<p>Because the thread was about if some colleges are considered conservative in nature, not general sniping about people that are considered liberal or conservative or political positions. The Terms of Service state:
</p>
<p>I see.
He’s just doing what he’s been “hired” for (I know you’re probably not being paid, just didn’t find a better word).
Thanks for clarifying, I’ll try harder to not go Off-Topic.</p>
<p>But what about Dartmouth, how conservative is it compared to Vandy and Duke?</p>
<p>Oh, heck, I go off topic all the time. I just stay away from politics. And I get a fabulous paycheck (meaning you were right, of course).</p>
<p>Regarding Dartmouth, strictly an outside observation but it seems to be schizophrenic. I hear from a lot of people that there is a definite conservative streak in many of the students, maybe libertarian is a better descriptor. But if you read the news about the school, there is a very liberal left faction that has made a lot of noise, e.g. the commencement speakers and the huge list of demands made on the administration, some of which I can only describe as loony and immature. This is from memory so I might have some of that wrong, but I think it is right. So I think Dartmouth is likely a very mixed bag, maybe more so because of the apparently wide gulf between the two camps. That is just how it looks from a few hundred miles away and having no relation to the school. I mean I know every school has students in all camps and most lean “left”, as commonly defined. It just seems Dartmouth might be more polarized than most. Or maybe that is just the effect of the press. Although if you look at that list of 60 or 80 demands or whatever the number was, hooo boy.</p>
<p>I did meet someone that is in the school, on the staff I think it was. If I can dig that out I will ask them what they think is a good assessment. My impression of both Vandy and Duke is that they are like most private schools in the “upper tier” category. The kids lean slightly left but having come from mostly conservative leaning homes, they are fairly middle of the road, at least for a teenage college student. Obviously some fairly significant portion of the Duke faculty has distinguished itself as very liberal and quick to obliterate the rights of anyone they think is guilty, evidence be damned. The lacrosse scandal is a difficult stain to erase for the school and for those faculty members that went on record with that horrible rush to judgement.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks for the information.
I appreciate it.
I’ll definitely look deeper into Dartmouth specifically.</p>
<p>I wish these threads didn’t go down the path of politics. I like to see as many resources as possible out there for students. I know it is hard not to discuss them some, but it would be impossible to have a college that would fit all students. A list of colleges that are more conservative would be a good resource. </p>
<p>I have read and followed this thread with interest and have a question/thought that might be a side topic, but here goes: My daughter is interested in all things that are usually liberal. ie, she is considering a major in creative writing. (Though she also is considering biochem or botany) Anyway, she wants a college that is really neither overly conservative or liberal. She herself is very conservative in most of her leanings, though more like Reagan and pre-Reagan conservatives (think more libertarian). But she doesn’t want a religious school with required convocation or dress or whatever. She also doesn’t want such a liberal school that the motto is, “If you aren’t gay when you come, you will be when ya leave” (Seriously, one college has sent her 7 different brochures, all of which SHOUT and loudly proclaim they are in the top 5 LGBT friendly schools). She doesn’t care if someone wants to marry a goat, just stop talkin’ about it to her while she’s trying to learn, doggone it!! lol
We also thought we may have found a great place, but then saw a youtube video where one of the profs starting talking about the “huge” population of pagans on campus. Really? Can’t a place just teach?
Anyway, so how about some fairly conservative, but mostly no political or social agenda colleges?
(And yes, as people have criticized me many times on here, these are her views, and yes, she knows discussion and diverse views are important, but she knows what she wants!)
Ideally, she’d love a school just like Hamilton, but she is very much afraid she will be ridiculed for her beliefs there. </p>
<p>This thread reminds me of the Penn & Teller: BS episode about colleges and political correctness and diversity quotas.</p>
<p>@shellybean, I can’t say I can help you but your question just made me think how political US college seem to be. I have friends from other countries and for them university is just studying, but in the US it seems to be a way of life, right down to your beliefs! Although, I would argue that while no one will try to indoctrinate her in the middle of class (well, depends on the professor), she might just feel out of place. I think you should look into big colleges. The smaller it is, the most likely it will be that its student body is homogenous in political ideals.</p>
<p>@shellybean - IMO, most schools will actually meet your D’s criteria, despite what you see on the web or what brochures you get. I can tell you for sure that my alma mater (and my D’s, she just graduated) is very LGBT friendly (heck, it’s New Orleans) but the campus itself is very balanced between liberals and conservatives, religious and not so much, etc. Most kids go to class, have their activities that they enjoy (acapella, newspaper, scuba club, intramural/club sports, debate, video games, whatever), study, party a little or party a lot, so on and so forth. And yes some of them have causes on either side of contentious issues, and being Tulane they all help out in the community, but the day in and day out atmosphere on campus is just…normal. People are really friendly to each other, even when they disagree about something (usually. We are talking human beings here so nothing is 100%). I highly doubt Tulane is unique in this regard. In fact I bet it is the norm and the outliers are the campuses that are polarized.</p>
<p>I think all this thread is saying is that some campuses, maybe most, lean a little to one side or the other. But that doesn’t mean that the typical student is directly affected by this. It is usually more subtle than that, such as class discussions and how they unfold. But that’s OK. That shouldn’t make a student uncomfortable or angry. If they feel differently than the majority, they can say so. It would be the unusual school where having a different point of view would be a problem. It can and does happen from time to time on the most hot button of issues, but these are usually clear as to what they are and a student can decide to just steer clear of those few topics if they don’t want to “mix it up”.</p>
<p>But you have to tell me what school it was that had that video about pagans. Sounds hilarious. It is within the Terms of Service of CC to link to a YouTube video.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Are you actually kidding me? Find me one college that “turns” people gay. And what is wrong with being “friendly” to LGBT students–or anyone else for that matter? Don’t you want your child at a college that is friendly and tolerant to everyone? As for the comments about people (presumably the pagan/liberal/gay students, right?) marrying goats…no one should even dignify that with a response.</p>
<p>This might be one of the most ignorant and offensive posts I have ever seen on this site. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that there are also quite a few private institutions that lean right, even in places like the Northeast. Colleges like Boston College, Holy Cross, and Georgetown are all substantially more conservative than others of their caliber. The thing that these schools have in common is a Jesuit backbone, which does not appeal to all. Other colleges such as Trinity (CT) and Colgate are also more Conservative but that is because of a predominately wealthy, white student body (also not appealing to many)</p>
<p>I get so confused when I hear people put the word libertarian and conservative in the same sentence. I know there is a marriage there only on the free market side. But on the social side, there is a huge conflict. IMO, libertarians are the antithesis of conservatives who embrace evangelicals, Christians and Catholics. Free thought is not espoused in religion but restricted when it comes to questioning dogma. </p>
<p>If @shellybean’s daughter is a libertarian, then she would welcome a school proclaiming to be a top 5 LGBT friendly school. Anyone else see the confusion with this?</p>
<p>I can’t tell you the minute/second right now, but here is the link. (My computer is being very slow – If you can’t find it, I’ll come back and edit this later to tell you where it is… I remember it being near the middle to end, I think…) <a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube; oh, and my daughter says he didn’t say huge, just large or something like that. Oh, and btw, we actually really liked most everything about this college. But again, my d doesn’t care if people are gay or people sacrifice goats, but she just doesn’t want to be beat upside the head with it. She’s like, whatever, can’t we just read Chaucer??? lol</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Ummm…here’s the quote (at @ :37): “We have a pagan fellowship that’s really quite large and active.”</p>
<p>The person being interviewed is the director of spiritual life at Beloit, which by the way is a great college. Does it bother you that a college would have a director of food service or student organizations or athletics or anything else that is not “teaching”? I watched the whole video and didn’t pick up on the idea that anyone would be beaten over the head with kind of doctrine. It seems like a place where one could explore a lot of different ways of thinking. I think your daughter would benefit greatly from a tolerant place like that–especially after being home schooled and indoctrinated into a narrow set of beliefs that might put her at a disadvantage in the real world.</p>
<p>shellybean, I saw from your other posts that you live in GA, and I think UGA would be a good fit for your daughter. I I don’t think the school leans much to one side or the other- its a large school with students in the whole range of political leanings. I think your D would find her niche. There are many research opportunities in biology. </p>
<p>@sally305 - I think most people would take what she said as hyperbole to make a point. I highly doubt @shellybean thinks a school can turn anyone gay.</p>
<p>shellybean - thanks for the link, I will take a look. I think @Matachines has a point that the smaller schools are more likely to be subject to a more doctrinaire atmosphere, be it liberal or conservative, while medium and larger schools (I define medium as about 5,000-12,000 undergrads, others might define it differently) are less likely to feel that way. True, Berkeley and Wisconsin in the 60’s and 70’s, and then with carryover into the 80’s at least, seemed to be dominated by very left leaning students, and I am sure the campuses were more liberal than many. But at Wisconsin, at least, I would be just as willing to bet that there were a great many conservative students that just got drowned out. I doubt it is like that to nearly that degree today, but one would have to do some inquiring to be sure. I guess as acceptances come in and the lists get narrowed down, one just has to talk to enough people that have actually been to the schools in question to make some kind of judgement, if the issue is that important to your D.</p>
<p>@frugaldoctor - once again you mischaracterize what I said. I didn’t put libertarian and conservative in the same sentence in the sense that means I equated the two. I said that my impression, which I made very clear was from a distance and so to take it FWIW, was that there was a non-liberal faction at Dartmouth, and whether that non-liberal faction was predominantly conservative, libertarian or a healthy mix of both I wasn’t sure. Notice the maybe? If I thought they were equivalent I wouldn’t have bothered to even try to differentiate the two.</p>
<p>I could be wrong but I thought frugaldoctor was responding to shellybean’s comment about her daughter being “libertarian”:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You are correct that there are plenty of conservative students at UW. Also agree that a large college might be better for someone who might have views that are somewhat at odds with a prevailing mindset on a particular campus. </p>
<p>@shellybean - I just watched the video and I have to say I thought it was quite…normal. Most schools have areas of study that deal with ethics, spirituality, and religion, and I took this to just be saying that we (Beloit) are very welcoming and supportive to all who want to explore this aspect of their lives. Even those that describe themselves as Pagan. I think he was just using the emphasis of that one because it is not mainstream to most people. If he had said “We have a large population of Methodists” or “Jews” that wouldn’t be really making any statement about their openness to letting students explore their spiritual directions. So to me at least, this is a very normal part of campus life almost anywhere. It isn’t that it dominates anywhere outside of classes that deal with these subjects (except of course in meetings/services involving that spiritual group), he was just describing what there is available at Beloit for those who want that and how they support it. To repeat, I think hundreds if not thousands of schools are similar in many ways, in that they have resources to support students of all stripes, including religion and spirituality. It would certainly be more noticeable in some ways at a small school like Beloit as opposed to a U Michigan or even a University of Southern California, but those same kinds of groups and university support exist at those schools and most others as well.</p>
<p>Jesuit schools that @conservativearts mentioned are a good option as well, even if you are not religious. I go to a Jesuit school and most of the time I forget it’s a Catholic school. My friend at Boston College says the same. Jesuits aren’t the type to force people into religious stuff, I think.</p>
<p>@sally305 - Ah you could be right. We both used the term in a sentence and he didn’t specify which he was talking about. I might have jumped the gun because the good doctor and I have disagreed on definitions before. Thanks for that observation.</p>
<p>For the record, I have spent a fair amount of time on many campuses that are of the 5000+ undergrad population. Some people do call that large, so IMO you are right that a large college might be better if large starts around there. Especially since most schools that have that many undergrads also have all the grad students, faculty and staff that are associated with the school and so we are generally dealing with a fairly sizable small town in a sense, although I grant that only the undergrads live there 24/7 to any great degree. Still, even 5,000 or so undergrads is a pretty healthy number. Just saying that my observation has been that schools of that size seem to be pretty even keel for the most part. It is indeed the smaller ones that seem to have the greater chance of being more homogeneous in certain aspects of their zeitgeist.</p>
<p>Yes, I was commenting on @shellybean’s post. But I can see how I didn’t make that clear. From my phone, I haven’t figured out how to quote lines like most people on CC.</p>