Socially Conscious Universities???

College Search & Selection
1

Hi,
I’m a senior and finalizing my college list. I have a lot of socially liberal schools already (Brown, Wesleyan, George Washington, Columbia, Harvard,Stanford, UCLA, etc.) among others. I am really looking for a diverse atmosphere where students are socially conscious. What are some other socially conscious schools? Thanks

2

What are your match and safety schools? Those are all reaches.

3

Berea
Evergreen State
Eugene Lang
Spelman (all women)
Morehouse (all men)

4

If Brown and Columbia are realistic reaches, then GW should be a match (as long as it appears to be affordable). Maybe Wesleyan or UCLA, too.

Among research universities of that caliber, I don’t think any are significantly more “socially conscious” than those. They (as well as the other Ivies and peer schools) all enroll a variety of students (across the left v. right and apathetic v. activist spectrum). If you want a higher concentration of left-liberal activism or stronger institutional commitments, you’d probably need to look at small “alternative” schools like College of the Atlantic or Warren Wilson. As for more-or-less mainstream LACs, have you looked at Reed, Vassar, Oberlin, or Macalester?

If your priority is socioeconomic or racial diversity, you might want to consider more public universities esp. in states with large minority populations. What about Berkeley?

5

In general, I think that a school’s Peace Corps rank is a good proxy for “globally aware social consciousness”. It also tends to separate the “talkers” from the “doers”. This is not a perfect proxy for just “social consciousness” because many socially conscious people act locally, but the two tend to correlate. This ranking can be found by going to the Washington Monthly Ranking and sorting on the Peace Corp Rank column, or just searching for the school of interest.

The top 10 universities are:
1.American U
2.SUNY ESF
3.William & Mary
4.George Washington U
5.Georgetown
6.Clark U
7.Emory
8.Tufts
9.USD
10.U Vermont

The Top 10 LACs are:
1.Sterling
2.Col of Atlantic
3. Northland
4.Carleton
5.Knox
6.Puget Sound
7. Macalaster
8.Kalamazoo
9.Grinnell
10.Reed

Here is the rank of your schools

Universities
4. GWU
42. Brown
45. Columbia
55. UCLA
88. Stanford
128. Harvard

LACs
92 Wesleyan

http://washingtonmonthly.com/2017college-guide?ranking=2017-rankings-national-universities

6

@Mastadon makes a good point on the doers vs talkers. You may want to look for schools with an emphasis on community service too

7

Pitzer College- very socially conscious plus you can take classes at the other 4 Claremont Colleges. Big on community service, too.

8

Brandeis, Clark, Skidmore

9

Peace Corp Rank of Claremont Colleges:
50. Scripps
57. Pitzer
63. Pomona
107.Mudd
146. CMC

10

Peace Corps Rank of NESCAC:

  1. Tufts*
  2. Middlebury
  3. Bowdoin
  4. Connecticut
  5. Hamilton
  6. Colby
  7. Bates
  8. Wesleyan
  9. Williams
  10. Amherst

*Tufts was not ranked relative to the rest of NESCAC, but only to other research universities

11

@jmd294, University of Washington fits your criteria.

See also Peace Corps Top Schools 2017:

http://files.peacecorps.gov/university-rankings/2017/topschools2017.pdf

12

Does your criterion of “diversity” include ideological, geographic, and/or class diversity?

This is an important question, since recent years have witnessed a problematic narrowing of ideological diversity (which often has geographic and class overtones) on some campuses with a reputation for being “socially conscious.”

13

@mastadon I’m surprised that Pitzer isn’t higher. The informational session was focused on social justice, community service, etc.

14

James Madison University in VA may be worth looking at…

ranking of 17 of large universities in Peace Corps volunteers (https://www.jmu.edu/news/2017/02/28-peace-corps-ranking.shtml)
active community and civic engagement & service learning trips (https://www.jmu.edu/csl/) (http://www.jmu.edu/universitystudies/civicengagement/index.shtml)
Harrisonburg, VA is a refugee re-settlement community, the population is very diverse, and the greater Harrisonburg community is socially engaged and active. Many students are involved with social engagement projects within the community.

If you are academically competitive for those reach schools listed, my guess is that James Madison would be a match/ safety for you.

15

Peace Corps Rank of Ivy League

  1. Cornell
  2. Dartmouth
  3. Brown
  4. Columbia
  5. Yale
  6. Princeton
  7. Penn
  8. Harvard
16

Not sure that using the Peace Corps for your metrics tells the whole story. My son is a Humanitarian professional (and he got his undergrad degree from Claremont McKenna) and he worked after his undergrad in education and NGOs and then got a Masters in International Humanitarian Action but the Peace Corps was never high on his list. There are so many opportunities for socially conscious work after graduation that are not the Peace Corps. It seems like a decent short cut for evaluating these colleges, but not necessarily an accurate one.

17

Since your previous posts suggest you are from NY, can you afford a school like Berkeley? $60K per year.
There is no funding, in California, for non-residents.

18

I would add Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The former president (who moved on after 17 years at the helm for a position at Harvard) was the former head of the Peace Corps. The new president’s last post was as the Vice President for Diversity and Community Development at UTexas-Austin. Freshman orientation includes a Day of Service in the local town.

19

MrSamford raises an interesting point: many of the colleges being mentioned here will not provide a diversity of opinion.

20

@uwfromca - U of Washington has a rank of 15 which is very good. Better than the California schools of comparable size. UC Santa Cruz was closest I could find at #20. UC Berkeley is at #43