I was searching the political climate among some LACs and used ChatGPT. It gives the attached summary. I am wondering how accurate this may be. This is not a political thread.
Thanks for any input.
I’d suggest you validate with statistics from niche. Put the school name + niche in a search engine.
In niche, once in the specific school, go to school - for example Grinnell - the go to the Student Life link and scroll down. You’ll get a picture like this. There will be one for each school. Niche is based on surveys - how many surveyed varies - Grinnell says 19 responses - but we found the tool generally accurate from what we experienced on visits or what the kids friends say. Solid directionally at the least. In contrast I also put F&M (40 responses) to bounce off your list. And Bucknell which shows more liberal but only 16 respondents.
I’d suspect most aren’t politically motivated on campus at all but you could likely also tie the level of family conservativeness to the % of full pay. Higher the full pay potentially more conservative.
Well, that I’d be interested in seeing stats on. Mostly not true for the Bay Area full pay families I know, for example. It would be an interesting exercise though.
@cloudymind - What are the references ChatGPT uses for its summary? I usually go back to the sources and see what gets used… I’ve seen ChatGPT do some rather strange interpretation of its sources on occasion. Are you posting here to see if personal experiences match up to the summary?
ChatGPT listed the sources are as following. But I did not ask for each individual detailed data.
1. National student survey data
-
The Princeton Review’s annual college rankings, especially:
-
“Most Liberal Students”
-
“Most Conservative Students”
-
“Most Politically Active Students”
-
“Most Free Speech Friendly/Unfriendly Campuses”
(These are based on tens of thousands of verified student surveys each year.)
-
-
Niche.com student life reviews — particularly the “Political Leaning” and “Campus Vibe” sections, which reflect aggregated student self-identification.
-
2. Campus publications and local reporting
-
Campus newspapers (e.g., The Wesleyan Argus, The Williams Record, The Amherst Student, The Bucknellian, The Ring-tum Phi at W&L) frequently publish editorials, op-eds, and event coverage reflecting dominant campus discourse.
-
Articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Washington Post, and New York Times that have profiled shifts in campus political culture—especially after 2020.
-
3. Institutional and academic studies
-
Peer-reviewed studies and think-tank reports, such as:
-
Heterodox Academy’s Campus Expression Survey (2019–2023) – measuring openness to political expression on campuses.
-
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) College Free Speech Rankings (2021–2024) – which rank universities on student comfort expressing ideas, tolerance for opposing views, and administrative support for free speech.
-
Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) Freshman Survey – national data on student political identification by institution type.
-
4. Alumni, student, and admissions insights
-
Alumni forums (e.g., College Confidential, Reddit’s r/ApplyingToCollege, and r/College), where students compare campus cultures first-hand.
-
Official college communications about diversity, inclusion, and campus climate, which often signal the institutional tone.
How I synthesized them
-
I cross-referenced consistent patterns (e.g., schools ranked “Most Liberal” across Princeton Review, Niche, and FIRE data → classified as Very Liberal).
-
Schools with mixed survey results but moderate faculty messaging or Greek-life culture (e.g., Lafayette, F&M, W&L) → classified as Balanced or Moderate.
-
Quantitative indicators (survey percentages) were combined with qualitative descriptions (student comments, campus events).
-
-
-
-
1 Like
That wouldn’t be the population to hit these but if you think of a Colgate or Hamilton type or even an F&M although they started giving merit.
Ok - I looked at those on niche.
I’m wrong.
Was a hypothesis. But wrong.
I do not know about all schools, W&L is accurate. I was told that Lafayette is more progressive than listed. ChatGPT or whoever the source has limited stats/data. So I would consider your summary but would dig and verify myself before making any serious decisions (like enrollment.)
1 Like
or in my region (or me personally)
I think that ties to the region, not income. Most NYC (and certainly Bay Area and PNW) folks I know personally are full pay, and are not at all conservative.
Edit: of course there are rich conservatives- tons of them, but not clear cut.
3 Likes
Not sure what you mean, a local friend of mine has a kid at one of those and other friend had a kid recently graduate from another. Yes, they are not huge targets for west coast kids but they do go. Agree with post above that region of origin rather than just income is probably a better indicator. (I would btw agree loosely that higher income might = more conservative but that can be relative - so here that would probably translate into what the classification calls “moderately liberal”)
I guess an adjunct question is where do their kids go to college? Are these LACs targets for those famlies? (Honest question, I have no idea. Ivies I’m sure yes.)
1 Like
Yes I noted I was wrong.
However if I’m OP I’d use niche.
But I think most LAC kids are less political in general. They weren’t emanating the issues on campus.
There are tons of schools which are targets for conservative, affluent families.
Trinity, SMU, Colgate, Sewanee, W&L, Rollins, Flagler, the Southern flagships, University of Tulsa, Oral Roberts… depending on how conservative and what else the kid is looking for in a college.
I still believe that a kid with conservative leaning politics can find his or her philosophical peeps everywhere. Even the most “left wing” university. But it will require the ability to keep quiet about social issues/personal identity. Everything else will be fine. But if you’re the kid telling your gay suite mate that he’s going to hell, your life might not be as much fun as it would be if you can just live your life and find your own friends/social network/political besties.
1 Like
But what kind of “conservative”?
Money may correlate to business / economic “conservative”, but may inversely correlate to social “conservative”.
But also, college age people are less likely to be social “conservative” than the general adult population.
4 Likes
Yes and now. Dd is in southern LAC. We are independent politically and culturally. I mean by it that I tell my kids never go with the crowd no matter what, check all sources on both sides and make your own decisions about everything. Dd said that it is extremely difficult to be Pro Israel on campus (she is pretty much target all the time, including Yik Yak) and many people are Pro Palestinian with 0 knowledge about anything and do not want to listen any arguments. Also with majority leaning democratic, kids who are independent and conservative feel like outcasts on campus. Not all are able to find their peers. And LACS are small, so everyone knows everything and their views (if they are open. ) Given the above, I strongly recommend consider political climate on campus.
Yeah, I think there is selection biases, for sure
You mean one in TX? LAC in CT? I’m assuming you mean TX but given OP list wanted to be sure
I assumed she meant CT.
I think they are both appropriate targets- Trinity in CT is seen as a slightly less academic, less politically engaged campus then the other New England LAC’s.
1 Like
Tucker Carlson is their alum du jour. Go back a few decades and it would have been George Will.