Hi! I am still here, have just been a bit busy with starting a new semester in college… So about the averages, I do not believe that they are looking for a specific average. They don’t want someone with straight C’s who cannot care less about class, but if you have lots of B’s but are motivated, determined, and have a desire to gain in seminary and grow higher, then you are what they are looking for!
Ok so Musical dignity instead of answering your questions in order, I want to comment on your last paragraph and tell you that Yes that seminary you are describing is a dream, but that is EXACTLY what Ateres is! It is a real dream that comes true! I seriously would have to think to myself during the year this is just too good be true I must be dreaming and then have to pinch myself to see that it is real!!! It’s great! So yes, it sounds like Ateres might be very much what you are looking for!!!
So I ended up choosing Ateres, because what you described is exactly what I wanted, and Ateres just seemed to be the one and only perfect place that would fit that need for me. Meohr is very different as you know!
Every girl in Ateres is challenged on her own level which seems impossible but they do such a great job.. just don’t know how lol. In High school I worked very hard, was very motivated, and really ended up getting half A’s half B’s probably. I do much better with deep hashkafa classes then complicated textual classes. So Ateres somehow mixes the two together. They take your love for hashkafa and bridge your skills to textual as well without you even realizing! So about memorizing your notes, I totally get that and hate it too. I believe you will have a little bit of that anywhere you go, but it is much better in Ateres probably then anywhere else. Even the textual classes have a lot of hashkafa it is very cool how they work it out! I really disliked navi my entire life, and in seminary it was one of my favorite subjects!!! So you will see it will be great in that way! It is work but you will enjoy the work immensly! I never thought I would ever think in my lifetime that I would enjoy studying, but in seminary I really did because the classes were so great and stimulating!
There are rules, but nothing that would effect you if you are not looking to do wrong. There is a strong sense of trust in the girls, something I needed as well. There are rules about certain things, but you will appreciate the rules because they are just the basics of being a bais yaakov girl. Will you be upset if there are rules about not going to places that are considered hangouts at night? I know I wasn’t because that and the few other rules I knew were for us! The few rules they have they have a no tolerance policy for, but if you are a good kid which you sound like you are, you would never even come close to thinking of bending on them. I almost forgot we had such rules! It really wasn’t a problem!
There are some tests, not just midterms and finals like meohr, but not an overwhelming amount, and again I really enjoyed studying for them, and even though I am not crazy studious or brillian I did much better in seminary then I did in high school.
I was in the middle track. The higher track is for a girl who is very fluent in reading and understanding all meforshim without help… there is more to it, I will have to write more later just because I gotta run, but I might have written about it on a previous post not sure. I will write more about it later. Shabbos was never a problem you always had it for relaxation and rejuvination! Never needed to think about school on shabbos except maybe during midterms and finals depending on what the scedule was! Feel free to ask other questions!