<p>Well said, ghostbuster.</p>
<p>1) College Name - University of California, Berkeley</p>
<p>2) Your reason(s) for calling it “Liberal” - Don’t have time to write the book.</p>
<p>3) Your source of information (first-hand experience as a student or parent? friend of current student or alum? etc.) - Alum.</p>
<p>I can’t believe someone hasn’t mentioned Berkeley yet.</p>
<p>What has been interesting to me about much of the CC Board has been the discovery that if a college is tolerant of conservatives, it is mocked for being a home for the dimmer bulbs. The truth is, conservative kids are the individualists these days, and frankly, to be a liberal on a campus is to be part of the group think. Interesting to me how smart kids are so willing to be part of this…kids who claim to want to be individuals. They go and sit in these classrooms where the liberals have self-selected their own to lead the minds full of mush. That is exactly what they are doing. Leading the kids to follow a thought pattern. So, my national merit son is avoiding these schools…and intending to spend his years where independent thought is cherished. From what I can see, that independence of thought is not to be found in the Ivy League. And who knows. When he is done with his education, maybe he can start his life in a new country, someplace where independence is still considered a virtue…New Zealand, anyone?</p>
<p>Thanks, debrockman. At the risk of lowering myself to the level of the Parent Cafe [something I’m loathe to do], a corollary to the OP could be that those ‘who claim they want a school with a “liberal” campus climate’ aren’t truly looking for an education, but rather some alternate reality that blindly justifies their pet assumptions [whether true or not].</p>
<p>Cornell is pretty liberal. I’m a student.</p>
<p>At a local State U, known to be very liberal within some (not all) of its programs, our campus guide was very proud to tell us that courses could be structured around any interest…that he was aware of a class that had been structured to teach Elvish. I did not know that there was academic, market or intellectual value in learning fictional languages.</p>
<p>Surprised Amherst hasn’t been mentioned yet. My aunt visited and was shocked, shocked, to see women holding hands in public.</p>
<p>Her story, not mine, but that’s why I would call it liberal. :)</p>
<p>UNC</p>
<p>Parent of UNC Grad</p>
<p>When the initial appropriation for funding a state zoo was being discussed some years ago, the late Jesse Helms delivered what is probably his most famous quote: “Why build a zoo when we can just put up a fence around Chapel Hill?”</p>
<p>Mr Helms also said that UNC stood for the “University of Negroes and Communists”…</p>
<p>What a nice and enlightened man…</p>
<p>debrockman
It is interesting to hear that the Ivies are all ultra liberal. Most ivies have strong and active student conservative groups and multiple conservative publications.
Folks life style does not define you as liberal, I have known a number of very conservative republican gays.</p>
<p>I’d say Columbia is really liberal. It seems like everyone loves Obama there, and not just because he is an alumnus.</p>
<p>And UC Berkeley, probably because of this youtube clip I watched, and because someone conservative I know called it UC Berzerkeley.</p>
<p>Definitely Hampshire (parent and aunt).
Sarah Lawrence
Goucher
Guilford</p>
<p>ISI’s Ivy ratings (<a href=“http://www.collegeguide.org/itembrowse.aspx[/url]):”>http://www.collegeguide.org/itembrowse.aspx):</a></p>
<p>Brown Red
Columbia Yellow
Cornell Yellow
Dartmouth Yellow
Harvard Yellow
Penn Yellow
Princeton Green
Yale Yellow</p>
<p>BTW, my wife works at Brown, where they recently celebrated “Fall Weekend”, formerly known as Columbus Day.</p>
<p>IMO you can pretty much just go geographically; areas that are thought of as liberal (big cities, the Northeast) tend to have liberal colleges, whereas many schools in the South are much more conservative. There are exceptions, of course, but that’s still the dominant theme.</p>
<p>I consider myself a liberal, and I don’t like seeing the traditional liberal values confused with PC… I’d say true liberalism has an openminded, generous worldview. More than anything, I’d say liberalism is humane. So, what colleges are most open to different points of view, most interested in the well-being of all people? I don’t know–not sure what would show that about a college.</p>
<p>I’ll bite, TrumpetDad –
Does your favored book give the green light to schools like Notre Dame, or the Jesuit schools ? Is ‘wrong-think’ tolerated and listened to respectfully at those schools ?</p>
<p>The test of a minority’s tolerance and open-mindedness occurs when they are the majority.</p>
<p>Interesting that Princeton is green and the other Ivy’s are yellow or red. Princeton has a ton of liberal thinking people there and they are pretty vocal about it. I would have given it a yellow. Then again, there is a lot of that old southern alumni money there. Hmmm?</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke- </p>
<p>Why: Well, it’s socially liberal from what I can tell. I was speaking to a student who informed me that clothes are literally optional. It’s written into the dress code, so on hot summer days, the girls can go out and sun themselves. (Although she admitted everyone came to class clothed.) There’s also a large LGBT/Q community and support.</p>
<p>Source: Anecdata.</p>
<p>School: Goucher</p>
<p>Why: Just a guess. They have a college democrats club, but no republicans last I checked. They’re also very internationalized, and bring plenty of global views/speakers to the table. Part of the reason I applied was that they seemed great for broad thinking. </p>
<p>[Yeah, I don’t want to get into a ‘all the liberal kids are into groupthink’ thing. Riiiight. That’s very much why I disagree with my own <em>liberal</em> friends at various points.]</p>
<p>Source: Self-research on political climate</p>
<p>School: Scripps</p>
<p>Why: S.C.O.R.E house (a diversity center) seemed to be a very big thing (Although maybe it was uplayed because I was on a diversity weekend. They’re socially liberal- when I went I counted various posters on The Female Orgasm (these were seen on Harvey Mudd’s campus as well) and Two detailed paintings of a vagina in rainbow color. One sitting quite prominately in the Cafe. The school professors themselves however, mentioned at few things: </p>
<ul>
<li>The beginning Topic of Core I was Prop 8. Not for OR against, but the arguments presented.
-That said, they admitted to there being a fairly large liberal population (as well as a christian one, often coinciding.) and smaller conservative groups of girls.</li>
<li>The Politics Professor began his lecture with explaining what true political liberalism IS, which is most every form of politics we here in America know. It’s capitalistic with a seperation between public and private sectors. WHERE the seperation of public and private falls determines whether you are seen as an American Conservative or an American Liberal; but the fact that there IS a seperation at all (instead of none, like communism) means it is liberal. I personally thought it was fascinating how many people use the terms incorrectly. (Excellent class!)</li>
</ul>
<p>Source: Visit to Scripps.</p>
<p>School: George Washington U</p>
<p>Why: GWU may be somewhat split, but as I’ve heard, the campus tends to lean more liberally and has a MUCH larger Democrats club. That being said, they ARE in D.C. so it figures that they are intensely political. My Cousin goes there, and she is a republican, but attends the Democrat’s Club meetings because she’s welcome to! It gives her plenty of time to see both sides of the arguement, and when I saw the clubs website, they actively welcome people of any political bent to attend meetings. </p>
<p>Source: Cousin, self-research</p>
<p>1) College Name - The University of Chicago. </p>
<p>2) Your reason(s) for calling it “Liberal” - A statement in the Faculty Handbook of 1999 expressed it this way:
“Chicago has developed a celebrated–some would say notorious–brand of academic civility. It is a place where one is always in principle allowed to pose the hardest question possible–of a student, a teacher, or a colleague–and feel entitled to expect gratitude rather than resentment for one’s effort.”</p>
<p>To me, this openness to serious questioning (not one’s position on abortion or gay marriage) is the essence of a liberal (not to say “leftist”) learning environment. They may not be completely successful, but I hope the faculty continue to work hard at it. </p>
<p>3) Your source of information (first-hand experience as a student or parent? friend of current student or alum? etc.) - Alumnus.</p>
<p>College of University of Chicago! </p>
<p>To me a liberal environment means that each individual (mind) gets the chance to develop and to express itself, that each individual (mind) is respected (not just tolerated), and that no individual (mind) is excluded/looked down upon/laughed at/etc. by people with different thoughts. An individual in a liberal environment can be progressive, conservative, religious, of any sexual preference, of any cultural background, etc. Of course being liberal does not mean that each individual can do or say everything when it suits him/her. </p>
<p>S is a UoC junior and he would never fit in a place that is not truly liberal. He has a sincere interest in academics which is why he went to this college in the first place. An unexpected bonus was its wonderful social climate. This may be the result of an approach which is allowing a lot of ‘space’ for individuals to socialize. UoC’s housing and dining system contribute to that. (Never believe the stories that there is no time for fun. There is plenty of it. It may not be so visible though because ‘herding the hordes’ to mass parties is not part of UoC’s approach.)</p>