I am currently a High School Junior looking at Stanford. I am both politically and religiously conservative, but am tolerant of others’ opinions. I am very interested in Stanford, but am worried that as a conservative I wouldn’t feel welcome or accepted there. Do you think a conservative could prosper at Stanford?
Are you aware the Hoover Institution is located at Stanford? It has housed such notables as Condoleezza Rice, George Shultz and Edwin Meese.
@JustOneDad. This piece of information sounds very interesting; I was previously unaware of this.
@michigandermom. Thanks for the link. This looks like a very interesting group, and I was a bit astounded by the fact that they are Stanford’s largest political group. However, it seems a bit out-dated, with the front page containing 2012 information.
There is also the Stanford Review, although it might be more libertarian than conservative.
I think these things go in cycles. In the 1970s the students were more liberal than the faculty at most elite schools. Today the opposite is probably the case. Not sure it makes much of a difference other than in certain areas (English or sociology, to cite two examples). In physics or CS (two other examples) it is a non issue.
Of course conservatives are welcome at Stanford! They’re educated and open-minded, not ignorant.
I’ll be a Freshman at Stanford this upcoming fall and I hold a lot of conservative views. It will be interesting to see the tolerance level of conservative views within the liberal atmosphere at Stanford. I have generally seen that Stanford as an institution is very welcoming of all political views though.
I attended Stanford during the Reagan years. I was moderately liberal in my political views. One of my strongest mentors was a professor who was somewhat controversial at the time for his conservative political and social views. I found him to be one of the warmest people I had ever met, and even though we disagreed on a lot of details, there was a surprising amount of underlying agreement. I later found something similar at the University of Chicago Law School, where some of the most conservative professors were among the most open-minded and supportive people imaginable. It was a great lesson to me. I would certainly hope that the university continues to embrace people of all kinds of backgrounds and attitudes.
@Tcho113. Congrats on your acceptance to Stanford and thanks for your reply.
@renaissancedad. I’m glad that you’ve had good experiences with conservatives. I hope that the opposite turns out to be true wherever I might end up going to college.
I’m a rising sophomore at Stanford. People of any political leaning are accepted here, as long as you’re open-minded and willing to listen to other peoples’ opinions. I know plenty of conservative people who are perfectly happy here. That said, though, keep in mind that the most vocal political group at Stanford is the far-left, and some of those vocal participants might get a bit aggressive when you discuss politics with them.
Condoleeza Rice is a big draw for the conservative students since she does teach some classes. I went exploring the hoover website but the only person I seem to know is Thomas Sowell. I am not sure he teaches.
@DominicBayer, I would say it will depend to some extent on how open minded you are yourself. There will be a large liberal faction among the student body, as well as plenty of conservative groups. Some of the former may be open minded to you, and some may be aggressive. A lot may depend on how you present yourself, and how tolerant you are of opposite points of view. In my case, my own viewpoints shifted to a large extent because of my interactions with more conservative people whom I came to respect. I’ve known others who have moved in the opposite direction.
My best friend in my 4 years at Stanford was a devoutly Christian black woman from Guyana studying engineering. I was at the time an agnostic liberal white male from New England studying literature and linguistics. That’s what’s fun about places like Stanford.
I think that so long as you yourself are reasonable tolerant of different views and open-minded, there will be little difficulty.
One thing to keep in mind is, the political views of the average undergraduate at pretty much all the elite private schools range from very liberal to somewhat liberal. That’s not saying that all are on the liberal end of the spectrum, but it’s the most common set of views. So for example Stanford undergrads on average may be a bit more liberal than Princeton undergrads, but they’re not all that far apart.
The really liberal end of the spectrum (significantly to the left of Stanford) is some of the LACs like Reed and Macalester.
Freshman at Stanford here weighing in with my initial thoughts. Look, it’s a liberal campus and a liberal university, and orientation leaves no doubt about that. Nonetheless, you can survive as a Republican here…just stick with hard sciences/engineering/CS.
@NWIStudent. Sorry for not replying to your post earlier; I hadn’t seen it yet. I’m interested in History and Political Science. I understand that Stanford, as most colleges, is pretty liberal. However, will I be persecuted if I try to intelligently and respectfully speak about my conservative ideas in these topics?
@DominicBayer Well, the Hoover Institution is here at Stanford in the heart of campus, so there are definitely conservatives here like Thomas Sowell, though not all of them are teaching classes. The econ department is pretty centrist and definitely has conservatives teaching there (like John Taylor), for instance. I am a member of Stanford Republicans, and two of them are polisci majors, so it seems acceptable. There’s also a reasonable-sized contingent of Bible-believing Christians on campus (many go to Grace Bible Fellowship, myself included), so it’s not like we’re monolithically secular progressive.
@NWIStudent. I’m glad to hear that there is space for conservative views at Stanford. Thanks for making the effort to reply.