Seminaries-seminar, chemdas, bnos sara

Chayalle

Mon, Dec 13 2021, 10:45 am

amother [ Wheat ] wrote:

Interesting grouping. My daughter applied to Bnos Sarah and BJJ and has lots of friends in both, as well as in Seminar. I really don't see any difference hashkafically between the three of them. There is a difference in the academics (BJJ is more memorization/tests, Bnos Sara more reports and Seminar less academic than the other two, but still for bright girls who do well in school). BJJ has older teachers who are amazing, but many girls said they did not develop a kesher with them. Bnos Sara is smaller and "warmer", at least according to the research we did. Bnos Sarah more out of town than BJJ, so maybe that plays into the grouping since yeshivish OOT and yeshivish in-town are not the same. From the perspective of our large OOT community, BJJ and Bnos Sarah are equally yeshivish. Agree that Chemdas and Hadar may be more yeshivish (whatever that means...).

This.

Chayalle

Mon, Dec 13 2021, 10:50 am

amother [ DarkYellow ] wrote:

So glad to see this thread here.
I am also in the parsha of sending a daughter (for the first time) to seminary next year. She is smart, academic, OOT, very frum but not culturally yeshivish at all.
She was told to apply to BJJ, Bnos Sarah, and Seminar.
From reading the above posts, I'm not sure how BJJ fits in with the other 2. Does it make sense (or is there a "type") that would apply to these seminaries specifically? We are probably most interested in BJJ and Bnos Sarah, but she wants to have a "safety" school as well.
Fwiw, I went to BJJ, but that was a very long time ago, and I have no way of gauging what it would be like today.

I also went to BJJ a long time ago. I think BJJ is much less diverse, and more yeshivish, these days, than it was back in our day.

Like back in my day, BJJ had a strong yeshivish presence, but there was also a mix of many different types. I don't think it has that diversity anymore.

Bnos Sarah is more diverse in that sense...but also less than it was, say, over 10 years ago.

I have a niece who is applying to BYA, Seminar, and Chemdas. She's a solid BY girl, but not very yeshivish. She's a good kid and has a great personality, but an average student, not very academic. I was actually surprised that she's applying to Chemdas, but she told me it's less yeshivish than it used to be.

(I have another niece who is super-yeshivish and went to Chemdas.)

amother

Fern

Tue, Dec 14 2021, 1:09 am

Bnos sara is much less yeshivish. Can’t even compare at this point. They take a lot of out of towners and standards have become much lower.
In terms of academics, you still can’t compare any of the others to BJJ. You just need a very very high average to get in. Don’t understand how the school advised BJJ and seminar at the same time

amother

Latte

Tue, Dec 14 2021, 5:55 am

amother [ Fern ] wrote:

What do you base this on?
I strongly disagree - my friend's daughter is there this year - super yeshivish and she has a great crowd. I would say its the type of seminary where strong yeshivish blends well with frum out of town - the common denominator being strongly academic, motivated and frum. There will always be one or two exceptions but that is her experience.