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Tools To Help You Choose

Tools To Help You Choose

These tools are an easy way to find out practically everything you need to know to make your college choice, including national school rankings, campus resources and minyanim charts, a map of Jewish resources and kosher food on campus, and information about anti-Jewish sentiment on campuses.

Know What's Important

Use this checklist to help you evaluate what Jewish resources and other criteria are important to your college experience and formulate the questions you want to ask about each school.
Checklist
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Other Tools:

  • Jewish College Connections
    Jewish life is a critical part of college life, and getting connected to the right people is crucial. Based on our thorough research on over 285 colleges, and our extensive experience working with high school and college students, we think we have a good idea of which Jewish organization would be a good fit. Enter your college and high school here, and we’ll provide you with the name and contact info of our best pick for you.
  • U.S. News National Rankings
    The U.S. News National Rankings is a useful, free service for comparing colleges’ academic excellence and value in terms of return for investment (tuition). But as U.S. News themselves state, “think of the rankings as one tool for selecting a college.” The top ranked school is not necessarily the best fit for you, which is why this website is here to help your decision making. Factors like the size of classes, strength of particular program within the school and the availability of religious resources are important to consider as well. There are schools at every level that will compliment your religious observance while offering you a great education.
  • U.S. News College Compass
    U.S. News College Campus is a paid service that compliments their national rankings with information on schools’ required GPA and test scores, how much schools give out in financial aid and academic scholarships and more. College Campus helps you manage your college applications, allows you to save your favorite schools, and you can use the ‘My Fit’ feature to search for colleges you qualify for by selecting criteria and indicating how important they are to you, including geographic location, tuition cost, acceptance rate, majors offered, campus activities, and academic settings.
  • Closest Jewish Community Locator
    Find the closest Orthodox synagogue to almost any school in the United States and Canada. This is usually a good indicator of where the closest Orthodox community is as well, with access to things like kosher food.
  • AMCHA Initiative
    The AMCHA Initiative is a nonprofit organization that investigates and documents antisemitism at institutions of higher education in the United States. This includes harassment and threats against students, BDS activity, antisemitic expression by professors, and other antisemitic incidents. While the information on AMCHA’s website is important in making a decision about whether you will be safe and feel comfortable at a particular school, bear in mind that AMCHA does not assign levels of severity to incidents. A professor demonizing Jews is very different than and individual student that doesn’t represent the school saying something derogatory. In addition, AMCHA reports each meeting of an antisemitic student group like Students For Palestine as a new incident even if they are meeting in private and not interacting with or acting against Jewish students. Therefore in judging whether a school is safe and friendly or hostile, look at both the number of incidents that have occurred there, the school’s stance on BDS and the severity of the incident(s).

    • AMCHA College Anti-Israel Questionnaire: AMCHA’s list of suggested questions you can ask school administrators and recruiters to find out about antisemitic and/or anti-Israel Activity on campus.
    • AMCHA Divestment Score Card: AMCHA’s Divestment Score Card keeps track of any BDS activity at American institutions of higher education, including both passed and failed resolutions.
    • AMCHA Student Voices: See what students are saying about antisemitism at their schools.