how liberal is campus?

advantagious
Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:48:53 +0000

^^It does exist. I see them around in their sweatshirts every once in awhile. They had George Allan, aka the guy from Virginia who called that guy “macaca”, as their speaker this year, which was met with some degree of controversy. Some more conservative members of campus complain of being maligned by some liberals on campus, but in my opinion the maligning goes in every direction.

As far as how liberal it is, I would definitely not say that Wellesley’s student body is notably focused on environmental issues as compared with some other colleges. That’s not at all to say that the topic never comes up–it does, most assuredly–but it’s not a hotbed of environmental activism. Women’s issues and glbt, etc. friendliness are definitely big at Wellesley. I would say there is quite a bit of support for universal healthcare, although I have also had some disagreements with people over it as well.

Overall, I would guess that Wellesley is really pretty liberal in the grand scheme of things. By reputation and some anecdotal observation, I would guess that places like Oberlin, Smith, Wesleyan, etc. out-liberal Wellesley, but I have a hard time imagining that Wellesley is not as liberal as “most” colleges. I guess it depends on how one defines “most”, but even among only highly prestigious universities and colleges I can think of many that seem to me to be less liberal in culture than Wellesley (based only on reputation of course, since I’ve only attended Wellesley).

As WendyMouse said, a visit is always very helpful. I hated Wesleyan when I visited and did not think I would fit in there at all, even though I (rightfully, in my opinion) consider myself to be very liberal. I feel very much at home at Wellesley, even though I probably am still further to the left than many Wellesley students.