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Ok so I’m applying to seminary this year and I don’t even know what to choose or how to make a decision on it because there are so many and how am I supposed to know i’ll be happy there? So I narrowed my choices down to Tomer Devora, Darchai Bina, and MMY. Does anyone know any other seminaries that are kind of like that? Also I just want to go to a place where there are good people who really take this seriously because I am definitely not going to seminary to “chill”. I want to grow and change myself becuase I know I can reach higher. So if anyone knows about these seminaries, what they’re like, and other seminaries that are like those plz give advice. Thanks
Interesting to note the url of this thread.
Only 17? Wow.
LOL LF
nava: Those are all pretty different, from what I know of them from friends who have gone to them.
Darchei Binah is a charedi-run seminary with girls running the gamut from equally charedi to from more MO backgrounds. The teachers and education is charedi. It gets a lot of chilled-BY girls.
Tomer Devorah is I believe similar in some ways faculty-wise, but with a more eclectic and MO-oriented student body.
MMY is completely MO and has a much more academically “serious” vibe than the others. (Shaalvim would be the more “warm and huggy” version- Michlalah would be the somewhat more charedi-oriented version.)
If you’re looking solely for serious, based on the schools you mentioned I would pick MMY if you’re looking for an MO place and Michlalah if you’re looking for a more charedi-style place. (In the past I wouldn’t have put Michlalah down as charedi-style- I went there, and it seemed to be making an effort not to pin itself down- but now that R Copperman zt”l is gone and there have been other administration changes, I think it’s heading more in that direction. It’s still definitely not a BY.) Of course, there will be girls of all types in all of these places- but if you are serious, you will find serious girls there to grow with.
If you’re looking for something more in the style of DB and TD, what about Midreshet Tehillah? I get the impression of it being similar. In all of these places there will be academically and spiritually serious girls (I know a girl who went from one to Harvard, and several baalei teshuva who went to another) but I get the impression that the emphases in the program are different.
I could be misreading some of this, as I obviously only went to one of the sems on this list* :), but I know people who have gone to all three and been very happy. I would contact the administrations with specific questions. (And I’d be glad to answer questions about the Mich if you’re interested!)
*actually, I do know a girl who went to two of the seminaries I mentioned here- one for shana alef and one for shana bet…
I am familiar with all three schools. They are all great schools and I would recommend all of them (in general – obviously it depends on the person and I don’t know you). They all have very warm atmospheres and are very growth-oriented. MMY is much more academic than the others and you have to be prepared to work hard. I know that MMY gets really good girls (or at least they used to, and I am assuming it is still the case). I don’t know about the other two. I would assume that it’s true of the others as well, but I don’t know enough.
Writer-soul did a great job of describing the schools. I would just add a few corrections, with the qualification that my information may not be completely up-to-date, but I am pretty sure that it is still fairly accurate. For one thing, I would not describe MMY as completely MO. They have teachers with different hashkafos and they do not push a specific hashkafa. Most of the teachers are Dati-Leumi but there are some who are Chareidi, and there are students who have become Chareidi there. However, it is rare for a student from a Bais Yaakov high school to go there.
Last I heard, MMY was an extremely warm place, and it is hard for me to imagine that has changed.
One major difference between Shaalvim and MMY is that Shaalvim does not have ANY Chareidi teachers, and MMY does. And that is updated information since it is something that I happened to have looked into recently. Also, if you check out Shaalvim’s website, it is EXTREMELY tzioni and seems to be much more definitively MO than MMY. (I actually would not have used the word MO to describe MMY – I would have described it as closer to Chardal, but I have the impression that the term MO might be used differently today than it used to be).
Nava, I agree with writersoul that Midreshet Tehila might be worth looking into. I don’t know enough about it, but I think that it is similar to some of the schools you mentioned. Other possbilities may be Maor, Ateres, Peninim (now called N’eimos, I think) and Bnos Avigail.
It would help to have a better idea of what you are looking for in a seminary. Also, what kind of background are you coming from? The three schools you mentioned are not usually mentioned together (at least not all 3), which is not a problem – I’m just trying to get a better idea of what you are looking for. On what basis did you narrow things down to these three?
The two things they have in common are: 1. warm atmospheres and 2. growth-oriented. So I am assuming those are important to you.
Anyone heard of Bais Yaakov Seminar????? (the new Seminar Yerushalayim)
I’m hearing such amazing things about it and I wanna find out more… I’m a real BY girl and a real thinker. I love to learn. I love to hear hashkafa.
Anyone know anything about it?
Thanx!
lul: I would not describe MMY as chardal at all. Chardal is an Israeli term and phenomenon which is basically incompatible with the American term MO. I asked friends who went to both schools what the difference was and they described MMY as more academic and Shaalvim as warmer. There are some more RW teachers at MMY, like R Teller, but the vast majority are similar in hashkafa to Shaalvim’s. I haven’t really heard from anyone of a practical difference in the hashkafa taught at each places, though I think that on average, MMY’s student body is more RW.
The other sems you recommended are MUCH more BY than any of the sems she mentioned (besides Meohr, which is probably only a bit farther to the right than DB, and maybe Pninin/Neimos).
Leahla, I have also heard great things about Bais Yaakov Seminar. Seems like a great choice for a girl interested in serious learning and in a warm environment.
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