khsstitches

Definitely Hampshire (parent and aunt).
Sarah Lawrence
Goucher
Guilford

TrumpetDad

ISI's Ivy ratings (http://www.collegeguide.org/itembrowse.aspx):

Brown Red
Columbia Yellow
Cornell Yellow
Dartmouth Yellow
Harvard Yellow
Penn Yellow
Princeton Green
Yale Yellow

BTW, my wife works at Brown, where they recently celebrated "Fall Weekend", formerly known as Columbus Day.

teenage_cliche

IMO you can pretty much just go geographically; areas that are thought of as liberal (big cities, the Northeast) tend to have liberal colleges, whereas many schools in the South are much more conservative. There are exceptions, of course, but that's still the dominant theme.

Gwen Fairfax

I consider myself a liberal, and I don't like seeing the traditional liberal values confused with PC.... I'd say true liberalism has an openminded, generous worldview. More than anything, I'd say liberalism is humane. So, what colleges are most open to different points of view, most interested in the well-being of all people? I don't know--not sure what would show that about a college.

EricLG

I'll bite, TrumpetDad --
Does your favored book give the green light to schools like Notre Dame, or the Jesuit schools ? Is 'wrong-think' tolerated and listened to respectfully at those schools ?

The test of a minority's tolerance and open-mindedness occurs when they are the majority.

d'smom

Interesting that Princeton is green and the other Ivy's are yellow or red. Princeton has a ton of liberal thinking people there and they are pretty vocal about it. I would have given it a yellow. Then again, there is a lot of that old southern alumni money there. Hmmm?

Yurtle

Mount Holyoke-

Why: Well, it's socially liberal from what I can tell. I was speaking to a student who informed me that clothes are literally optional. It's written into the dress code, so on hot summer days, the girls can go out and sun themselves. (Although she admitted everyone came to class clothed.) There's also a large LGBT/Q community and support.

Source: Anecdata.

School: Goucher

Why: Just a guess. They have a college democrats club, but no republicans last I checked. They're also very internationalized, and bring plenty of global views/speakers to the table. Part of the reason I applied was that they seemed great for broad thinking.

[Yeah, I don't want to get into a 'all the liberal kids are into groupthink' thing. Riiiight. That's very much why I disagree with my own *liberal* friends at various points.]

Source: Self-research on political climate

School: Scripps

Why: S.C.O.R.E house (a diversity center) seemed to be a very big thing (Although maybe it was uplayed because I was on a diversity weekend. They're socially liberal- when I went I counted various posters on The Female Orgasm (these were seen on Harvey Mudd's campus as well) and Two detailed paintings of a vagina in rainbow color. One sitting quite prominately in the Cafe. The school professors themselves however, mentioned at few things:

- The beginning Topic of Core I was Prop 8. Not for OR against, but the arguments presented.
-That said, they admitted to there being a fairly large liberal population (as well as a christian one, often coinciding.) and smaller conservative groups of girls.
- The Politics Professor began his lecture with explaining what true political liberalism IS, which is most every form of politics we here in America know. It's capitalistic with a seperation between public and private sectors. WHERE the seperation of public and private falls determines whether you are seen as an American Conservative or an American Liberal; but the fact that there IS a seperation at all (instead of none, like communism) means it is liberal. I personally thought it was fascinating how many people use the terms incorrectly. (Excellent class!)

Source: Visit to Scripps.

Yurtle

School: George Washington U

Why: GWU may be somewhat split, but as I've heard, the campus tends to lean more liberally and has a MUCH larger Democrats club. That being said, they ARE in D.C. so it figures that they are intensely political. My Cousin goes there, and she is a republican, but attends the Democrat's Club meetings because she's welcome to! It gives her plenty of time to see both sides of the arguement, and when I saw the clubs website, they actively welcome people of any political bent to attend meetings.

Source: Cousin, self-research

tk21769

1) College Name - The University of Chicago.

2) Your reason(s) for calling it "Liberal" - A statement in the Faculty Handbook of 1999 expressed it this way:
"Chicago has developed a celebrated--some would say notorious--brand of academic civility. It is a place where one is always in principle allowed to pose the hardest question possible--of a student, a teacher, or a colleague--and feel entitled to expect gratitude rather than resentment for one's effort."

To me, this openness to serious questioning (not one's position on abortion or gay marriage) is the essence of a liberal (not to say "leftist") learning environment. They may not be completely successful, but I hope the faculty continue to work hard at it.

3) Your source of information (first-hand experience as a student or parent? friend of current student or alum? etc.) - Alumnus.

TaiTai

College of University of Chicago!

To me a liberal environment means that each individual (mind) gets the chance to develop and to express itself, that each individual (mind) is respected (not just tolerated), and that no individual (mind) is excluded/looked down upon/laughed at/etc. by people with different thoughts. An individual in a liberal environment can be progressive, conservative, religious, of any sexual preference, of any cultural background, etc. Of course being liberal does not mean that each individual can do or say everything when it suits him/her.

S is a UoC junior and he would never fit in a place that is not truly liberal. He has a sincere interest in academics which is why he went to this college in the first place. An unexpected bonus was its wonderful social climate. This may be the result of an approach which is allowing a lot of 'space' for individuals to socialize. UoC's housing and dining system contribute to that. (Never believe the stories that there is no time for fun. There is plenty of it. It may not be so visible though because 'herding the hordes' to mass parties is not part of UoC's approach.)

xiggi

Considering the actual educational landscape, it might be wise to redefine the exercise with a terms such as VERY LIBERAL. Except for a small percentages of schools, all colleges ARE liberal, with only various degrees of "liberalism" to differentiate between the despicable, the repulsive, and the acceptable. It only takes the confusion between "liberalism and internationalism" to understand the depth of the problem.

It seems that it would be easy to analyze why some colleges have resisted the urge to completely turn themselves into something that hardly represents the political balance of this country.

TrumpetDad

Legitimate question.

You can see the simple traffic light ratings here: CollegeGuide.org - Browse

...but it's really best to follow that up with a reading of the text -- which is quite lengthy for each school they've reviewed -- to understand the specifics of how they've arrived at a particular rating. This addresses their methodology: CollegeGuide.org - Frequently Asked Questions

I have both the '08-'09 edition in hardcopy, and an online subscription. I gave away an older hardcopy edition. Other college guides read like comic books after reading this.

You can buy individual articles for $2.50 online. I think there may be a free sample online as well.

Notre Dame is kind of an interesting case, in that they've been under fire lately for NOT toeing the Catholic line to the satisfaction of some. BTW, they get a yellow.

bird rock

Macalester, based on the story I wrote about in this post:

Mildly disturbing conversation last night

In terms of definitions, of course we are all defining "liberal" as leftist, not the traditional definition of open-minded. If we define "liberal" as meaning open-minded I vote for CMC.

Yurtle

Claremont McKenna?

It's somewhat liberal. But they proudly claim it's got an even keel of both conservative and liberal students. As an added tidbit, when I talked to a Pomona student the breakdown of the 5 C's came out such that CMC HAD to be Slytherin. Possibly because it's packed with future leaders/politicians/economists/etc. xD

Coolbrezze

Oh wow, there are so many lliberal colleges ( as you will find many universities) so I'll just emphasize on a school I've been accepted into

1) College Name
University of Iowa

2) Your reason(s) for calling it "Liberal"
Research, other students

3) Your source of information (first-hand experience as a student or parent? friend of current student or alum? etc.)
Student, research