I’m a high school student interested in political science, and I live in California. I know that UCB has a great political science program, but I’m concerned about the environment that I would be placed in. Berkely has a reputation for being at the forefront of activism, and while I am certainly a liberal, I’m not too fond of most of the ideas and policies that most of the activists my age have. Is Berkley the kind of environment where my views would be respected, both by my peers and teachers? I’ve been seeing a concerning trend with politically active teenagers around me who shut down any attempt for dialogue that disagrees with them, and I don’t want to go to a college where that would happen. I also wouldn’t want a professor to have a clear bias in their teaching that either makes them grade students who agree with their standpoint easier (something that happens with some of my high school’s teachers) or impacts the overall content of the course (i.e. their biases coming through in the teaching and only explaining the parts of a situation that are meaningful to their positions).
Also, how does UCLA compare to UCB in terms of its political science programs? Would the environment potentially be better for a student like me?