BYA is an AMAZING sem. While its academic level is certainly not that of BJJ or Mesores Rochel, it is far from “not academic.” It’s somewhere in between. There’s plenty of work, and if you’re not good at reading ??????, it can be very overwhelming; if you have strong textual skills, though, it’ll pretty much be a breeze. Depends where you’re coming from.
But beyond easy/hard, the classes are super-stimulating and very meaningful for your life. BYA’s teachers give you loads of life skills and ???? that you will carry with you forever. While it may be an amazing thing to have covered the entire ??”?, it seems to me that having covered ???? ?????, straight ?????, emotional skills, and the ????? of a woman are much more fundamental for us. Are you going to seminary to learn like a man, or to learn like a woman? I never found the classes to be dry and boring- quite the opposite.
In terms of the girls, I can’t give you as accurate of an answer, since I went there three years ago. My year was pretty out-of-towny and more yeshivish, but I think it’s been more in-towny and less yeshivish since then. We had mostly girls who had also applied to Bnos Sara and/or Nachlas (Rebbetzin Jacobovits was still there when applications were due). We had an incredible group of girls, which made the year special.
By the way, you should know that if you do go to BYA, you will have the most unbelievable, ????dik teacher in the world, Mrs. Rubinfeld. The only other sem that she teaches in is Meohr Shana Bet. She is BYA’s best-kept secret. Someone from BJJ recently compared her favorably to Rebbetzin David.
Then there’s also the best madricha and person you will ever meet… but you’ll find about her if you go:)
One other thing I love about BYA is the fact that I am still in touch with several teachers until today. Even those who I am not in touch with, I know that if I ever want or need to, they are a phone call away, and will not think that I’m weird for calling. I did have to work on establishing the ??? originally, but they are very receptive to girls who want to make a ???.