<p>I really like the vibe at Wesleyan. It's laid-back, academic, and something I'd really want to be immersed in. What is it like being a conservative at Wes? I have heard that it is super crunchy-granola, liberal, flag-burning, you get the point..... I'm middle-of-the-road, on the conservative end of the spectrum... Is that going to be weird at Wesleyan?</p>
<p>There have been far more flamboyantly conservative people at Wesleyan over the years who have relished their years in the limelight as conservative spokespersons, and, my sense is that the only times they have really ever gotten in trouble were when they personalized their attacks or when the message was interpreted as an attack on other students (an anti-affirmative action bake sale.)</p>
<p>The dirty little secret is that most people, probably a large majority of people, at Wesleyan are moderate to conservative in their personal habits regardless what they believe politically. Even watching the Planned Parenthood video, I was struck by the number of people who declined the boilerplate message and said things like, “I don’t have sex – but, I plan to”, and other variations. In fact, I’m not sure which took more courage, saying you do have sex or saying, that you don’t? My point is, four years is a long time and no one – not even flag-burning, granola crunching, hipsters – can be completely certain they’ll be the same people they were when they first arrived.</p>
<p>You’ll find plenty of students at Wesleyan with similar political shading to yours, plenty of apolitical students, and plenty of students with political views different from yours but still willing to respect your beliefs. My son will be a freshman there in the fall, and while he is quite liberal, one of his best friends in high school has been a very extreme right-winger. He enjoyed having the debates with his good friend, and he found that he grew quite a bit as a result, learning to appreciate differing viewpoints. I suspect that your moderate politics will cause you no grief at all if you choose Wesleyan.</p>