultural grain can actually be an admissions plus at a college like Williams, Grinnell, Hamilton, Davidson. I think a lot of Muslim students – whether their family origins are Arabic, Pakistani or Indonesian – aren’t aware of this advantage.</p>