Having a good working knowledge of Jewish tradition, observance, and language is important if one is to be an effectively participatory member of the Jewish community. As such, we traditionally value Jewish education highly, and thus we also instruct those who come to us for conversion that they must be willing to educate themselves thoroughly in regard to these things-- and of course we help them to do so.
As a Conservative rabbi who has aided quite a number of people to convert, I have never yet encountered someone who was serious enough about conversion to approach a rabbi and ask for it, yet who was unwilling or uninterested in acquiring Jewish education. The sense I get is that if one is interested in traditional Judaism or Jewish observance, the potential body of knowledge available and the value of education is actually one of the attractions. I am not sure I have heard from any of my Conservative or Orthodox colleagues more than one or two anecdotes about isolated cases of people asking for conversion but balking at studying.
In any case, traditionally what we look for in members of the Jewish community is commitment, value of traditional knowledge, observance, participation. We have never cared whether they came in the form of someone Jewish by birth or Jewish by choice (i.e., conversion). In fact, throughout our history as well as today, some of our most brilliant, effective, inspiring, and contributory Jews were converts.
To what degree these things hold true in the non-halachic movements (Reform and Reconstructionist, and the minor fringe communities) is a matter of debate, and is also difficult to measure, since commitment to education, value of traditional observance, and the ease and effectiveness in Jewish Law of conversion varies far more from community to community, synagogue to synagogue, rabbi to rabbi, in those movements than tends to be true in the halachic movements.
