Agreed that a Jewish student at some southern schools may feel underrepresented but Furman seems to have a comparable Jewish population (per Hillel) relative to other southern schools such as Alabama at around 2%…
As others have said the surrounding community might night offer enough for a Jewish student.
Some schools are looking to diversify their population. Rhodes does not have a lot of Jews but has some…shares the Hillel with U of Memphis.
W&L is trying hard to get more Jewish students - and I suspect, if your grades work, even if you don’t get picked for Johnson, you might be picked to interview for Weinstein. My daughter was - but did not get it. It’s tuition only.
But make sure yours does both essays to get consideration.
At a school like Syracuse or American, they have a sizable community - whereas these other schools are having an a ha moment that a Jewish student would consider them.
But while they might score a great deal, you have to ensure your student would have comfort there. Mine was impressed by the W&L Hillel. Yours may or may not be at any of the schools so money matters but so does cost.
Looking at your list it does not appear St Mary’s has a Jewish life but you might ask. Juniata very small. Ursinsus decent for its size. Miami of Ohio and Bing will both be extensive and UMD obviously super strong.
Anyway we are not discussing Alabama. The OP 1000 messages ago removed it from discussion and since they are TO it wouldn’t work financially anyway. So not sure why it came up.
The Hillel website is a directional at best source. Better to contact schools directly when there are concerns.
Comparing Jewish life at the two schools would be like comparing football. Not in the same hemisphere.
Edited by moderator to remove personal reference. (Sorry I can’t seem to add the staff color)
I will take your word for it that Hillel’s website is “directional” and not to be trusted but then you referenced it?
Sorry I was providing context regarding Furman which was being dismissed based on Jewish life relative to Bama which was described as having an adequate Jewish life but rejected as you say based on finances.
Agreed with going directly to the school…
From a directional standpoint this reads pretty positive…
“The remaining $1.5 million will create the Hillel Endowment Fund to provide permanent support to expand and enhance the Furman Hillel for a more robust Jewish life for all students and the broader community. The Hillel also provides important aspects of mental fitness by giving students a place where they feel welcomed and valued, and where they can satisfy their spiritual needs.
“By creating The Hillel Endowment Fund, we are able to expand and enhance the Furman Hillel for a more robust Jewish life for all students and the broader community,” June Trone said.“
Furman remains very “Southern Christian” in feel - attending Church, being part of a church community, is part of Southern culture in many, many places.
While the school is no longer affiliated with the Southern Baptist convention and has no “Religion” requirement, you may want to ask whether there’ll be prayer at Opening Convocation or before games, what percentage students identify as Christian, if there is a Jewish sorority… to determine her level of comfort matches the school’s.
Furman is a Christian biased school - so one has to factor that in.
Some Jews go to Jesuit schools and if it works for them - but Furman does not have the infrastructure nor sizable population.
A student wanting a vibrant Jewish life and most Jews today want the culture vs. religion, then a school like Furman will miss the mark.
Moving on.
Furman left the Baptist Convention in 1992 and just received a dedicated Hillel endowment donation of $1.5mm. I don’t have first hand experience but these posters from years ago did…
And in terms of the community’s a Jewish presence…
https://jhssc.org/max-and-true-heller-giving-back-to-greenville/
And bringing it back to Furman and a community of service that would appeal to a Jewish (or any student of faith) the organization named after the Hellers…
My point being don’t write off or embrace a school based on a singular opinion, look for yourself.
Thanks for sharing this. Very interesting.
DD is applying maybe too broad, but we want to see options at the end and I am sure DD will have some.
No doubt she will have plenty of options to choose from!
I agree that St. Mary’s, Juniata and Ursinus are all not very Jewish. Same goes for Furman. There are not that many “perfect” schools for our requirements. If DD would end up in one of the above, I can bet she will be new Hillel leader there who will be the one who will organize everyone. She has quite experience in it. She will also find connections one way or the other with Jewish organizations around. Actually the most problematic on the list is Juniata due to no Jewish population in the area. However, it looks that they have relatively active Hillel (according to internet websites.) St. Mary’s has plenty of Jewish kids from Baltimore and DC area. They have no Hillel yet, but Jewish club. Ursinus is relatively close to Philly. And it looks that Greenville has at least some Jewish population.
The questions I listed can be asked anywhere you apply and you can decided based on what you’re comfortable with. 
And if everything’s good, then you’re golden! I’m sure your daughter will have plenty of choices.
I’m fairly certain I offered this about a thousand posts ago (haha… quite a thread!), but feel free to reach out if you have specific questions about W&L and the Johnson scholarship.
As an aside, we aren’t Jewish but I’ve seen first hand how active the Hillel is there. My D joins friends for Shabbat regularly and I have as well a couple times when visiting.
ETA: my D had some overlap with your D’s application list and received great merit from Rhodes, Furman and Case. She did submit her 1510 SAT plus it was two years ago so it’s an imperfect comparison… but I’m happy to share more details if you find it helpful.
I think that coming up with a list of schools is the “easy” part.
The hard part is coming up with a list of schools that check all the boxes, and that also provide enough merit to bring the cost down to UMD instate. This means that many schools that look like matches on paper are really reaches. This student needs significant merit.
What makes it even harder is that I don’t have a good sense of where this student falls relative to the rest of her class (I know she’s a good student, but it is not clear to me what classes she took, etc). That information is a little “fuzzy” to me (maybe it’s just me, who knows).
I do think there are a few schools on this list that will be affordable, which is great news.
Thanks. I will PM you. DD goes for interview in 2 weeks to W&L.
Dickinson, Juniata, and St Mary’s all gave very good merit (pre-covid) to my DC.
St. Mary’s ended up being the least expensive because they are less expensive to begin with (they are a public MD school and we were in-state. It was like $30K back then for the whole shebang). I have no idea if they have any pre-med there though. Juniata does. Dickinson probably does.
Pre med isn’t a major. But they have it.
There are very few colleges that actually have “pre-med” as a major. Fact is, you can take the required courses for medical school admissions at just about every four year college in this country (arts conservatories excluded).
@WayOutWestMom do you have any idea how many colleges actually have “pre-med” as a major?
Penn State is the only one I’ve ever heard about.
EDIT: SUNY-Purchase, Florida Tech, Miami University of Ohio and Grand Valley State (MI) all offer a degree in premedical studies.
Interesting paper–
Only 16.5% of freshmen who indicated an interest in pre-med actually persisted to complete the full set of med school pre-reqs.
It’s a track at GVSU, not a degree.
