<p>Why is this school ranked so high by USNWR? I never hear ANYTHING about it.</p>
<p>Chances are, if you're not active in the Jewish community, you won't hear much about it.</p>
<p>I hear a lot about Brandeis though and none of my Jewish friends ever mentioned Yeshiva.</p>
<p>I am not an expert on Yeshiva, but we do know a number of families whose children go there. It is an extremely demanding school. It is also very different than the other schools you've mentioned in your post. </p>
<p>Yeshiva University is geared to Orthodox Jews who want to obtain a secular education but also want to have a firm grounding in traditional Jewish texts in their original Hebrew and Aramaic. For the most part, the school is not well known outside the circle of traditional Jews. Within this group, however, it carries a lot of clout. Men attend Yeshiva College, while women go to Stern. Some New Yorkers attend Yeshiva who are not orthodox Jews. They are attracted by the rigor of the school and the relatively reasonable tuition. For example, many of the secular Jews who migrated from Russia to New York City went to Yeshiva University.</p>
<p>Ever read any novels by Chaim Potok? He has a description of Yeshiva, its curriculum and life in at least one of his books.</p>
<p>Most of the students carry a double curriculum. They spend one half of their day on traditional college subjects and the other half with classes like Torah, Jewish Law, Talmud, etc. This makes for an enormous workload and long hours in the classroom. It's not unusual for students to begin their classes early in the morning and end about 6 p.m. Then they go home and do their class preparations. This is not an easy schedule. You've got to be serious and really want this type of education for it to work. </p>
<p>Many graduations of Yeshiva are ordained as rabbis or become Jewish educators. Even more however go into the professions. They have traditionally had a very high success rate at getting students into med and law school. </p>
<p>Yeshiva University also has a medical school. Albert Einstein is ranked among the top fifty med schools in the US. </p>
<p>There are probably people out there who can fill in more details. But, in braod outline, this is the school. It has a very specific purpose and identity.</p>