university of Judaism?

Question

can any tell me more about this school. i looked on wikipedia and the website but i still don't know a lot. can anyone give me a first hand experience?

Answer 1

I have done continuing education at the UJ and it's a great campus. Very beautiful.

The department of continuing education is larger than the academic departments, which is a little lopsided.

As far as the academic environment, there's several layers of requirements.

First there is the general ed -- Freshman Comp, Biology, Math things like that.

Then there's the Judaic and Western Civilizations program which is quite comprehensive and will take up a good deal of your units. As the freshman class is quite small, most of you will be in the same classes in the Civilizations series.

Then there are the courses for your major. You won't have a lot of options. You can major in Jewish Studies which is something you won't find anywhere else. The English, Psychology, Political Science, and Business programs are standard, but have a Jewish flavor to them (ie. Jewish lit in English, Israeli politics in PolySci).

A couple of interesting programs are the one that combines Political Science with English (great prep for law school) and Bioethics program that combines the prereqs for med school with research, hospital experience, and ethics training.

As mentioned above, the number of "traditional" students at the University is quite small. This means you will get to know EVERYBODY. If you're looking to get lost in the crowd, this is not the place for you. But if you want to become part of a small, close-knit community, it's a good option.

The campus is, of course, Kosher, and they expect their students to be kosher observant on campus. This is evident in the dining hall (where you must keep all of your food on trays so the plates aren't on the table) and meals are either "dairy" or "meat". It extends to the vending machines where only dairy products are sold (no pastrami sandwiches, etc.)

The UJ offers student activities, but on a more limited scale than a bigger campus can provide. There's one play produced a year for instance, instead of the 5 or more at larger campuses. They have a student newspaper, student government, dorm activities, etc.

The students tend to be liberal, both politically and Jewishly. They identify very strongly with their Jewish heritage (more so than at Brandeis, for instance, on par with Yeshiva University).

One suggestion -- if you can, visit the campus for a couple of days. The University will probably let you spend the night in the dorm with a student. That's the best way to get a feel for whether this is the right fit for you.

Oh, one more thing. there is a year long Israel program run by the UJ that you do before college and after high school. You get credits toward the UJ program if you do the program. Can't remember the name off the top of my head, but it sounds amazing.

Good luck.