- Believe it or not, unless you’re planning on becoming a Rebbe/Morah for your entire life, you’re going to deal with goyim on a regular basis in the course of your work. I’m not sure why having goyim in your classes would be a such a terrible thing in that light. Unless you’re incredibly susceptible to peer pressure and head out to bars with them, your interactions will probably be limited to discussing classwork.
- You can always claim for religious reasons you cannot work on Saturday. Most schools are very liberal and will bend over backwards to accommodate other religions. Believe it or not, the world isn’t full of anti-Semites out to getcha.
- Does it run in to Shabbos? If yes, see above. If no, what’s the issue exactly? When my uncle was in medical school, he would finish his final then walk home for an hour because it was too close to Shabbos to take a taxi. And this is in the 60s, when people were afraid to wear a yarmulka in class and there was no “frum option” for the most part. Stop being such a sissy.
- Nu? You deal with it. Before we were married, my wife would get ready at 6am on Fridays, go to her job, then come home with less than an hour until candle-lighting.
The world isn’t some pretty plastic frum bubble that we can all live in (at least not until Moshiach comes). There’s a goyishe velt and the majority of us cannot help but interact with it. If going to Touro instead of a different college is an option, kol hakavod. But for most people it’s not. And even people in Touro end up working in non-frum places too. I’ve even heard Rebbeim telling people not to go to Touro, as in a goyish school you know to keep your distance from social events, but in a frum school you may end up with the wrong crowd.
Baruch Hashem we live in a time where it’s more possible than ever to be frum. Baruch Hashem we don’t have to hide our Yiddishkeit in the streets. Baruch Hashem rather than getting fired every Sunday, an employer can be in deep trouble for not accommodating a frum employee. Baruch Hashem we can even go to college and find well paying jobs, instead of either being rejected for our long skirts or peyos. Baruch Hashem attending a college doesn’t mean that we have to reject halacha.
Repeat after me: “Instead of complaining about the choices I made in my life, I will thank Hashem that I am able to make those choices.”