So my daughter… (GPA 93/Sat 1250/APs/Honors, blah blah) wants a big 10 school - the whole college sorority, rah rah thing. On a whim - she applied to UK and received a killer merit scholarship. She is also into Binghamton, Albany (with $), Indiana (very little $), OSU (no $) and waiting RD at Syracuse, PSU, Lehigh, Virginia Tech, UT Austin and was deferred to RD at Tulane and Wisconsin (so we aren’t expecting any $ from those two).
She is an easy happy kid and will have a great experience wherever she goes.
Binghamton is a no brainer and fits the budget. UK is a possibility - fits the large school with a great athletic department and greek life but I wonder if she will stick out like a sore thumb being a jewess from New York. All the other schools are dependent upon the scholarships.
Any comments on the UK culture will be helpful and are appreciated.
also - what about her other options? Bing?
You may find this link useful:
http://www.hillel.org/college-guide/list/record/university-of-kentucky
http://www.kyhillel.org/Hillel/FAQs.html
UK excels at that college rah rah thingie 
(but it is an SEC school, not Big 10!).
Good Luck!
Dang, I read UK as United Kingdom and I was like whaaaaaaaaaaa
UK is large enough to be diverse, but a huge percentage of students are from KY. I would guess that a very small percentage of the student body is Jewish. However, it could be that you would find the southern style and manners to be quite charming. On the other hand, you might perceive us Kentuckians as a bunch of rednecks. 
I will also say that this is a PARTY school. Have you visited campus?
Is D from Upstate of NYC/LI? If upstate it may work. UK campus is changing a lot. Nice dorms. new student union. Trying to increase their OOS pop. I would have her visit.
I would choose Binghamton since I think it has stronger academics than UK.
There’s really no way to know for sure except to visit. A year ago at this time my son had no interest in most big schools, let alone one in the SEC, until we went to visit one pretty late in the process that was offering him a tremendous scholarship. He ended up choosing that school over Penn State (UP), our state flagship. He’s very happy and is surrounded by lots of very smart students from all regions of the country.
Do look at the proportion of out-of-state students, and where they come from, in assessing if UK is a good fit for your daughter. And visit the Hillel while you’re there.
This is getting really old (it’s from 2011), but it will give you some idea of where UK’s most recent freshman classes are coming from: http://chronicle.com/article/Where-Does-Your-Freshman-Class/129547/#id=157085
UK has a nice honors program.
Congrats to your D on getting the “killer merit” !!! What a nice surprise!!
Have you visited? have you looked into their Hillel?
I doubt that your D will “stick out like a sore thumb.” I don’t think that kids today really care what someone’s faith is…or even if someone has no faith at all.
If you haven’t visited, then I think one should be planned!
Didn’t check out UBuffalo? Could likely get merit $s from there if she got some from Albany, and even without, the price is right.
Not sure how much the Jewish or even the NY is so important as it’s a question many who are from the North East or other part of the country or the world would ask when looking at schools that tend to have a large local population unfamilar to them. I see the same question asked at some Catholic schools and other colleges, and it all comes down to whether this drastically different environment will an issue.
My one son is at an OOS public, and I did warn him that the choice was going to mean that he would hardly know anyone at his school at first whereas a alot of his classmates would. And as someone who is shy socially it was an issue for him for the first two years, in particular. A lot of kids living within commuting distance, a lot of kids with points in common that he simply did not have. Had he gone to Binghamton or Buffalo or Albany (we are NYers) or any number of other choices he had, he would have been around more people with more common experiences.
One thing I’ve found is that it’s something in the parent’s favor to let the student pick the school. Things always go wrong and if there is an excuse or someone to blame for the situation, which happens when a student gets talked into a choice by a parent, there isn’t the same effort made many times to resolve the problem.
How important is being Jewish for her? If it’s merely a cultural identity that she has little interest in pursing in college, being an OOS student in a minority religion probably isn’t a big deal. If on the other hand Judaism its central to her identity I would look elsewhere. The reality is, it’s that being Jewish will be a fundamentally different experience at a school like Binghamton vs. Kentucky. To put it in perspective, UK’s Hillel lists only 137 members in its Hillel group, many of whom I suspect have graduated. It has no Jewish Greek life, nor does it offer alternatives to Hillel. By contrast, Binghamton Hillel has over 1,300 FB likes, at least two events a week, and is not the only non Greek Jewish organization on campus. The school also has chapters of AEPi, AEPhi, SAEPi, and SDT.
Blatantly not true. I’ve lived for a while in a somewhat rural city in the south (Northern Florida) and I got made fun of for being Jewish. Holocaust jokes, jokes about stealing money, even some people drawing swastikas on my stuff (administration stopped it though), etc. Some of it was clearly factious, but enough of it was obviously malicious. I was seriously asked if I killed Jesus and if I would show them my horns (though that was just kinda funny, I explained that Jews don’t have horns).
Of course it wasn’t like I was constantly being assaulted for being Jewish or anything, and there were some parts I liked, but it certainly wasn’t that comfortable. I prefer where I am now, in an area with a fair amount of Jews.
I don’t know what UK is like. Don’t take this post as any indication of what life is like at UK for a Jew. But antisemitism is certainly not dead, and claiming it is helps no one. OP, you might want to call the hillel and ask what life is like for Jewish students.
@DeferredChicago I’m sorry that’s been your experience, but I really don’t think UK (or Lexington), would be anything like that. We’re not talking about “Dogpatch” Kentucky.
If there are only 137Jewish members at Hillel and no Jewish fraternities/sororities on campus, at a school with almost 30,000 students, I personally would consider attending elsewhere.
@DeferredChicago
What college campus were you attending there?
I agree about planning a visit. My D and I visited UK and loved it. We contacted admissions in advance. They scheduled chats with two students for her - one from her major and one from Michigan like us to give her an OOS perspective.
Everyone on that campus went out of their way to make us feel welcome.
Another consideration is whether it’s important that you daughter date within her faith. (Some college relationships still do lead to marriage.) If the answer is yes, she’s looking at a very small dating pool.
She will be FINE. UK is a great school with a growing reputation. It sounds as though she is an easygoing, likable person. And if she joins a sorority she’ll have a built-in sisterhood right away.
I’m guessing you’re from NY based on all the SUNY applications. Especially if you’re NYC/LI, she will literally be one of the thousands of white Jewish girls from the city there (though you’d be fine as a Jewish girl from upstate, too). I applied to Bing, too, and was actually pleasantly surprised with the visit- everything was pretty nice, and I seriously considered attending (total cost ended up being the same for me at both Bing and Northeastern, and Boston vs. Binghamton was an easy call for me). However, you will definitely not come close to the Big 10, rah rah, sorority feel.
UK isn’t as good a school, but the merit money is always enticing and it seems like she’d really like the culture of sports/Greek life. I would consider how important Judaism is to your family, as mentioned before, but you say she is easygoing and happy so I imagine she’d be fine even if she was the only Jew in her group of friends. Also, I would think that UK has a pretty nice alumni network (every school with big D1 sports has super proud students) which would be nice. Just consider with UK that it’ll be a pain to come home for Thanksgiving, winter break, spring break, etc. with all the flights while Binghamton is likely a bus or a train ride away from you, making a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip both feasible and affordable.
C’mon. How could she possibly stick out? BTW your use of the word Jew*** makes me think that all is not kosher with this post, since the word is archaic, and one which many will likely find offensive.