<p>Is WashU religiously diverse? (Christians, Jews, Muslims, Eastern Religions, Athiests) Do these groups have representation proportionate to their regular demographics on campus?</p>
<p>I remember reading on WashU Hillel's website that 1/3 of campus students were Jewish.
What is the reasoning behind that? (Considering the fact that only 1-2% of the American population is Jewish)</p>
<p>I mean, would such extremely high proportions of one religion negate the existence of other minority religions?</p>
<p>Well, about 40% of American high school students go on to college. Among American Jews, that number is about 85%.</p>
<p>That accounts for some of the difference.
If you then throw out the schools that Jews would seldom, if ever attend (bible colleges, lots of schools down south, Air Force Academy, etc. that will cause the Jewish population at a school like WashU. to increase as well.</p>
<p>@Crozet1225 My D was accepted at WASHU for the class of 2014. She is an active Christian but very open to all different religion. I understand that there are many Christians organizations on campus and the campus is very tolerant about all kinds of religions. My D attends a high school where 40% to 50% are jewish. She has many very good jewish friends, and we are really close to many of the jewish families. We all get along really well. From our experience, the jewish kids are over achiever. They work very hard, they have a lot of discipline, and higher education is a high priority to them. In our experience, they tend to be accepted into the best schools in this country and WASHU is just one of the best schools in this country. If you do some research, you will see that at Columbia, Tufts, Princeton, Northwestern, Emory and a lot of the top schools has at least 30% of jewish kids. They are really amazing students and prioritize education. I am not going to lie but at my kids school the top students are jewish. That is my two cents.</p>
<p>Thanks for your thoughts!
What would you characterize the presence of other faiths to be like at WashU?
Are there Muslims, Hindus, different branchs of Christianity?
Are they active?</p>
<p>I do a lot of interfaith work for what it’s worth and would love to attend a campus where all faiths are extremely active.</p>
<p>SDonCC,
Did that already, thanks!
I am looking for someone’s thoughts though, who attends or visited campus, knows what the culture is like, etc.</p>
<p>There are definitely a lot of Hindis (although I’m not sure they are all “practicing” Hindis, just like not all Jewish people are observant…) and every year, they put on two big events–Diwali and Holi. Diwali is one of the biggest student run productions every year and sells out just about every year. Holi is during the spring, usually Celebrations Weekend, and it’s basically a big mudfest where everybody throws water balloons at each other and the Swamp of the South 40 literally turns into a swamp (or a mud pit).</p>
<p>I know that the the Muslim Students Association definitely host events throughout the year and I definitely know of people who fast for Ramadan, but I’m not really too involved or knowledgeable about it so I can’t really tell you any more.</p>