For comparison, exit polls of 18-24 year old voters showed a 56/34 split. But that age group is generally more left leaning in its voting compared to the overall voting population.
http://www.cnn.com/election/results/exit-polls
Easy to tell–Conservative schools are the ones without co-ed bathrooms. Ultra conservative schools are the ones without co-ed dorms 
The service academies tend to lean right, but all positions are represented. The bathrooms are not co-ed, but the showers are the one-room, multiple showerhead type–easy to see who hangs left or right according to our son.
@ohiodad51 Thank you,… I believe you definitely clarified the question for me. As well as another post that said how much is going on campus when a student may not be necessarily politically motivated. Smaller considerations that may or may not always be witnessed during a college visit that could definitely impact the atmosphere of the campus,…basically your living environment when not in your classes. And another good point someone said was,…where the mix of climate could be different between graduate and undergraduate.
I agree with Ohiodad’s suggestions. I also think you may want to think about the difference between fiscally and socially conservative. One of my college roommates was a registered Republican, but she was very uncomfortable with the growing social conservatism of the party. She is now a Democrat FIW.
My younger son went to college pretty much as a knee jerk liberal - after four years with a large and noisy group of social justice warriors he became more thoughtful and probably more conservative.
Students determine the tone of the school. The definition of radical and conservative also changes. Radical ideas of an era may become the norm in later years. I noticed a shift from my freshman to senior years at the end of the Vietnam war era in incoming freshmen (lived in the dorms- sure beat commuting). The radicalism died down and more conservative dress et al occurred. It is all relative. I thought I was conservative until I left my home county- home to UW-Madison. The flagship reflects the state since most of its students come from it. Views get modified with exposure to new ideas.
Do not be afraid of liberal schools. By now you have either instilled your views or not. Your child will find his/her comfort level. An individual does not need to participate or feel threatened by the most active/vocal groups, whether it be the Greeks or Radicals. Rather, they should look at typical life.
This chart makes it very clear why most college students lean “liberal”. Most people between 18-29 lean liberal. 70-90% (90 if you include socially but not fiscally), and that includes people older than college age.
or
http://news.gallup.com/poll/172439/party-identification-varies-widely-across-age-spectrum.aspx
So it’s not at all surprising that college students lean that way too.
The exceptions are generally not found in the “top 25 universities” - think Liberty U, Grove City, Bob Jones, Hillsdale, perhaps some of the Mormon or Catholic ones. And that’s because to varying degrees, being politically and/or socially conservative is part of the mission.
That’s an extreme reading of the poll. To get to 90%, you have to shift all the bystanders to the liberal column. You then have to shift the Young Outsiders to the liberal column, but not move the socially conservative faith and family left or the anti immigrant skeptics to the conservative column.
Ah good point I didn’t look at Bystanders. I basically looked at “red” columns with and without Young Outsiders who are defined as socially liberal.
Do you read it as a conservative majority @roethlisburger ?
^I read it as about 35% of the non-bystanders being conservative whether you divide by fiscal or social issues
We were very concerned about potential college leadership and/or faculty political bias when our D was selecting colleges to visit and apply to. Here are a few tips to “take the pulse” of a particular college and its faculty:
- Visit https://www.opensecrets.org/ and in the search box, type in the name of a college. Since political donors are required to list their employer, you can see the names of college employees, such as leadership and faculty, and which candidates they donated to, and how much, along with a spectrum of how the donations were split between Democrats and Republicans. Look for names of campus leaders such as college presidents, deans, and/or prominent faculty.
- Nothing beats actually visiting campuses, and having the potential student sit in on a class or two if possible. During one college visit, our D sat in on an economics class and our D was impressed by the professor's objectivity about presenting multiple viewpoints. While walking around the campus, you can see what clubs and organizations, especially student political organizations such as College Republicans or College Democrats are posting on bulletin boards and even political candidate bumper stickers on cars in faculty lots.
- Remotely, one can read the student produced college newspaper websites online and see what points of view are reflected in student produced news stories and editorials, given that sometimes student newspapers have limited audience reach and can differ significantly from what the mainstream of the campus believes.
- Additionally, it is helpful to read the press releases on college websites as well as their social media sites. Do guest speakers the college invite to speak on campus represent a variety of points of view or is it limited to one particular viewpoint? Do posted college policies from the college president on down promote a civil and free exchange and debate of ideas? What political ideas do senior college leaders promote in their official campus leadership roles?
- Finally, visit the website of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) https://www.thefire.org/ and search colleges to see if the ones you're interested in seek to impose unconstitutional speech codes to restrict or curtail communication of unpopular or controversial points of view. Although FIRE has often been criticized because they get lots of donations from the political right, they are fairly consistent in challenging all violations of First Amendment rights. Our D visited a public university and one of the sister campuses of that public university tried to ban students from passing out copies of the U.S. Constitution on campus (public property) except in a tiny "free speech zone" in a remote part of the campus. FIRE provided an attorney to challenge this blatantly unconstitutional rule and won the two students who challenged it a $50,000 settlement and elimination of "free speech zones" at all of the campuses in that particular state university system as part of the settlement.
An authentic Liberal Arts College will reflect and promote a real diversity of opinions, genuine debate, and thought expressed in a civil environment. Ironically, many colleges seem to seek a diversity of students as defined by nationality and race, but some only seem to value a very narrow minded political worldview.
Just a point contra the “college educated people are liberal because liberals are cool and conservatives are poopy heads” screed a couple posts up. I understand this is a big talking point among certain progressives currently, and yes in this election Democrats and learners were +10 or a bit more among those with college degrees. But this is not a historically normal number, and generally we don’t see significant statistical differences (I think dems were +2-3 in both Obama elections) in voting preference until you get into PhD people, who are overwhelmingly liberal/leaners.
The relevance here is that we also appear to be in a time of super charged politics on campus, and one of the things I would think about during your search is whether any type of activism, etc that you see is really part of the nature of a place or whether it is a response to our peculiar political moment. Hopefully you have some time yet.
FWIW - Niche ranks colleges on either a liberal or conservative scale. So for example Liberty University is #2 of 744 most conservative colleges and Carleton College is #2 of 678 most Liberal colleges. My DD and her friend were talking about going to see SMU in Dallas together and when they discovered that it was #29 of 774 most conservative schools they crossed it off the list. Some of my DD’s schools fall on the conservative list, but are toward the very upper end of the scale with the thought that there will be students all along the political spectrum.
" It was a Sunday so nobody was around but many had newspaper clippings, signs, jokes, all deriding Trump and conservatives and promoting a very liberal slant."
I wouldn’t conflate dislike of the current occupant of the WH with disdain for conservative viewpoints. I know many lifelong Republicans that are very anti the current administration and, yes, even share memes and such about it.
Do you have friends or relatives who share your politics? What schools did their kids go, and how did they fare? Their experience may be the most reliable guidance for how your kids might fit in, politically, at those schools. Just avoid the ones they didn’t have good experiences at.
Remember- do not confuse the terms liberal and liberal arts. Two different areas, politics and broad/not rigid studies is one way of differentiating terms.
What a horrible experience. With the exception of one English teacher, I cannot remember any of my professors having a political bias of any sort. That experience is what I hoped for my kids, but in today’s world, I fear that is not possible.
Trump is a tangent. College faculty overwhelmingly were Democrats before 2016. That varies somewhat by field. Business and engineering faculty tend to be less liberal than liberal arts faculty. Most student bodies tend to mirror the politics of the region, so southern schools will tend to have more conservative students than NE schools. An exception might be the most prestigious schools like Duke, which can draw a student body that is geographically diverse.
I am not clear as to why anyone would determine that the politics of Colgate or anywhere else is defined on the basis
of what they see posted at faculty offices. How about looking at how different political points of view are developed
by professors in the classroom and what efforts are made to accommodate different viewpoints at the Academy.
Besides, what does any superficial look-in mean to the success of your daughter or son in developing her/his own personal value system and understanding of the evolving world? I would hope that reflection upon the mission of a LAC with the caliber of Colgate would disabuse you of any suggestion that the school teaches or should instruct some sort of dogma.
It is true, by the way, that Colgate, alongside its New York Six Consortium Members, has taken positions on political matters that affect our communities. Self-identified liberal or conservative individuals can take comfort or exception, of course. That’s just the world we live in and the issues that the current US Administration has chosen to prioritize- for better, worse, or in between. No matter your take, it’s up to us all to cherish and protect our freedoms, right?
And about this very theme, conservative voices have a platform at Colgate, for the record. You will see that Gen. David Petraeus is speaking next week:
http://www.colgate.edu/centers-and-institutes/center-for-freedom-and-western-civilization
Bottom line: I have always thought that the quintessential LAC experience would include challenging popular beliefs and belief systems. Step back and let it happen, parents!
Go 'gate!
An interesting topic, indeed.
Yes, if members of the faculty feel comfortable in posting their political ideology on their doors then it would take an exceptionally confident (and risk adversed) freshman to stand up an utter an option in direct opposition.
OP - is it that you want your student to feel comfortable voicing an opinion and engaging in discussions regardless of their alignment with the general group culture? Or is it you wish to have your student be in a generally like minded community?
Both of my kiddies went to rather a-political colleges. That said, certain departments are going to be, by definition, political. You can be guaranteed that woman/ethnic/gender studies departments are going to have a very predictable leaning. Both kids found it best to just get thru those courses with as little conflict as possible. Their opinions were not ‘of the body’. In the case of DS he decided early on that those who shouted over him when he attempted to present a different position had absolutely no intention of listening with an open mind. It wasn’t worth the effort. He also found that most profs weren’t interested in the opinion of someone in S demographic. Sadly, he just spouted - in excellent written fashion - what the prof wanted to hear. It was not worth the effort/ risk to do otherwise. Since it was the quarter system he took the attitude of “I can suck up to just about anyone for 10 weeks if it will keep my GPA where I need it to be”.
Luckily he was an engineering major. And in that department either the circuit/program/widget worked or it didn’t. No one cared whether or not your were Red or Blue, just that you carried your load on a team and that the bridge you built in the future would fall down.
That said, both kids went to geographically beautiful campuses. Both campuses always rate in the top of the ‘who has the happiest student body’ surveys. So, if things got a bit wonky on campus one could always surf, horseback ride, bike ride, have a beach bonfire or just sit out by one of the many pools. And most of those activities and escapes were available 50 weeks out of the year.
The surrounding town will also affect the general atmosphere. The town where D attended had an occupy wall street presence. It was staffed by about 2 people at a time. They sat under the canopy until dark and then headed to the brew pub across the street. Pretty much no-one paid them much heed. The town liked the students and the students were for the most part respectful of the residents. This is not the case in my home town. sigh.
One of the most open and intellectually free environments my kids encountered in their entire schooling life was in Catholic high schools. (Oh I can just feel the eye rolling). Especially if the Jesuits were involved. They are great supporters of social justice and great supporters of learning and exchanging ideas. The discussions had in some of the religion/social studies/history classes would have cause fits in an public environment. One particular history prof had a very different world view than did my son. They would exchange emails with thoughts and links to data and other articles on the evenings when the class discussion had been particularly lively. At the graduation ceremony this particular teacher pulled my son in for a hug and said ‘no way you get out of this with just a hand shake’.
These schools are proof that you can agree, disagree and agree to disagree yet still have a learning environment where one was not ostracized for being outside of group think.
Good luck in your search