I understand your viewpoint. The majority of Americans are probably centrist or slight right or left - depending on the issue. That’s not Smith.
Personally, I think there’s great benefit to being exposed to different political ideas. However, IMO, there’s a difference between hoping your D chooses a different type of school vs deciding not to pay for it because you disagree with her choice.
But of course this is a personal family matter.
I’m probably in the very low minority that would steer my kid to a different school.
I agree that with the feeling that sending a kid to a school with such narrow views would not be in the best interests of the student.
There’s another thread about protests where everyone agrees that the brains of protesting students are not sufficiently developed to allow them to understand the implications of their decisions. I put this in the same light.
Why not ask current Smithies on the cc Smith forum about your concerns about possible “group think”? As an aside, no matter where she goes, isn’t she likely to find like-minded peers to befriend? Most of us likely have friends of different “beliefs” but it’s unlikely that is the majority of our social network.
And expect an unbiased response?
Do some independent research. This is your kid and a very important decision.
Better to ask those living it than some random research, which probably is based on campus interviews anyway!
Many on that thread might agree that while young adult brains aren’t yet fully formed…but I didn’t hear anyone say they believe these students don’t understand the implications of their decisions, or that the students shouldn’t have consequences for their behavior/actions/words.
Regarding OP and Smith, I would have my student do some research on the vibe and possible pressure to conform. I don’t know what College Pulse is/how they gather data, but would also look at the ratio of liberals to conservatives on other campuses to compare.
Not sure posting on CC will yield unbiased Information.
If it’s my kid, I would do my own independent research that I would certainly consider better. Read official and unofficial school newspapers for news articles, local news articles, and national news articles. Who is, and is not, speaking on campus? What does the course catalogue look like? As a start.
I would have my kid research this. Maybe the kid wants a more liberal environment than what they have now. We don’t know. What we do know is that the parent is concerned about this.
If it’s my kid, I’d let her to do her own research. There’s no need for her to get caught up in the parental groupthink. I already went to college.
Just pulled up the College Pulse research that shows a 55:1 liberal to conservative student ratio at Smith. Noting that is based on an n of 92 students, fielded in the first half of 2023…so I would put no credence in those findings.
Asking current Smithies is likely more helpful than asking other parents here in this thread. that said, I agree that it should be the potential student doing the research, and the parent should be more open-minded. JMO.
It seems like you have made up your mind. So rather than weigh in on whether or not I agree with your perspective, I’ll simply say that I think you need to tell your child you don’t support her interest in Smith and work on a list of schools you are comfortable having her apply to. If you’re not going to pay to send her to Smith, it should not be in the consideration set.
Being concerned is the first step. Taking action to investigate is the next.
The best path, IMO, is for parent and kid to research this and hopefully arrive at the same conclusion.
The parent knows the kid best. Not sure what “open minded” means in this case, but it should not take the place of doing what’s in the best interest of the kid.
Can’t agree with that one. How many times have we seen on CC that parents will only pay if they think school is “worth it”, or refuse to pay for some likely self-focused reason. There are a few threads right now by students whose parents are unwilling to pay for schools that the student wants to attend. What’s in the best interest of the kid is not necessarily known or understood or supported by the parent.
Maybe in a small number of cases, but most likely not in this case since the parent is actively looking for outside opinions.
Many times, when I hear someone say “be open minded” I think it’s because they don’t agree with a position. Being “open minded” goes both ways.
This is sounding like a debate, meaning its time to move on. IMO the student likely knows themselves best. The OP asked if they were being narrow minded. Many of us here say YES.
And others say NO. As a parent, I believe every young (16-18 yr old) kid should work with an involved parent in such a large decision.
No debate. Just the other side of the coin.
It’s a debate with the constant tit for tat. Done.
Discussion of the pros and cons of the parental role in the college selection process is one of the raisons de’etre of CC 
Well, I am disputing your premise I suppose.
Worldviews are complex and multidimensional. Not everyone who describes themselves as “conservative” has the same, or even necessarily a very similar, worldview, and of course the same is true of people who describe themselves as “liberal”. There is simply no way a simple binary could possibly capture the real underlying complexity, and in fact studies have repeatedly found most people are actually a mix of “liberal”, “moderate”, and “conservative” views, and they tend to pick a label that works more often than not, but not always.
What I do think is true, though, is if you don’t have many self-described conservative students, then certain sorts of specific worldviews reasonably common in the modern US population are likely to be poorly represented. What I don’t think is true, though, is that all the students will actually have the same worldview, that there will not be all sorts of disagreement and debate, and so on.