Is Washington & Lee University intolerable for a liberal?

MYOS1634
Thu, 19 Nov 2015 11:51:54 +0000

^GMT, that’s not it. Oberlin is where liberals go to be surrounded by liberals, W&L is where conservatives go to be surrounded by conservatives. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s important these types of colleges exist in our college landscape.
There’s a difference between being surrounded by people who think exactly like you do (whether it’s Oberlin or W&L… and that isn’t likely to happen, because there’s a wide difference in various points of views, many flavors of “liberal” and “conservative”) and being in a tiny minority, feeling, not just challenged, but overwhelmed or ignored all the time. If a liberal student goes to W&L, or a conservative student goes to Oberlin, they know it will be extremely uncomfortable, simply because in a discussion where everyone’s arguing about three things, they’ll be arguing about another planet. If they don’t want their role to be the token (liberal, conservative, gay, etc), it’s the wrong place to be. Some students strive on that. Some see it as a sort of “mission”. But it’s usually more a hindrance to growth than a factor of growth.
I also don’t think @cable007’s approach is likely to be productive and is potentially unhealthy - this isn’t an athropological experiment - a better approach is to attend a politically moderate college, such as Dickinson, Davidson, Lafayette, Kenyon, Ohio Wesleyan, or a State Flagship’s Honors program… where students represent both sides of the spectrum and all shades in-between, and where discussions aren’t within shades of the same side of the argument up to the extremes (who often shout the loudest and ridicule the rest. And even for conservatives at a conservative college, or liberals at a liberal college, these vast differences in opinion and attitude are an eye-opener and are mind-broadening.)
For their sake as developing adults, I wouldn’t recommend a non-believer attend BYU, a conservative attend Smith, a feminist attend Hampden Sydney, or an evangelical attend Yeshiva. College isn’t an anthropological experiment. You don’t go there to see what it feels like to be marginalized.
However, once they’re adults, attending any graduate program, including where they think they’ll constantly be challenged or marginalized, is totally different. You make a choice, you pay for it, and you’ll be able to expand your horizons due to having solid foundations. But build your knowledge base first, in an environment where you can grow rather than hide or where the only alternative to invisibility is to become a “flaming” whatever.