The Amish tend to be pretty insular communities that have had the same extended families for generations, so being truly accepted might take a few years. Most "English" people who join tend to return to ordinary life within that time after the charm of the rustic lifestyle wears off. You'd also be required to learn Pennsylvania Dutch, as well as abide by all the other community rules, of course. Some Mennonite communities live pretty similar lifestyles, but are a little more relaxed in terms of strictness, so you may find them more forgiving, especially if it's to continue studies.
this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026
23 points (82.9% liked)
No Stupid Questions
47298 readers
821 users here now
No such thing. Ask away!
!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.
All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.
Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.
If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.
Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.
If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.
Credits
Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!
The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Dang you make it sound like some kind of religious cult.
😳
For real though, they aren't unlike many other fundamentalist sects across different religions, so one going in should expect pretty strict adherence to their interpretation of biblical doctrine. That's one of the things they're famous for, besides the no technology, raising barns, and building quality wooden furniture. Nowadays, there's a bit of flexibility regarding technology depending on which Amish community you live in, especially if it's to promote an Amish business, but there are still limits. All that being said, most newcomers who leave do cite the religious aspects as growing tiresome over time.
But it's not like the Amish are the kind of people who won't let you leave or anything, they're actually pretty big on the idea that one has to want to be a part of the Amish church and that it can't be forced on anyone; they even have that Rumspringa thing where kids are sent out into modern society at 16 until they decide whether they want to formally join the church or not. They don't believe in evangelism of any kind. I can't claim to be any kind of expert, though, I've just had a personal fascination with them for awhile.
I didn't intend for my first comment to come off that way, but I believe everything I've said is factual.
P.S.
I'll add for OP that I'm not sure how your goal of continuing your math studies would mesh with the Amish community. Assuming you'd be attending some sort of higher education outside of the community to earn a degree, I'm not sure how they'd perceive that. The Amish do their own schooling and don't offer classes at that level because they're actually against higher education in most communities, plus a university would probably be too far for a horse and buggy, so you'd most likely need a car. In fact, it was actually by Supreme Court decision that allowed the Amish to stop education at 8th grade. They might feel you weren't fully committed to the lifestyle.
If you were to stay after you earned your degree, what would you use it for? You'd likely have a job making furniture, doing some other handicraft, or farming. Your only option to use your advanced math skills would be to get a job in the non-Amish world, which might also ruffle some feathers. Hard to say for sure, though. I think even the more orthodox Mennonites are also a little more open to higher education, though, but I could be wrong.
Then again, you could still totally just get a degree, join whatever church you want, and live however rustically you choose.
The thing about amish is they (in theory) accept or reject a tool or technology based on whether the community will benefit or not. So a few may have cell phones, or get to use tractors etc.
But it varies a lot from community to community. I've seen amish run electronic distribution companies (miller tech), side by sides, e scooters and even one amish guy tearing it up on a One Wheel.
I think your calculator would be okay
I think it depends on which Amish community, since they all adopt different degrees of self-sufficiency. See https://nebula.tv/videos/hai-how-amish-people-get-around-not-using-electricity/ (or on YT).
Dust off that abacus
I sure will 👍
355/113
Will you ever need more than 6 decimals?
Like others have said, the degree of technology permitted and a lot of other things vary a lot from one amish community to another.
But in general, most Amish aren't going to school beyond about 8th grade. Some of them might be getting some sort of vocational training in addition to that but you're probably going to have a hard time finding any kind of opportunities for Amish higher education.
In general, they tend to get more leeway for using technology as part of their business than for personal use, they might have a computer to help track business expenses, maybe even a business email or have a website for selling their goods online. It's possible they might even be allowed to have a car or use a tractor for certain purposes.
But as far as just pursuing a math education, that's probably gonna be a no-go. And if they somehow do permit it, you're probably gonna need to get by with a pencil, paper, slide rules, etc.
I actually know how to use a slide rule, so challenge accepted
The Amish have a pretty bad inbreeding problem. You sure?
Which is why they need OP
You're not getting in unless you witness a murder.
bring my Casio graphing calculator
continue my math studies?
Logically, it's not the calculator itself. It's the second question that matters.
Since they do not need that kind of math, why would you continue it?
Infinite series...
Study your own mathematics, maybe you'll discover Sine and Cosine, maybe even Tangent..
To say it more directly: They would not have you doing useless studies, like they would not have someone who walks in circles around a tree the whole day long.
Sorry, I remembered π to 50 decimal places already. I like my circles round, and also know how to balance and align wheels.
You do like your rolling thingies to roll properly right?
3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751