<p>My son is a junior who has already seen eleven colleges. None of them appealed to him. I am trying to put together a list of more colleges to visit in the coming year, hoping that something will click.</p>
<p>After poring through college guides and reading posts on this website, it's possible that, without actually visiting the campus, CMC is a college that would be a great fit for my son. </p>
<p>A key fact about my son: he is a political conservative who is probably the most politically knowledgeable student in his school. Among the attributes at CMC that would work well for him:</p>
<p>Politically aware students, a quarter of whom are conservative. Excellent faculty, not all of whom are liberal. Solid government department which is the major he wishes to pursue. Excellent conservative publication (wherever he goes, my son would like to write for an existing conservative publication or create a new one).</p>
<p>Can anyone please tell me about other colleges that are similar to CMC, with particular emphasis on the attributes mentioned above? CMC is definitely going on our list of colleges to visit. I would love to hear about any other schools which are similar to CMC.</p>
<p>P.S. My son is not interested in going to an overwhelmingly religious conservative college.</p>
<p>If you're looking for an overwhelming conservative presence on campus, i don't think you'll find it at CMC. However, there is a Claremont Republicans club on campus along with the Claremont Independent, a publication. I would say that there are a lot of libertarians who are socially liberal. Regardless of your son's political ideology, he will be accepted at CMC. However, he should not expect to be left unchallenged in his belief. I debate politics and economics with my friends at lunch at challenge speakers like Karl Rove who come to campus. CMC has the capacity for very liberal and conservative students to coexist.</p>
<p>Your son will not enjoy CMC if he is not a tolerant individual and willing to listen to others beliefs. Professors will often play devil's advocate to further discussion regardless of their political ideology. As far as similar schools, I applied to Pomona, Duke, Occidental, Whitman, Haverford, and Bowdoin. CMC might have more conservatives than the average college, but your son would still be in the minority of students.</p>
<p>Your son sounds a lot like me! I'm also a very active conservative, and wanted to go to a school that had a fair amount of people with similar views. I was very interested in CMC, because of its more conservative reputation, but I ended up choosing Washington and Lee (VA) instead. I'm still a senior, so I can't say from experience, but it seemed like W&L was more politically conservative than CMC. It's also a very small, academically competitive, tight-knit school, so your son would probably have many opportunities to write for a publication or create a new one. Although the Virginia environment is quite different from California, W&L is definitely worth looking into because of its more conservative reputation. Also a beautiful campus!</p>
<p>Thank you for your thoughts. I should have said that my son is socially liberal and mostly conservative on everything else. Does that make him a libertarian?</p>
<p>He is one of only a few conservatives/libertarians at his school, and he is perfectly OK with that. He is looking forward to having serious debates with well informed students of all political persuasions when he gets to college. Right now he finds himself going to school with classmates who don't know much about politics. </p>
<p>My son isn't worried about going to a college that is ultra-liberal. I am the one who is concerned about that. There are so many stories out there about liberal professors who won't tolerate conservative viewpoints in class, and/or who will give out lower grades to their conservative students. If you look at the profile of Skidmore in the Princeton Review handbook, one Skidmore student says "the only discrimination I have seen here is against Republicans." </p>
<p>Perhaps I am being too protective. My son can make his own way and take care of himself. I just want to see that he has a happy four years at college, and being a social pariah on campus because of his political beliefs would be a shame.</p>
<p>I believe USC also has more conservatives than your average college and U Chicago. Used to be social liberals and economic conservatives had a prominent place in the Republican party but not so much anymore.</p>
<p>We're in a similar situation. My son is conservative and we're looking for a place where he'll be treated respectfully. It doesn't have to be a conservative school. It could be a place where liberals are in the majority but are open-minded. Unfortunately such a place does not seem to exist.</p>
<p>You could also go to David Horowitz's site for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE):</p>
<p>Thanks for pointing out the information about Macalester. My wife is a Carleton graduate and I have already been in touch with a conservative Carleton student about what the political atmosphere is like on campus. Like everyone at Carleton I have met, including the president, he was incredibly nice and helpful. Carleton is definitely liberal, and conservatives are a small minority, but conservatives are treated fairly and given a hearing. There is a Carleton Conservative Union with its own publication, the Carleton Observer. You can find them on Google.</p>
<p>So far here is my list of colleges where a conservative student could co-exist with liberal students and professors:</p>
<p>Carleton
CMC
Dickinson
Georgetown
Kenyon
Richmond
Vanderbilt (although I didn't like what Choosing The Right College guide said about the Vanderbilt political science department needing better faculty)</p>
<p>My son will be considering several other schools, including Tufts. Unfortunately, the conservative publication at Tufts published some material that was in very bad taste, resulting in harassment complaints and disciplinary action which led to that publication going out of business. Tufts would be a wonderful school for my son in so many other ways. It is a shame that the campus atmosphere at Tufts now seems to be poisoned for healthy debate between liberals and conservatives.</p>
<p>I am a staunch libertarian (fiscally and governmentally conservative, socially liberal), and that was at the forefront of my mind when I starting researching colleges. If you consider your son to be the same, he might appreciate the same colleges I do (in addition to CMC): </p>
<p>Richmond
Washington and Lee
Vanderbilt
Duke
USC
Georgetown</p>
<p>There are others, but these are the ones I can think of at the moment. These colleges seem to have a healthy mix of political ideologies, but of course, every campus is going to have its nutters. I think lib arts colleges are more open to differing opinions, but they will be inherently more left, while state universities will be more uniform and dependant on location.</p>
<p>adding a bit to what my buddy skyhawkk08 said...</p>
<p>I personally find the balance at CMC to be quite even. There are slightly more liberals.. but not by a large margin. I saw something online by CMC that said the distribution of political orientation was about 29% conservatives, 33% liberals, and the rest are in the middle. Yes, that does make for incredible debates and conversations. This year was just a little different in terms of the election and stuff as more people appeared to lean left. I can't say that's always going to be the case, so your son will most likely enjoy the politcal atmosphere at CMC because he will both be challenged and backed up as a conservative. I led a tour group and they couldn't help but notice that there were a fairly large number of McCain/Palin posters in people's windows. That's what you get at CMC! We're definitely NOT the typical liberal arts college.</p>
<p>It's important to keep in mind that one facet of college is to have your beliefs challenged. I graduated from college with a different set of political beliefs than when I entered it. Some beliefs I've had reinforced, others definitely have shifted.</p>
<p>But that's the pt of having those lively debates and late night discussions. CMC's a great place to do that. </p>
<p>But to ask what colleges are similar to CMC? Given the tough academic standards, very talented people and high number of politically active people, I'd say few colleges, if any are similar to CMC. There's the consortium to keep in mind, as well. It's a unique place. One can name schools with similar political leanings, but it won't have the level of academics or location (SoCal).</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Tufts has taken the step of sponsoring a new student publication which covers the entire spectrum of political opinion. Here is a description from the Tufts website:</p>
<p>What you say seems accurate, and therefore so frustrating : ) Indeed, CMC does appear to be unique. With its increasingly selective admissions standards, it more important than ever to come up with less of a reach, but so difficult to find something similar. The features that make CMC so attractive, tend to be difficult to find in 1 other college:</p>
<p>campus culture, size, location, consortium or equivalent</p>
<p>I think that for many of the top LACs and for many of the Ivys it is possible to find a "counterpart", I have yet to find that for CMC...</p>
<p>By the way, Singleparent, CMC just did away with their loans program and replaced it with grants. This is a major plus to consider, because I definitely didn't have it this good when I was in school!</p>
<p>CMC's just one of a handful of colleges to do this. Pomona does too.</p>
<p>singleparent, your son might find a home at Hillsdale College in Michigan. It's a small LAC with high standards and a conservative bent grounded in history. It also has a great D.C. internship program that might appeal to your son. </p>
<p>And interestingly, there seems to be some cross-pollination between Hillsdale and CMC. Maybe that has something to do with its reputation as the place where conservative California politicians send their kids to school. :D</p>
<p>One thing you need to know up front about Hillsdale: It doesn't accept federal money of any kind. Your son couldn't accept a Pell grant, Byrd scholarship, or any other federal aid to cover any cost of attendance. However, there are skillions of private scholarships, as well as student loans from private donors.</p>
<p>You might consider subscribing your son to Imprimis, Hillsdale's free monthly publication. Here's a link: Hillsdale</a> College - Imprimis Also, they offer a nice summer abroad program -- not that "People to People" crap, but an actual college course with real lectures, real work, and real learning. Here's a link: Hillsdale</a> College - High School Study Abroad</p>
<p>Addendum to the above post, which is now too old to edit...</p>
<p>Another thing worth knowing is that Hillsdale, MI, is a pretty remote area; this might be a consideration. It's about 45 minutes away from Detroit. Taxis don't serve the place (the college offers a shuttle to the airport), and the only hotel is the one on campus. The staff are incredibly nice and helpful, from admissions counselors to registrars to the guy who drives the shuttle. It's a very beautiful campus in the summer... pretty chilly in the winter, of course. There might be a chance of missing flights home for Thanksgiving or Christmas because of the weather and the remote location. Also, if your son is the type who prefers hopping urban life over spreading trees, fireflies, and deer grazing right on campus, he may not like Hillsdale so much.</p>
<p>For politically active conservatives looking for a mid-sized/small liberal arts education I would definitely recommend:
-Vanderbilt University
-Dickinson (large conservative base, yet good balance between liberal/conservative views)
-Washington & Lee
-Davidson College (also a healthy balance, VERY highly esteemed conservative publications)
-George Washington University</p>
<p>I wouldn't exactly recommend CMC. I don't go there, but I know people who do and I really don't think that it is particularly conservative. It doesn't strike me as a very politically charged place either--people seem very laid back..the sort who wouldn't like to get into messy political debates too much.</p>