@gearmom, no, he doesn’t get offended at all. Thanks for suggestions, BC looks promising.
@Aymyrat Actually look at UMass Amherst also. It should be fine to be a secular libertarian. I’m not sure how expressive everyone is. You might need a filter. But it should be fine and it’s large enough to have many different points of view. I remember touring and seeing a pro-Israeli table on one side of the union and a pro-Palestinian table on the other. Different pov are fine. I wouldn’t be too aggressive about them if you know what I mean though.
Also maybe Holy Cross or Fordham. Search the Jesuit and Catholic schools in New England.
If that is the case, wouldn’t those be examples of trying to create “safe spaces” for right-leaning students who do not want to hear viewpoints that they disagree with?
Honestly, I would just pick a school with a strong program in a subject you like. If the school has a large business/engineering component, so much the better because those students tend to be less freewheeling-liberal.
As someone who is on a college campus every single day, I think this “issue” has been vastly overblown. I know there have been stories, but it doesn’t affect the vast majority of college students on a day-to-day basis. Unless you are going to a very liberal hippy school, you’ll probably find your people and things will be fine.
But I guess that depends on you – I remember passing a fire and brimstone zealot every day on my way to class in the 90s who would tell me to repent or I’m heading straight to hell. I just ignored him and went on with my day. Will you be able to pass groups tabling in the Student Center with views different from your own without getting terribly upset? Because if you simply must confront them and let them know what you think, well, that’s a different story.
But if you can find a group of people you like and just do your thing, you’ll be OK in most mid to large universities.
Wouldn’t the majority of State Flagships fit this description?
Actual libertarians are not that common, although possibly more common among college students than the general adult population, probably due to youthful idealism. Polls and surveys of college students generally indicate that most (both left leaning and right leaning) are for freedom of speech for those they agree with, but support for freedom of speech is lower for those whom they disagree with.
Of course, there are probably lots of places that are more libertarian than Turkmenistan and Vietnam.
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2017
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2017/turkmenistan
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2017/vietnam
@ucbalumnus, yeah, that’s why he is not applying to university in Turkmenistan.
@veruca I think it could depend a bit on location. But also the atheism factors in. Certain areas of the country are more secular.
Berkeley has always had a reputation for being freewheeling-liberal, obviously. That’s not new. I’m willing to bet that they have a decently large number of libertarians, however.
My D went to GA tech -which she felt was politically “neutral” to a degree. Lots of different kinds of people but not a campus where there was lots of activism. (Although there was some)
I think that really the issue about safe spaces and intolerant students is overblown, agreeing with @PetraMC
Off the top of my head, I think that diverse opinions – meaning liberal to conservative and all the others in between – are include in the vast majority of the 3000 schools in the US. Instances like Reed’s issues this year or Oberlin’s a few years ago, or the purposeful flash-point antics at Berkeley this year are blown up out of proportion. For political purpose. To show supposed intolerance. And, conveniently, the intolerance of the right-wing schools are ignored.
FWIW – and from a purely intellectual perspective – what is the harm in a safe space? If another student doesn’t approve, they don’t have to “enter” the safe space. The supposed harm may be an issue of perception only. As another aside, more people seem upset about the possibility of a “safe space” rather than the number of deaths in Greek parties each year, but hey, it’s a matter of priorities, I guess
Off the top of my head, places that have the entire spectrum of political thought –
Columbia
Princeton
UPenn
URichmond
Davidson
UMinnesota
UWisconsin
Vassar
Connecticut College
Syracuse
Yale
Harvard – lots of conservatives here
There are probably 2,950+ schools that could be placed on the list out of 3000 that are not on the edges of the political spectrum, one end or the other.
so maybe the OP should ask for only the schools that are so far to the left or to the right that they’d find it intolerable.
The rest will be in the zone.
Actually OP, if you provide your stats and major, that would be easiest to recommend. If you’re engineering majors, you won’t have time to chat anyway.
Students and professors from the former Soviet Union tend to be more libertarian on average, so that may be his best bet, to go to a place with large Russian community (probably most big schools in NY, New England, California and Illinois).
Purdue, UCI, Penn State, Ohio state, Michigan state, Iowa state, WVU, UNH, URI, SUNY stony brook, SUNY geneseo, SUNY buffalo, would all have a broad variety of opinions.
Swarthmore
Adding a +1 to this issue not really being that common. If you avoid a few specific schools and the strongly liberal LAC’s like those mentioned, most schools qualify. I agree that looking at programs and then once you have a list narrowing options based on this criteria makes more sense.
Generally, the news sensationalizes “safe spaces” and radically liberal faculty who don’t welcome discussion. I can imagine it is harder to avoid this media bias without seeing it for yourself.
Certainly many Texas schools outside Austin would be a match for a libertarian.
@intparent I am not an expert but do you think that the people in Texas are on average more sincerely/committed religious. I don’t think they want socially conservative places.
They aren’t limited at all, why would you say that? Your brother can express his opinion anywhere. If you’re hoping for some college where everyone will agree with him, you won’t find that, anywhere - for anyone.