<p>Please help College Confidential with a research project. We are seeking the names of colleges and universities that you would call** "LIBERAL"** --those that would appeal to applicants who claim they want a school with a "liberal" campus climate.</p>
<p>We realize that this term can be broadly defined, so we want you to use your own definition and explain your choice (see #2, below).</p>
<p>Please tell us:
**
1) College Name</p>
<p>2) Your reason(s) for calling it "Liberal"</p>
<p>3) Your source of information (first-hand experience as a student or parent? friend of current student or alum? etc.)**</p>
<p>If you are familiar with colleges that have already been mentioned on this thread by CC members, feel free to agree--or disagree.</p>
<p>Hampshire College: Anything goes in terms of courses of study as well as behavior. Two cousins attended Hampshire; one had a high degree of self-motivation and got her undergraduate degree there. The other left Hampshire because the lack of formal structure led him to devote more time to “leisure pursuits” than academics. We have visited as well and even the physical campus suggests and promotes “liberalism.”</p>
<p>Macalester College: Politically and socially liberal to the extent that the student body exhibits a kind of “fight the power” mentality. Daughter attended there and we visited her numerous times before she transferred. While she is both politically and socially liberal herself, she is not either of those things to the exclusion of dialogue with and respect for a diversity of persons and perspectives. Macalester is an inclusive community…except, perhaps, when one’s interests and preferences are more mainstream.</p>
<p>Wesleyan University. Read “The Gatekeepers” by Jacques Steinberg. This is only the most sensational memory from the book, but you get the point: Any college with a student organization known as the “C**t Club” that provides sexual aids to students would classify as liberal.</p>
<p>American University. AU’s liberalism stems from its internationalism. More than 50% of the student body either majors or minors in the School of International Service, the largest such program in the country, and there are far more international service, school of communications, and school of public affairs students than in the liberal arts. There are more International Service students at AU than the entire student population at all but a few LACs. It has among the highest percentages of students going abroad, and the highest percentage in the country of students who join the Peace Corps. The graduate school of international service is also the largest in the counttry, with a very liberal, socially engaged faculty. It doesn’t hurt that the vast majority of students come from the northeast. Princeton Review has ranked them as having the most politically engaged student body in the United States.</p>
<p>Oberlin and Grinnell, for similar reasons- historically, they have had a liberal admissions policy, being among the first colleges to admit women and minorities. This dedication to diversity remains strong in both colleges today.</p>
<p>Princeton Review 2010 Most Liberal Colleges:</p>
<p>Warren Wilson College
Hampshire College
New College Of Florida
Bennington College
Prescott College
Bard College
Sarah Lawrence College
Marlboro College
Reed College
Occidental College
Pitzer College
The Evergreen State College
Macalester College
Wesleyan University
Lewis & Clark College
Eugene Lang College - The New School For Liberal Arts
Vassar College
Mills College
Swarthmore College
Beloit College</p>
<p>Smith didn’t make the top 20 most liberal colleges?? Wow, those places must be wa-a-ay liberal! </p>
<p>I stumbled on something called 'A Guide to Choosing the Right College" or some such-- it’s a guide for right-wing folks! But of course it can work in reverse-- see who they do and don’t recommend, and why.</p>
<p>are there any “liberal” colleges and universities in texas??</p>
<p>I’m not american, so whenever anybody says Texas! i think of chuck norris hunting members of the KKK and that scares me coz i’m applying to places like oberlin and reed but am looking for similar(maybe a little less liberal) colleges in texas.</p>
<p>d’s mom, I don’t know if they compiled a list but they had a “red light, yellow light, or green light” section for each school that gave reasons conservatives might not like the schools-- so they provided info that would be helpful to those who had political concerns of any kind.</p>
<p>Gwen, now that I think about it, I seem to recall that I scanned through that book at Barnes and Noble. I thought it was neat that they had the different color coding. It was definitely a right wing book. I agree with you, as a book like that can also be used in the reverse. =)</p>
<p>Not really. In fact, included with each profile (which is well-researched and entertaining) is a short list of courses that ISI suggests could pass their litmus test if a motivated conservative (horror of horrors) absolutely had to attend one them. For example, at Wesleyan they suggested Classical Civilization 202: Greek Drama; College of Letters 359, Philosophical Classics I: Ancient Western Philosophy; Religion 212, The New Testament: An Introduction; Religion 316, Studies in Medeival Philosophy; Government 338, Introduction to Modern European Political Philosophy; English 205, Shakespeare; History 235, Amercian Intellectual History, 1600-1865; Philosophy 276, From Hegel to Nietzsche.</p>
<p>UNC-Chapel Hill is almost disgustingly Liberal. Conservative speakers have been met with violence and death threats recently (see the Tom Tancredo incident), Conservative organizations have been targeted by groups like YDs and SDS, and Conservative publications have been stolen repeatedly to prevent students from reading them. I’ve seen all of this firsthand, as a student at UNC-Chapel Hill.</p>
<p>Bates College (from first hand experience). The campus is disproportionately liberal in terms of organizations, speakers, and the attitudes of professors.</p>
<p>UW-Madison: Still has that 60s, hippie vibe as an undercurrent. </p>
<p>Silly, but telling, example of “PC” behavior there: the word “lame” was banned by RAs in my son’s dorm his freshman year so as not to insult students who can’t walk. That feels like something a liberal campus would produce.</p>
<p>The place is big enough, though, that conservative students’ views are represented. </p>
<p>Even if you don’t care for its unwaveringly conservative slant [I don’t care for the “right-wing” characterization], you’ll find great information on many of the top colleges and universities.</p>
<p>And you might be surprised at some of the schools that get a green light rating [e.g. Colorado College]. What they look for is philosophical tolerance, and they recoil at over-politicization of academics and political correctness to the point of absurdity … even unfairness. A campus that’s heavily weighted to the left can still get a green light rating if it allows conservative voices to be heard.</p>
<p>Oh this is easy…about 90% of American colleges are “Liberal.” Too funny. </p>
<p>Put it this way, the list of “Conservative” colleges is really quite small in comparison to the total number of four year colleges in the United States.</p>
<p>But seriously, to “trumpet” what TrumpetDad said above, that resource is really one of the best out there (and its not perfect…but has made a lot of headway in giving parents and students a pretty good idea of the “culture” on those campuses it examines.)</p>
<p>I fully agree that the goal is to find a “tolerant” campus culture, both from faculty as well as the student body. Where varying opinions are honored and respected and nobody is denigrated for a particular viewpoint, be that secular versus religious, democrat versus republican, straight versus gay, green versus pro industrial capitalism. Whatever the topic. </p>
<p>Some people want to be in an environment where everyone thinks like them. Clones if you will. Not me. I relish diverse points of view and the healthy discussions that ensue resulting in a consensus, or perhaps just a new found respect for the other side of the fence. I would RUN (not walk, but RUN!) away from any school, left or right, that was oppressive and exclusive and one-way thinkers. Or schools known for proselytizing (not religious…but political!) one agenda that is both divisive and radical, often cloaked in smarmy condescending arrogance. </p>
<p>I don’t want to send my kids off to college to be indoctrinated. These are growing and learning years for certain. Lots of changes in one’s thinking may come about. But it should be fostered in an environment of tolerance, acceptance, mutual respect and genuine concern for everyone, regardless of their political, religious or “other” point of view.</p>
<p>hmmm…great post, ghostbuster…you may have convinced me to actually buy it… (I assume the title is a pun…so ‘right-wing’ is meant descriptively, not insultingly.)</p>