I’m a moderately conservative male that is looking to play baseball at a NESCAC school. I am leaning towards Middlebury or possibly Hamilton. I have visited Middlebury and the student body seemed very intellectual and not overbearingly liberal. Is Hamilton more explicitly liberal than Middlebury? What other schools are similar academically but have a more conservative feel?
I would say that Trinity is probably the most conservative of the NESCAC schools.
We visted quite a few and did several overnights. My son is conservative, coming from an all boys Catholic school and he found the NESCAC schools very balanced politically. He will be starting this fall at one with a liberal reputation but neither of us noticed anything extreme.
I think you have to ignore so many of these characterizations.
Also look at Washington & Lee and Davidson.
This depends on whether your concerns are practical or ideological. If you simply want to live as a conservative and receive a mostly non-ideological education, then either Hamilton or Middlebury would be fine for you. If, however, you would be offended by witnessing expressions of a liberal nature at any point, then that would be tough to avoid.
Nonetheless, your conservative voice, along with those of others at these schools, could also contribute to political expression and commentary. And, from what you’ve written, you may have enough information to know that you would be a good fit for Middlebury; a visit to Hamilton should be similarly instructive.
That said, I think you’d get your best education if you enter college with your political perspective not fully formed. Both conservatives and liberals should read Galbraith and Friedman. Better still, liberals should spend more time reading Friedman, and conservatives, Galbraith.
The New England states are overwhelmingly “Blue.” They are more liberal than the country overall, and college students are more liberal than the country overall. You should expect that any of the student bodies will lean somewhat to the left. Even the boarding schools, which attract exceedingly rich student bodies, skew heavily liberal. Choate - which I always considered a pretty conservative incubator for future Wall Streeters - had a near insurrection about ten years ago when a trustee invited Karl Rove to speak on campus. In mock elections, Choate’s student body went for Kerry in '04 by more than two-to-one. The faculty went for Kerry by about 85%. Parents were believed to be a little more evenly divided. That being said, you will have no trouble finding libertarians, if not social conservatives, on college campuses, especially among male athletes. Furthermore, I think that the majority of students are fundamentally apolitical, and are more interested in other matters.
I’d agree that most (all?) of the most selective LACs lean left, both their student bodies and especially their faculties, but some tend to be more apolitical or at least more balanced. I would put Hamilton in the middle road category along with Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, a few others. You may not find a large conservative contingent on campus, but you will get an exposure to a range of viewpoints, both in and out of class.
The left leaning on the part of students on many college campuses may be more noticeable on social issues than on fiscal or economic issues. Generally, younger people tend to be left leaning compared to their parents on social issues, but may not necessarily be as much so on fiscal or economic issues.