Asked Y(O)U Answered: What’s the Hardest Part of Balancing Torah and College Life?
At Yeshiva University, the dual curriculum is a point of pride, but navigating the demanding schedules of limudei kodesh and secular studies presents a constant struggle. Students strive to excel in their secular studies while remaining steadfast in their religious commitments, often finding themselves stretched thin between two worlds. The Commentator hit the bustling Wilf and Beren Campuses to learn how students confront this challenge. Listen in as students open up about their experiences and answer: What’s the hardest part of balancing Torah and college life?
Noah Merkin (YC ‘26)
Major: Psychology
It’s definitely hard prioritizing shiur and night seder when those are important values of mine while knowing that I have to balance homework and studying all at once. The YU interaction between secular and religious studies is an important skill to learn when it comes to preparing for later points in my life because I know that in the future I’m going to have to balance a work life and a family life with my learning schedule, and if I don’t create the time, it won’t be made. At the end of the day, I think YU is a great place for both religious and secular growth, and by the end of my time here, I hope to find a perfect balance to carry on for both myself and my family.
Nosson Oirich (YC ‘28)
Major: Psychology
Sometimes it may feel like the work I’m doing in my classes is not related to the spiritual life I’m leading as a Jew. As I want to be getting closer to God and my Judaism, I sometimes feel that I am falling further. The set times that I do have to learn don’t always allow for the learning that I need to fill my cup in the spiritual sense. However, when I have success in my set times for learning, my day and overall experience is much better for it. Bookending my days with my values and connection with Torah keeps me grounded and keeps me overall more effective not only in my Torah life but in my work life as well.
Shoshana Fisher (SCW ‘28)
Major: Psychology
For many, Stern College is the last structured Torah learning women will do on this level. As such, I feel strongly about taking the most rigorous and exciting Judaic classes to get the most out of the incredible faculty and their breadth and depth of knowledge. At the same time, GPAs are extraordinarily important, especially when it comes to graduate school. Often, the highest level Judaics are the most academically challenging, and students are forced to weigh the Torah they want to learn against potential future career success.
Ethan Birk (SSSB ‘27)
Major: Finance
For me, the hardest part of balancing Torah and college life is managing the mental real estate and knowing where my focus should be at a given time. The balance is not the same every day or every week. During normal weeks, I try to put more emphasis on my Torah growth and working on my middos, but during midterms, finals and heavy exam periods, school naturally requires more attention. The challenge is recognizing when to shift that balance without feeling like I am neglecting one side. It requires constantly reassessing where my focus should be and being honest about what the moment demands.
Jacob Lenefsky (SSSB ‘28)
Major: Accounting
The hardest part of balancing Torah and college life is the priorities. After a full day of both shiur and secular classes, sitting down for night seder requires a level of mental energy that has usually already been used up. The pressure of upcoming deadlines, exams and assignments makes it genuinely difficult to be fully present and engaged in learning. But in many ways, that struggle is exactly the point. Learning to push through fatigue and competing demands builds a kind of resilience that a sheltered environment simply cannot teach. Out in the working world, Torah won’t always come easy. There will always be something pulling your attention away. YU forces you to practice that balance while you’re still in a supportive community, so that by the time you graduate you have a greater sense of balancing real life struggles.
Maayan Kahan (SCW ‘27)
Major: Biology
I think the hardest part is getting Torah learning into my regular routine. The degree of chaos within college life can really fluctuate, and I find that it’s much easier to stay committed to my learning when I have a set time each day. When I’m learning in the morning one day, at night the next day, or during lunch the day after, it gets very easy to lose sight of my goals for each day and Torah learning falls to the wayside. I work hard for Torah to be a constant in my life, even when other factors are changing, but remaining consistent can be a real challenge.
Dave Bousbib (SSSB ‘28)
Major: Finance
It’s not just about being busy. It’s that when you’re learning Torah you might be thinking about schoolwork, and when you’re doing schoolwork, you feel like you should be learning more, so it’s like you’re never fully relaxed in either one. They also feel really different, since Torah is more about growing and thinking deeply, while college is more about deadlines and getting things done, so switching between them can be tiring.
Tali Novick (SCW ‘27)
Major: Biology and Psychology
The hardest part of balancing Torah and college life for me is finding the patience to sit and learn while dedicating hours of time and focus to my secular studies. I find that on days when I have a lot of class and or homework, I feel too drained or antsy by the end of the day to really focus my attention on personal Torah learning. It is much easier for me to focus on learning when it is the sole or one of a few sitting-and-reading activities I do that day.
Photo caption: YU Beit Midrash
Photo credit: Abie Rose
