Top Schools by Jewish enrollment

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Source: Reform Judaism Magazine, which took its numbers from Hillel. (hillel.org)</p>

<p>The way it organized its information is somewhat silly, as you’ll see in a second. If somebody could take the trouble to reorganize the list in another fashion (USNWR University/LAC rank would be helpful, one would need to fill in some blanks too), that would be appreciated.</p>

<p>Top 30 Private Schools based on Jewish enrollment</p>

<p>Name of school, enrollment, % Jewish</p>

<li>NYU 4000 20.8</li>
<li>Boston U 3000 15</li>
<li>Cornell 3000 21.7</li>
<li>Penn 3000 30.8</li>
<li>Yeshiva 2810 93.5</li>
<li>GWU 2750 31.6</li>
<li>Syracuse U 2500 20.4</li>
<li>Emory U 2500 33.3</li>
<li>Columbia U 2000 25.0</li>
<li>Harvard U 2000 30</li>
<li>Tulane 2000 25.4</li>
<li>Brandeis U 1900 61.7</li>
<li>Northwestern U 1800 23.1</li>
<li>WUSTL 1800 26.6</li>
<li>USC 1700 10</li>
<li>UMiami 1600 14.6</li>
<li>Brown U 1500 25</li>
<li>Tufts U 1500 31.6</li>
<li>U of Hartford 1500 31.9</li>
<li>Hofstra U 1200 12.4</li>
<li>Long Island U-- Brooklyn Campus 1200 21.3</li>
<li>Yale U 1200 22.6</li>
<li>American U 1100 18.7</li>
<li>Barnard C 1000 43.5</li>
<li>Northeastern U 1000 8</li>
<li>Pratt Institute 1000 32</li>
<li>Vanderbilt U 850 13.5</li>
<li>Oberlin C 800 26.7</li>
<li>U of Denver 800 20</li>
<li>U of Rochester 800 20</li>
</ol>

<p>By ranking the schools by enrollment, obviously advantage is given to the bigger schools. To me, the biggest surprise on this list is Vanderbilt-- I think it’s very promising for Vandy supporters who insist that the school is more regionally and religiously diverse than most think.</p>

<p>Many of the schools on this list are New Yorkers’ safety schools-- schools like Hartford, Hofstra, etc draw a lot of students from the region.</p>

2

<p>Top 30 Public Schools based on Jewish enrollment</p>

<p>Name of school, Jewish enrollment, % Jewish</p>

<ol>
<li>U Florida 5500 15.7</li>
<li>U Central Florida 5000 13.2</li>
<li>U Maryland College Park 5000 19.9</li>
<li>York U (Toronto) 4500 11</li>
<li>Rutgers U 4500 16.11</li>
<li>U Texas-Austin 4000 10.3</li>
<li>Penn State U 4000 11.1</li>
<li>U Wisconsin Madison 4000 14</li>
<li>U Michigan Ann Arbor 4000 16.3</li>
<li>Florida International U 3500 13.5</li>
<li>University at Albany (New York) 3500 13.5</li>
<li>U South Florida 3300 10</li>
<li>Indiana U 3100 10.3</li>
<li>U Arizona 3100 10.9</li>
<li>Queens College (NYC) 3000 26.8</li>
<li>Ohio State U 3000 6.7</li>
<li>U Toronto 3000 7.5</li>
<li>Florida State U 3000 9.8</li>
<li>U Western Ontario 3000 10</li>
<li>UCLA 3000 12.1</li>
<li>McGill 3000 16.0</li>
<li>Binghamton U (New York) 3000 29.5</li>
<li>CUNY Brooklyn College (NYC) 3000 29.7</li>
<li>University of Illinos at Urbana-Champaign 2700 9.4</li>
<li>Cal State U Northridge 2700 10</li>
<li>UC Santa Cruz 2600 21.6</li>
<li>Michigan State U 2500 7.1</li>
<li>San Diego State U 2500 9</li>
<li>UC Davis 2350 10.0</li>
<li>Arizona State U 2300 6</li>
</ol>

<p>I'm surprised Berkeley and Virginia didn't place...</p>

3

<p>Public was the ultimate disqualifier for the real winners.</p>

4

<p>Top 20 Colleges by Percentage Jewish</p>

<ol>
<li>Yeshiva U, 93.5</li>
<li>Brandeis, 61.7</li>
<li>Barnard C, 43.5</li>
<li>SUNY-Oneonta, 35.7</li>
<li>Emory U 33.3</li>
<li>Pratt Institute 32</li>
<li>U Hartford 31.9</li>
<li>GWU 31.6</li>
<li>Tufts U 31.5</li>
<li>Muhlenberg C 31</li>
<li>Penn 30.8</li>
<li>Harvard 30</li>
<li>Reed 29.8</li>
<li>CUNY-- Brooklyn College 29.7</li>
<li>Goucher 29.6</li>
<li>Binghamton U 29.5</li>
<li>University at Albany 29.1</li>
<li>Sarah Lawrence C 28.6</li>
<li>Hampshire C 27.7</li>
<li>Wesleyan U 27.2</li>
</ol>

5

<p>Neither of mine are top 10. Alas. Notice that hovering percentile?</p>

6

<p>It's the rank by enrollment that really killed it. Schools that I would assume to have a relatively high percentage of Jews, yet are smaller (SUNY-Stony Brook, Chicago, Hopkins, Lehigh, Dartmouth, other LAC elites) didn't make the list, though I'm sure each has a considerable Jewish community.</p>

7

<p>unalove,
Your comments about Vanderbilt are right on the money. That school has done a lot to attract students outside of its historical comfort zone and that strategy has paid off with a much stronger student body and an improved national profile. Today the school is clearly on the rise and increasingly competes effectively for top students with the non-HYP Ivies. They want strong Jewish and minority students and are actively recruiting them to their campus. </p>

<p>An irony to your list is that, in percentage terms, two of the top three colleges for Jewish students (Emory and Tulane) are in the South. For an area that is often portrayed in the media as hostile to Jewish students, it is pretty clear that the top colleges there are looking to attract top Jewish students as well as students of color. Look for those trends to continue. </p>

<p>Using your numbers, here are both the private and public national universities in the USNWR Top 50 with large numbers of Jewish students:</p>

<p>College, Undergrad Enrollment, # of Jewish students, % of Jewish students </p>

<p>1 Yeshiva 3002 , 2810 , 94%
2 Brandeis 3304 , 1900 , 58%</p>

<p>3 Columbia 5260 , 2000 , 38%
4 Emory 6646 , 2500 , 38%
5 Tulane 6533 , 2000 , 31%
6 U Penn 9730 , 3000 , 31%
7 Harvard 6715 , 2000 , 30%
8 Tufts 4995 , 1500 , 30%
9 Brown 6010 , 1500 , 25%
10 Wash U StL 7386 , 1800 , 24%
11 Yale 5333 , 1200 , 23%
12 Cornell 13562 , 3000 , 22%
13 Northwestern 8153 , 1800 , 22%
14 NYU 20965 , 4000 , 19%
15 U Michigan 25555 , 4000 , 16%
16 U Florida 35110 , 5500 , 16%
17 Vanderbilt 6378 , 850 , 13%
18 UCLA 25432 , 3000 , 12%
19 Penn State 36613 , 4000 , 11%
20 U Texas 37037 , 4000 , 11%
21 USC 16729 , 1700 , 10%</p>

8

<p>My son very nearly did not apply to Vanderbilt because even in the southern midwest, the stereotype of Vanderbilt is that it is old-school, ingrown, exclusionary, etc. After just one visit, he realized the stereotype was way out of date; he returned to make sure he wasn't imagining things, then decided to accept their offer of a very generous merit scholarship. </p>

<p>The Jewish Student Center is next door to his dorm, and had a lot of activity the day he moved in.</p>

<p>Yes, they would love to get the word out to students in the northeast that it is worth a visit.</p>

9

<p>"I'm surprised Berkeley and Virginia didn't place"...</p>

<p>I know someone that was born/raised in Northern Virginia and the parental units made her go to U of Maryland so she could meet a nice Jewish dude...</p>

10

<p>Maryland is a bit of a no-brainer for Jews, as it pulls in students from the heavily Jewish DC metro area.</p>

<p>Berkeley is still a mystery to me.</p>

<p>What I'm thinking about Vandy, UVA, etc. and why they don't place as well as Emory and Tulane is that Vandy and UVA are still stereotyped as conservative-only. Along with this political stereotype is a social stereotype.... perhaps confirming this idea is that Princeton, which is in the middle of one of the most heavily Jewish areas in the nation, is not listed here. Posters still think of Princeton as a non-liberal school-- I have no idea whether that's true or not. Also, notice that extremely liberal schools (Brown, Reed, SLC, Hampshire, Wes) attract a lot of Jewish students.</p>

11

<p>When my son was applying to colleges in 2002-2003, USC was actively, and publicly, recruiting Jewish students. Looks like they have had some success.</p>

<p>And btw, the reason the UVA may be low is that Virginia does not have an exceptionally large Jewish population especially when compared to Maryland.</p>

12

<p>Emory and Tulane have a long history of attracting Jewish students, both from the Southern states as well as the Northeast. U Virginia and Vanderbilt, on the other hand, have not had nearly as strong a historical Jewish presence on their campuses. The scope for change was greatest at Vanderbilt and this has been/is happening. At U Virginia, the nature of the state population does not lend itself to great changes in the student population at U Virginia or W&M. With 2/3 of students required to be from the state of Virginia for both schools, this has important demographic consequences as the Jewish population of Virginia is not that large. </p>

<p>I think that the political affiliations of the students (Jewish and otherwise) at all of these schools (Emory, Tulane, Vanderbilt, U Virginia, and W&M) are certainly less conservative than the states in which they are situated. In fact, I would suggest that these schools have among the best balances of political viewpoints among its students of any of the highly ranked, major national universities.</p>

13

<p>California has a jewish population of around 3%. Los Angeles probably accounts for most of California's jewish population. So it doesn't surprise me that UCLA, and other southern California schools would have a higher percentage of jewish students. Perhaps jewish students looking for a urban college experience chose UCLA over Berkeley, as the Jewish community is more prevalent around UCLA.</p>

14

<p>During the college search for S1, I found that several colleges that would draw a blank look from most other CA parents --- WashU, NW, Emory, Penn, Tufts and now Vandy --- would elicit knowing nods of approval from the parents of high-achieving Jewish students. Many families, even if they're not that religious, will look for a student body where their kid will not feel like an outsider or have no one to celebrate with on a Jewish holiday. </p>

<p>I don't have a history book reference to cite, but I believe that the growth of Jewish enrollment historically at colleges like Northwestern, WashU, Emory etc. mirrored the decline in Jewish enrollment in the Ivy League universities when the deliberately restrictive admission policies came into being in the 20s and 30s. Those highly qualified, education-oriented achievers had to go somewhere. </p>

<p>CA parents: Are those UC-Santa Cruz numbers correct? 21.6 percent? Does UCSC have a super Jewish studies program or something?</p>

15

<p>I think the entering class at Berkeley has been mostly Asian for a while now, especially because of the strength of Cal's engineering programs and the prohibition against considering race or ethnicity in admissions.</p>

<p>UCLA, as people have noted, has a large LA Jewish population to draw from, and has traditionally been more of a commuter school than Cal. </p>

<p>I don't have a clue about why UCSC.</p>

16

<p>Why are the %s in post #7 (eg Columbia) different thatn the %s for the same school in post #1 ??</p>

17

<p>monydad,
I believe that the Jewish student numbers were held constant, but the enrollments that they measured against were different. #1 was for Columbia College and #7 included the School of General Studies as well. In looking further, both may be wrong because neither accounts for the Engineering School. I am not sure what schools the 2000 students are from so maybe unalove can clarify this and then adjust the numbers so that this is accurately shown. In either scenario, I think it is safe to say that there is a high Jewish component at Columbia.</p>

18

<p>When my daughter attended Vassar, the percentage of Jewish students was 37%. Has this changed? In terms of Hopkins, although I do not know what the numbers are, there is a strong Jewish presence on campus. There is an all Kosher dining facility, and several others that carry Kosher food and snacks on campus. There is also a lovely Hillel which seems very active and busy. Also, there is an active AEPi fraternity, which is predominantly Jewish.</p>

19

<p>
[quote]
I'm surprised Berkeley and Virginia didn't place...

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You're all missing one of the biggest reasons: Berkeley is extremely secular.</p>

<p>
[quote]
The survey also paints a novel picture of the typical Berkeley freshmen from a variety of perspectives. Those who have noticed the number of student religious groups holding court at Sproul Plaza tables might nod their heads when they hear that 266 of the 2,315 freshmen respondents said they considered themselves born-again Christians. On the other hand, close to half (43.8%) answered "none" when asked to state their religious preference on a different question. Nationally, only 17.6% of U.S. freshmen chose the same answer. Out of a list of 39 religions, Berkeley students most commonly identified themselves as Roman Catholic (14%), Jewish (5.2%) Presbyterian (4.4%) and Other Christian (3.0%).

[/quote]
</p>

<p><a href="http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/01/24_freshmen.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/01/24_freshmen.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>That article's from 2005 -- I surmise Berkeley's grown even more secular since.</p>

<p>So, though Berkeley may have a large Asian population, it doesn't seem as though that the traditional Asian religions have a big presence.</p>

20

<p>Thjese numbers are totally wrong, don't trust Hillel's numbers. For instance, Yeshiva's percentage of Jews is 100% always(I live near there and know probably close to 100 people who go/have gone there). In fact, it is a pre-requisite to get admitted into there(much like Wheaton for Christians I think).</p>