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the rampage Volume XXXIV Number 3
The Ramaz Upper School
December 2008/Kislev 5769 Ramaz Rocks Early Decision Ellery Kauvar ‘09
Photo by Melanie Gersten ‘09 The chemical mishap at Ramaz on Wednesday, November 26th forced everyone outside for nearly an hour as several crews inspected the smoldering potassium. Article on Page 2
Ellery Kauvar ‘09 The recession that has destroyed multi-billion dollar companies and crippled the American auto industry has begun to affect Ramaz in significant ways. New spending has been halted, most notably on the proposed new lower school, a multi-million project that was abruptly cancelled this past September. Furthermore, The New York Times reported that Ramaz lost an additional $6 million in investments with Bernard Madoff, the alleged Wall Street defrauder. While Rabbi Lookstein insisted that “We’ll be able to continue functioning normally,” there have been clear repercussions. On September 29th, just as the financial crisis was beginning, Ramaz announced that they would be cancelling plans for a new $60 million Lower School, instead opting to renovate for less than half the cost. “Even though significant funds have already been raised. It was felt that launching a community-wide building fund campaign at this particular time did not take into consideration sufficiently the overall needs of the community,” said Ms. Fagin, the Head of School.
Recession Hits Ramaz While there have been almost no changes on a dayto-day basis, there is increased scrutiny into projects and Shabbatonim and Chaggigot. “We are looking much more carefully now,” said Mr. Miller. “The eighth grade Israel trip was just canceled.”
the Israel portion of the trip has been dropped due to financial constraints. “I have been working on the numbers since August, and only now do we have a clearer picture on what the cost will be,” said Rabbi Goldmintz, who is in charge of the trip.
Ramaz’s new scholarship program offered 14 students grants last year, 12 of whom are in Ramaz. “There will probably be fewer students receiving scholarships. We’ll have to look carefully at the budget,” said Mr. Miller. Another important program has been severely curtailed: There will still be a Poland trip, despite numerous rumors that it would be cancelled, yet
Many students say that the lack of an Israel component has made them much more unsure about whether they would go. “It was a really tough decision,” said Rabbi Goldmintz. “We made a number of tough decisions like moving it to March, which is more off-season than May. The quotes we got were still astronomically higher,
especially with the Israel component. We decided to go only to Poland to maximize the number of students who could go.” There is also a doubt about the senior and school-wide Shabbatonim, which are costly endeavors. “The place we used last year for the senior Shabbaton had a great atmosphere,” said Dr. Warshall, the senior grade coordinator, “but it was very expensive. It’s going to be a challenge to find a habitable place that doesn’t cost too much.” The Senior Day Out, which was suspended until after the break, was ice-skating. The original plan was to go to the circus or a Broadway production. However, it would have cost over $45 a person, whereas ice-skating is only $15 per person. “It’s a real challenge coming up with fun, interesting activities that meet the new monetary constraints,” said Dr. Warshall. Mr. Miller insists that no expense will be spared for education and the quality of a Ramaz education will not be diminished.
Early decisions are in and Ramaz is up. As the final letters are still being mailed out, it is clear that this year might be the best one on record. While no official tallies have been completed by the college office, it seems that there were a record number of early applicants and acceptances. “This year we had a few more students apply early and a higher percentage admitted,” said Mr. Blumenthal, one of the Ramaz college advisors. Eight out of 13 students were accepted at Penn, while six out of 10 were admitted to Columbia with no outright rejections. Seniors have also been accepted to schools such as Dartmouth, Vassar, NYU, Michigan, Northwestern and Yale. “I think our grade is extremely competent and is more focused on schoolwork than previous grades,” said Dara Marans ’09. “I wouldn’t say the success of the senior grade is necessarily based on a greater intelligence than in past years nor is it due to a larger class size,” said Mr. Blumenthal. “The most important factor was the high number of appropriate early applications, with very few reaches.” The college office insists that these schools do not have quotas for Ramaz students, and that sometimes students are just unlucky. “It’s not a precise science,” said Mr. Blumenthal. “Sometimes an application just resonates with an admissions officer and sometimes it doesn’t. However, not being accepted does not mean the student was not qualified and cannot get into a comparable school.” Additionally, there is a general trend during economic recessions that the number of early decision applications at private schools goes down, while state schools get a tremendous boost. Many students at Ramaz are able to pay tuition, a factor at some colleges, such as Washington University, which is not “needblind.”