<p>I remember not too long ago several threads asking about Jewish life on various campuses (and of course I can't find them now). This month's edition of Reform Judaism has the following list in an article titled "The Top 60 Schools Jews Choose":</p>
<p>Private Schools
1. NYU
2. Boston University
3. University of Pennsylvania
4. Cornell University
5. Yeshiva
6. GWU
7. Syracuse
8. Emory
9. Northwestern
10. Tulane
11. Harvard
12. Columbia
13. Brandeis
14. Washington U. St. Louis
15. Tufts
16. Brown
17. Hofstra
18. Long Island University, Brooklyn
19. U Hartford
20. U Miami (FL)
21. Yale
22. American
23. Barnard
24. Northeastern
25. Oberlin
26. U Denver
27. Vanderbilt
28. Wesleyan
29. U Rochester
30. Drexel</p>
<p>Public Schools
1. U Florida
2. U Maryland, College Park
3. Rutgers
4. U Centeral Florida
5. York U (Toronto)
6. Penn State
7. U Michigan, Ann Arbor
8. U Wisconsin, Madison
9. U Texas, Austin
10. Florida International U
11. U Albany
12. Indiana U
13. McGill U (Montreal)
14. U Arizona (Tucson)
15. Queens College (NY)
16. Binghamton U
18. California State U, Northridge
19. CUNY, Brooklyn College
20. Florida State U
21. Ohio State U
22. U Western Ontario
23. U Illinois, Urbana, Champaign
24. UC Santa Cruz
25. Michigan State, East Lansing
26. San Diego State
27. UCLA
28. UC Davis
29. Arizona State (Tempe)
30a. U Mass Amherst
30b. U Pittsburgh
30c. U Washington</p>
<p>The article apparently lists by absolute number of Jewish students, which I guess is why the lists are large university heavy. </p>
<p>The point is that some Jewish students want to find campuses which have some degree of Jewish life, or in which they can feel comfortable. The same reason that some Hispanics or African Americans or Asians or other minorities want to find campuses with some degree of diversity.</p>
<p>what may be more interesting is which schools are NOT on the list, for example, schools with "WASPy" reputations such as Dartmouth and Princeton (Ivies), Stanford, Duke and Hopkins (privates) and UVA (public) - all no where to be found on the above lists.</p>
<p>I'm surprised Duke or Haverford didn't make the list. I don't know the exact percentage, but I'm fairly confident ~15% of Duke's student body is Jewish. Haverford also has a goodly number (nearly 1/3 of the student body).</p>
<p>I found it SO funny that UMD was #2 on the public schools list...especially since it is a running joke at my highschool that if you go to UMD you are probably Jewish, from New Jersey, or both...and I never really understood it until now.</p>
<p>Just wanted to say thanks for making my day ;).</p>
<p>"The point is that some Jewish students want to find campuses which have some degree of Jewish life, or in which they can feel comfortable. The same reason that some Hispanics or African Americans or Asians or other minorities want to find campuses with some degree of diversity."</p>
<p>So you are saying Jews are incapable of feeling comfortable around non-jews? That's ridiculous. I don't understand wanting to have people of your same religion and race all the time at your college. That's not being diverse at all, is it?</p>
<p>Well, here's how I look at it. I'm white. Would I want to go to a historically black college? No way. Why? Well, that's more difficult to articulate, but I think we can all admit to feeling something similar about being a situation where we are "the odd one out". So there is the answer to your comment about it being important to some people to be a part of a school where there are a lot of people like them - which usually still means mostly white and/or Christian/Protestant anyway! So /there's/ diversity for you ;). </p>
<p>About those darned Jews:</p>
<p>Jewish people who are very serious about practicing their religion may enjoy having someone to talk to about that kind of thing. Most Jewish people I know would feel pretty comfortable in a group of Christians, because religion isn't exactly the topic of most conversations, anyway. But the fact is sometimes it is nice to have the company of someone you share that deep bond of being united in faith with.</p>
<p>The list seems a little off, due to the absolute number thing. For example, Brandeis is only 13. . . How much more Jewish can you get? I knew a girl who transferred out of there because, due to her shiksa-ness, she couldn't get any dates.</p>
<p>Well here's the thing MSF,I wouldn't mind going to a historically black college, and I'm white(technically) AND of jewish ancestry(My family is from Spain). I am an atheist though. I think white people just have a fear of blacks and hispanics in large groups, aka why they "stay together to avoid being the odd-man out". I understand it I guess, I just don't really agree with it.</p>
<p>I am Hispanic and I would not go to an all Hispanic school beacuse in life one always needs diversity. I can not be with so many people of the same race because then that would get boring.</p>
<p>ElRey - Well, you should definitely apply to one then...you would get so much merit aid, it would be ridiculous :).</p>
<p>I don't have a fear of large groups of black/hispanic people. For starters, family Christmas parties are overwhelmingly hispanic due to my hispanic aunts...it seems like everyone in the family can speak Spanish fluently but me, haha. Second, I don't feel threatened or even that out of place in their neighborhood, which is predominantly black and hispanic.</p>
<p>Interesting about U Maryland. My friend's daughter just graduated from there--- Jewish and from California. It must have a transcontinental pull.</p>
<p>Those numbers are just pulled out of somebody's you know what.</p>
<p>In cases where the college provides data, the numbers don't match. For example, Emory reports 25% Jewish, not the 33% pulled out of thin air.</p>
<p>Or, look at Harvard. Only about 54% of Harvard's enrollment is white. Are we really to believe that essentially one out of every two white Harvard students is Jewish? I don't think so.</p>
<p>The differing stats could be due to how the questions were asked in the various religious surveys. If it was "What religion do you practice?" the results would be different than if it was something like "from what religious heritage to you come?" (I know the wording wouldn't be exactly that, but you get the idea.) I think it's very possible that colleges or the magazine in question ("Reform Judaism") have both sets of stats, and use them for best advantage depending on the situation. This is nothing new...have you ever seen any of Mark Twain's writings about the number of Jewish people in the world?</p>
<p>And this certainly applies to other religions, too. I've seen several posts from people applying to Catholic colleges saying that they were raised Catholic but are now atheists, and they wonder what to write on the application form regarding their religion.</p>