The goal of the Lander College for Men in Queens can be summed up in one phrase: The pursuit of excellence in Jewish and academic studies in a personalized environment. What distinguishes the College is in its conception of what that means and how it can best be achieved.
Established in Fall 2000, the purpose of the Lander College for Men/Beis Medrash L’Talmud is to provide a superior college education for students committed to serious Beis Medrash learning in an atmosphere of Torah.
The Beis Medrash L’Talmud, an affiliate of the College, makes available advanced, intensive study of gemarah to its students. The approach to the Beis Medrash L’Talmud follows the classic, analytic methods characteristic of the finest yeshivas. Students receive close personal attention from their roshei yeshiva in a warm and supportive environment conducive to their personal growth.
The Beis Medrash L’Talmud learning program functions six days a week. On regular weekdays, the program for undergraduate students ends at 3:00 PM. A required night seder enhances the learning experience. Students have the opportunity to interact with Kollel members, who participate in creating a vibrant Beis Medrash atmosphere.
Beyond these features, the Beis Medrash L’Talmud is committed to the philosophy that the quality of Jewish Studies cannot be separated from the quality of Jewish life. Each, to an unusual degree, is dependent upon the other.
The Beis Medrash seeks to create a supportive and caring Jewish environment. Because admissions are selective, enrollment is limited to students who can benefit fully from its unique programs. This makes it possible to build a strong community of students who share a personal commitment to the pursuit of excellence in all aspects of the College’s programs.
Lander College for Men is deeply committed to providing a superb and rigorous curriculum in a challenging small-class setting.
While the College offers a variety of courses in the liberal arts and sciences, it specializes in the natural and life sciences; business-related fields such as finance, management, and accounting, and computer science; psychology; and pre-law studies, such as political science. The College provides the kind of curriculum designed to produce leaders in these fields.
Students are encouraged to develop a close personal relationship with their rebbeim and faculty, who see it as an essential part of their role to be concerned for each student. Deans and other administrators share the same commitment to meeting the individual needs of their students.
Because the student body consists of a community of carefully selected and motivated learners, the shared ethos within the College likewise cultivates an atmosphere of warmth. Classes are small, and close personal interaction with faculty is fostered, especially in seminar courses.
Faculty Mentorships
At many institutions of higher education, it is easy for students to feel lost among the large numbers of students. Because the Lander College for Men is a small, selective institution for motivated students, it is able to assign each student a mentor from its full-time faculty. The role of the mentor is to develop a personal relationship with the student, provide academic guidance, and help the student secure internships, employment, or acceptance into graduate or professional schools.
The College is located in a newly constructed campus on seven acres in one of the safest, most vibrant and attractive Jewish neighborhoods in New York City, Kew Gardens Hills, Queens. The central vision behind the design, planning and construction of the campus was to create an environment most conducive to realizing the College's goal of academic and Jewish excellence in a personalized environment.
Academic Center
The main academic building on the campus is a four-story 73,000 square foot L-shaped building designed specifically to meet the needs of a high-quality academic center.
The academic center includes twelve well-equipped laboratories for biology, chemistry, physics, and computer science, to support strong College programs in the sciences; classrooms and seminar rooms. There is a beautiful 4,500 square foot Beis Medrash/Study Hall, a modern library supplemented with an extensive online system, indoor and outdoor lounges, extensive faculty and administrative offices, an exercise room, and a cafeteria and dining area that seats 250.
Dormitory Facilities
Consistent with the overall goals of the college, its dormitory facilities are designed to help foster small communities of learners, close personal relationships among students, and to impart a comfortable, home-like feel to campus living. The dormitories consist of nine newly-constructed attached townhouses, each of which contains three spacious apartments with multiple bedrooms, as well as kitchens, dining rooms, living rooms, and balconies. In contrast to the stark institutional environment found in many university residences, students enjoy the amenities of garden-apartment living.
This living arrangement allows for flexible meal options. The College cafeteria provides a meal plan, but students may also cook in their own kitchens and/or patronize the many neighborhood restaurants.
Campus Grounds
Most of the seven acres of campus area are dedicated to creating the kind of atmosphere reminiscent of fine college campuses in rural, college towns. Immediately behind the academic center and dormitories is a spacious, 8,000-square- foot college quadrangle. The quadrangle consists of beautifully paved and grassy areas, ample seating and carefully landscaped plantings. Students can walk here, sit and study, congregate, talk with their professors, or just relax. Past the quadrangle are the College's athletic facilities. These include a baseball diamond, soccer field, two regulation size basketball courts, and a tennis court.
Kew Gardens Hills
The location of the Lander College further reinforces its overall Jewish atmosphere. Kew Gardens Hills is one of New York’s most desirable neighborhoods---safe, suburban in its appearance, and yet easily accessible by public transportation to Manhattan’s vast cultural, educational and Jewish resources and social opportunities. In this vibrant community, home to thousands of Jewish families, students will find synagogues, Judaica bookstores, study halls, lectures and educational programs, and kosher eateries widely available.
Student Life
While the academic programs of the College are demanding, there is still time for numerous student activities. The Student Government, elected annually, represents student concerns to the administration and sponsors a variety of programs and activities, including Purim, Chanukah, and Lag B’Omer parties, and guest lectures. The Beis Medrash L’Talmud sponsors a monthly Rosh Chodesh breakfast and guest shiur, and both the College and the Beis Medrash maintain a full schedule of guest lectures for students and the community at large. Students are also active in numerous clubs related to academic areas of interest. In addition, the campus is open almost every Shabbos during the academic year; a strong Shabbos atmosphere brings students together in a way that substantially enhances the academic experience.
The Core Course Requirement
Academic excellence and professional success at the highest levels require a base of knowledge, skills, and critical engagement beyond that provided by the major alone. The College Core Curriculum seeks to achieve these goals by requiring students to complete a sequence of two survey courses in history, two survey courses in literature, two in English Composition (unless exempted by a placement examination) one course in mathematics, a two-semester sequence in Jewish history, and one course in either the natural sciences (for students not majoring in that field) or social sciences (for students not majoring in that field).
The Lander College for Men has pioneered an innovative “Writing and Speaking Across the Core” program, unique among colleges and universities in the United States, to develop the written and oral communication skills of its students. All history and literature courses in the core require two papers, one of which must be rewritten to reflect the instructor’s comments, plus a seminar-style oral presentation to the class.
Class Schedule and Credit Load
College courses begin at 3:00 PM. Typically, students in Lander College take 12-13 general academic credits plus 3 credits for study in the Beis Medrash L’Talmud. Touro College offers a five-week summer session, through which students may complete up to seven credits.
Yeshiva Credits
Students may earn up to 48 college credits for post-high school yeshiva studies, pursued in Israel or in the United States, at Lander College for Men or elsewhere. Students earn further credits for studies in Beis Medrash L’Talmud. To receive transfer credits, students must submit to the College an official yeshiva transcript with grades for an evaluation. No credit will be given for courses completed with a grade below C. Students are typically limited to a maximum load of 18 credits per semester. The awarding of credits for yeshiva studies is bases solely on College academic policies. The credit values assigned to courses by the College might not coincide with the credit values listed on a yeshiva transcript.
Students at the College come from the New York metropolitan area and from states including Ohio, Illinois, Florida, New Jersey, Connecticut, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Maryland, California, and Washington. In addition, students from Canada, England, Belgium, and Israel are enrolled. More than twenty high schools across the continent are represented, among them Yeshiva of Flatbush, MTA of Manhattan, Shaarei Torah of Monsey, Block Yeshiva of St. Louis, Yeshiva of Greater Washington, and Rabin High School of Ottawa, Ontario. The great majority of students also have one or more years of post-high school study in Israel.
The combined SAT score of the typical entering student is in the 1200 range, placing the College in the upper tier of selective American colleges and universities. Nearly one quarter of the most recent entering class transferred from other institutions.
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