<p>hi
i'm a junior who will be applying to highly competitive LACs this fall... but i have a question about the religion factor... i am reform jewish... do i have a better or worse chance of getting in if they know this? does it change my chances at all?
thanks</p>
<p>They will more than likely be able to tell by your last name. It's the same thing with Asians who put down no answer for race, when their last name is Chang or Wu. Some things are pretty obvious.</p>
<p>yeah depends on your last name.
If you're only half Jewish and have a less--Jewish sounding last name, you might be able to get away with it. </p>
<p>I personally don't think it would change your chances unless you knew that the school was overwhelmingly jewish</p>
<p>I don't think it will matter very much. It doesn't change your chances, and should not change your chances of getting in anywhere. Most schools are not overwhelmed with Jewish students, in fact I would guess that at many LACs they are a distinct minority.</p>
<p>guess my friend names Jones, who is jewish doesn't fit the lovely stereotype here</p>
<p>not my Ds adopted friend who is hispanic but dad is Wong and is half black</p>
<p>gosh darn these new fangled families, mess up all kinds of pre conceived notions</p>
<p>are you all telling me you can tell a Jewish person soley based on last name</p>
<p>that I could give you a last name and you could for sure tell me it was a Jewish person...neat trick</p>
<p>City, I find it more amazing that you can get "tell me for sure" from "depends" and "more than likely". ;) They are correct- one can often tell from a last name. No college board will think it knows for sure, but whether you like it or not, last names can be strong indicators.</p>
<p>Wow, the discrimination that the forum suspects of adcoms is amazing. If being a Reform Jew is an important part of your life that is reflected in your activities, experiences, or general world view, by all means discuss it. If it has very little relevance to your life and would not fit in any part of your application, don't discuss it. Just to let you know, kids involved in my Jewish youth group/synagogue (who wrote about it in their applications) have gotten in to Amherst, Haverford, Pomona, Tufts, and Brown, to name a few.</p>
<p>Yeesh.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You are Jewish, not Reform Jewish. Reform is a denomonation within Judaism that describes synagogue affiliation. Similarly, people don't say, "I'm Methodist Christian."</p></li>
<li><p>Nobody is "half-Jewish" because that implies Judaism is a race rather than the religion that it is. I thought we finished off the idea that Judaism is a race when Hitler committed suicide in the bunker.</p>
<p>If you mean that one parent is Jewish, the other isn't, it's much more dignified to say, "I have one Jewish parent" or "I have one Christian parent" than to describe yourSELF as "half Jewish." IMHO.</p></li>
<li><p>Because it is possible (and now often the case) that people embrace Judaism from many backgrounds, we now have Jews with last names that include McNair, Chong and Robertson. Also, Jewish families adopt children of many races. Also, there are Ethiopian Jews, Indian Jews...with thousands of years of history behind them. DO NOT ASSUME.</p></li>
<li><p>Because many American Jews have backgrounds from Eastern Europe, they carry Germanic-sounding last names. Germany invited, then expelled Jews around 1200-1400. During their stay in Germany, Jews had to shift over to last names like Goldberg, Schwartz, Stein to please the German government, and drop their Hebraic last names (such as Ben David, which translates as "son of David" meaning a guy Moses Ben David might be called Moses Berger instead because he came from a city in Germany (so "berger" means a city person). Anyway, didn't you ever WONDER why Jews with Russian backgrounds had names that sounded German?
And guess what; the same names can be sported by nonJewish Germans just as readily.
DO NOT ASSUME. </p></li>
<li><p>Jews also assimilate or intermarry. So you have politicians like Maine's senator (Cohen) who lived an entire life as an Episcopalian because his parents raised him that way, yet held onto his Dad's last name.
Do NOT assume.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>AS FOR THE COLLEGE APP, the poster who said "discuss if it's meaningful to you; do not if it's irrelevant" had it exactly right. </p>
<p>You'll see when you do the app that there is no place to log in your religion. If it's a meangful, positive part of your life, it makes a great discussion point. It won't keep you in or out anywhere.</p>
<p>P.S. Jews are an over-represented minority in higher education. Although the percentage of Jews in America is around 4% (I think!) the stats on colleges run in the 20-30% area for places such as Amherst, Yale, Oberlin...
and I believe this will also become the profile for Asian and East Asian students in about a decade or so. More hard workers who value education.</p>
<p>I've always suspected it could hurt you a little. I'm also Jewish.</p>
<p>And yes, you can tell someone's Jewish heritage from their last name many times. Shapiro, Levinson, Cohen, and innumerable others show that somebody is at least of ethnically Ashkenazi Jewish descent.</p>
<p>So, by hearing the name Cohen, you assume they are Jewish? Does no one here take into account MARRIAGES, and blended families?</p>
<p>I would never assume anything about anyone by their last name</p>
<p>and if you think Adcoms would and be "bad" about it, that is sad in this day and age</p>
<p>"Wow, the discrimination that the forum suspects of adcoms is amazing."</p>
<p>Ever hear of AA?</p>
<p>hepstar, nice try</p>
<p>Hmm, I don't think I would WANT to go to the college that looks at last names and bases decisions on that.
California ftl.</p>
<p>"are you all telling me you can tell a Jewish person soley based on last name"</p>
<p>Uh...yes. Sure it is not always true. I am one of the rarities that you speak of. I'm German and Irish, yet my last name is British. In most cases though, you can surmise someone's ethnicity by their last name. Think about it. When you see a name like Fitzpatrick, what race comes to mind? Obviously Irish, although I'm sure there are a few exceptions out there. So if an adcom sees a last name like "Goldberg," what ethnicity comes to mind? </p>
<p>Your attitude that AA somehow doesn't discrminate agianst people isquite frankly, wrong. If it doesn't discrimiate, why then is the OP worried that him/her being Jewish could be held against him/her?</p>
<p>One reason the Jewish community supports the lawsuits to continue AA, although it works against their own interests as a group in admissions, is because we remember when we were kept OUT of all the elite institutions of higher education in this country. We know how that felt. And so, the progressive Jewish community understands that being kept out of opportunities is an injustice that we don't want to see replicated against blacks. Since mostly our skins are white, we also recognize that we had an easier way in than a black student, so AA is necessary to REDRESS THE INEQUALITY.
The young posters here are afraid either of continued anti-Semitism in this country (they do read newspapers) OR that they'll somehow be facing a quota of "too many Jews" so it'll hurt their chances.</p>
<p>p.s. and there are no longer quotas of "too many Jews" (since Harvard fixed itself, and the trend spread everywhere). So don't worry, Jewish students.
Apply. If it's an important part of your experience, write about it; if not, don't.</p>
<p>YES, I do assume somebody is Jewish because they're Cohen. And yes, I'm Jewish (my name is one of the sample last names listed, but I won't say which.) What this results from is a common misconception about Jewish ethnicity v. Jewish religion. Somebody can have Jewish cultural heritage and be descended from ethnically Jewish antecedents without being practicing Jewish. That we were isolated and married each other for so long created common cultures among Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi, Temani, and Ethiopian Jews.</p>
<p>Of course somebody named Cohen might not be of a Jewish background. Of course somebody named O'Leary might not be of an Irish background. But, most likely they are.</p>
<p>And yes, there used to be Jewish quotas of about 10% at most major universities. My grandfathers got into Harvard and Yale as first generation college students from poor immigrant families where neither of their parents even graduated high school, much less college. And they were isolated there, along with the Catholic students.</p>
<p>Well, I guess I am backward that I make no assumptions based on a name, none whatsoever- my step fathers family came over from Poland before !!2, their last name was changed at Eliis Island...from his "new" last name, he sounds "english", so to make any kind of assumptions about anyone by last name in this day and age is strange to me</p>
<p>I just looked online and found many non-jewish Cohens...but hey...and some Italian Shapiros</p>
<p>See, to assume anything by a name does a disservice to all</p>
<p>See, back in the day, you had a jewish name and it was a mark, so as a generation of young people, it should be time to NOT make assumptions based on name, for those kids rejected based just on a name, we can hope that we have evolved past that presumption about anyone</p>
<p>just some thoughts</p>
<p>Thanks, citygirlsmom.</p>
<p>And besides, why would you want to deny something so cool as being Jewish?
That's the part that always puzzles me.</p>
<p>Gee, anyone remember George M. Cohan? About as Irish as they came, but because of the prejudices mentioned in this thread, faced significant anti-Semitism and blacklisting.</p>
<p>And while Judaism is a religion, it is more than that; it is a peoplehood and an ethnicity. To deny that is to deny, in effect, anti-Semitism. I've been told that I cannot attend our diversity day as a "minority" because being Jewish doesn't count!</p>
<p>To the OP, do you really want to go to a school that might even hold your religion and your background against you? How could you be comfortable there?</p>