Seminaries-seminar, chemdas, bnos sara

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Forum -> Chinuch, Education & Schooling

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amother

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 12:16 am

DD has been told these 3 places would be good for her. This is all new for us, what’s the difference between them?

fish

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 12:22 am

Seminar- very solid frum girls, academic but not to intense
Chemdas- super yeshivish, also pretty academic
Bnos sara- solid frum girls, more out of towny, probably the most academic of the 3, must be super smart and want to work hard.

amother

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 12:27 am

my dd heard seminar is lots of busy work, bnos Sara has intense reports and chemdas has least amount of work. Does that sound right?
And what type of girls? Is there overlap?
Are the seminaries all equally yeshivish?
Is nachlas similar?

amother

Fern

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 12:34 am

Bnos sara is out of towny, not yeshivish. Frum out of town type but way more open and not yeshivish crowd. Academic but you don’t have to be super smart at all like the other poster said
Seminar is not super academic, more yeshivish
Chemdas is ok academic wise, not super academic and also yeshivish like seminar.
Nachlas is same academics as seminar, but less yeshivish. More in towny
Seminaries change from year to year literally.
If you don’t have multiple daughters going year after year (like I do) or are working in a hs, it’s hard to know.
I’m sure posters will post their experiences from 2,3,4,5 years ago. That information most likely is outdated so please only rely on information from this past year, as that is the most accurate.

amother

Mauve

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 12:37 am

amother [ Fern ] wrote:

Are the bnos sara teachers approachable and warm?

amother

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 12:45 am

I can’t imagine having to do this every year lol
But appreciate the advice to look at most recent year. Seminar was stressing at the open house how academic they are.
I heard chemdas got a new principal this year. Is it true that they got a more diverse crowd than they liked and are going for more yeshivish next year? Are any of these places getting very in town fancy girls?
Is mesores rochel as academic as bnos sara?

amother

Forsythia

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 12:51 am

I can only speak for Bnos Sara. I went a few years ago and my sister went about 10 years before me. We’re both very different, and both loved seminary. It’s academic, warm, not pushy in any way hashkafically, all in all a very well balanced seminary. The girls are all types.

amother

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 12:58 am

was bnos sara work manageable? How about the reports?
Is there a seminary that isn’t yeshivish, just very frum for a smart girl who isn’t fancy?

amother

Orchid

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 1:33 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Is there a seminary that isn’t yeshivish, just very frum for a smart girl who isn’t fancy?

Bnos Avigayil might be what you're looking for.

amother

Petunia

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 6:00 am

My daughter is in Seminar this year, it is quite academic, (has become much more academic in recent years), but she says the work is not overwhelming. The girls are very frum, normal, easy going. They are generally a little lower key, not into name brands…
My older daughter went to Bnos Sarah, it is more demanding, the reports were constant. There is a lot of overlap between the types of girls who go to Bnos Sarah and Seminar, but overall the girls who go to seminar are more consistently yeshivish, while Bnos Sarah has a broader range.
Chemdas is the most yeshivish of the 3, and has more of an in town crowd and feel.

amother

Eggplant

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 6:22 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

This is true. It's very uncommon to apply to Chemdas and Bnos Sarah though my daughter did. Chemdas is much more Yeshivish.

amother

Eggplant

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 6:32 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

was bnos sara work manageable? How about the reports?
Is there a seminary that isn’t yeshivish, just very frum for a smart girl who isn’t fancy?

It' she's if she's academic, but if she doesn't want to work hard she shouldn't go. All the very frum seminaries are yeshivish. The below is just my opinion base on sending a few daughters to seminary in the past few years. Each one is slightly different and of course ppl might disagree.

1. Very frum / very yeshivish
Chemdas
Hadar
BJJ
Bnos Bathseva
Mesores Rochel

2. Middle of the road Yeshivish/very frum - some are more OOT
Seminar
BYA
Nachlas
Tehillas
Keser Chaya
Ki Tov
Bnos Sarah

3. A little less Yeshivish/BY
Machon Raya
B'nos Aviagail
Ateres

amother

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 9:32 am

That list really helps narrow things down-thank you!
Where does nachlas and bnos chava fit in?

amother

Aqua

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 9:33 am

amother [ Mauve ] wrote:

Are the bnos sara teachers approachable and warm?

Not really, no

amother

Aqua

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 9:35 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

was bnos sara work manageable? How about the reports?
Is there a seminary that isn’t yeshivish, just very frum for a smart girl who isn’t fancy?

If your daughter's interested in doing the work, it'll be a challenge.
The year I was there though, there was a very large percentage of girls who weren't interested in doing the work- totally blew it off- and had an amazing time and no one said boo to them.
Both my sisters went and didn't do any work

amother

Mauve

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 9:55 am

amother [ Aqua ] wrote:

Not really, no

If a girl needs an approachable staff, that's most important, guess bnos Sarah wouldn't be a good option? Is bnos avigail staff warm and approachable?

amother

DarkYellow

Sun, Dec 12 2021, 11:47 pm

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.

amother

Firethorn

Mon, Dec 13 2021, 12:20 am

amother [ DarkYellow ] wrote:

DD applied (last year) to BJJ & Bnos Sarah. I would think that Seminar doesn’t fit with the other 2 (being much less academic).

amother

Wheat

Mon, Dec 13 2021, 10:30 am

amother [ Eggplant ] 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...).

Chayalle

Mon, Dec 13 2021, 10:44 am

amother [ Mauve ] wrote:

If a girl needs an approachable staff, that's most important, guess bnos Sarah wouldn't be a good option? Is bnos avigail staff warm and approachable?

My sister went to Bnos Sarah, and she was very close to some staff members. In fact, it was a reason she chose to go to Bnos Sarah over another seminary that is not known for the same.

However, she went over 10 years ago. So not sure if anything changed.

My sister is brilliant B"AH, was looking for super-academic, she liked diversity, open-minded, etc....but she's a solid, frum BY girl. She found what she was looking for.

I think BS has become somewhat less diverse, a bit more yeshivish, since then.

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