Hi, I’m applying to the following schools (perhaps give or take one or two): Amherst, Williams, Columbia, Reed, Oberlin, NYU, Cornell, UChicago, and Yale (and maybe Rice, as I live in Houston, but I’d rather not; possibly UC Berkeley). For the record, my prospective major is undecided, but my areas of interest are English literature, linguistics/modern languages, and philosophy. Anyway, politically I’m fairly left of center myself, but I often hear warnings - primarily online - about dogmatic political correctness on college campuses, which seems to run contrary to the spirit of free intellectual inquiry and debate.
Williams College has a lot about this written in their student paper (in which the claim is made that Amherst is worse as regards PCness). Reed and Oberlin are famously devoutly liberal, especially with the former’s mantra of “Communism, Atheism, and Free Love.” From what I’ve read, UC Berkeley has lost much of its '60s tolerance and genuine progressivism and become a hotbed for anti-semitism. UChicago strikes me as more moderate, at least with Milton Friedman and the Chicago school; but perhaps that has changed. I don’t have a strong sense, politically-speaking, of the other schools I listed.
Obviously, I’m not here to criticize these schools, considering how little I know about them firsthand. I was just wondering if anyone has personal experience with the condition of free thought at any of these schools and what their advice for an applicant like me would be.
The “hotbed” comments can only come from those who pay too much attention to the Israeli/Palestinian political activists who engage in shouting matches with each other. The noisiest of them generally do tend to be anti-Jewish/Arab (i.e. racist, as opposed to merely being critical of the policies of specific governments and political parties) and tend to drown out more reasonable voices. This is probably true anywhere that Israeli/Palestinian politics shows up.
The conservative ISI (which publishes “Choosing the Right College”) seems to be one of the few organizations to seriously address these issues in assessing colleges. They used to post top-10 lists of “exceptional” colleges and “train wreck” colleges. Their 10 “exceptional” schools included Princeton and UChicago (along with several Christian schools). Those lists (and sample reviews) apparently have been taken down. You might want to get a copy of the book. I found their college reviews well-written, and relatively “fair and balanced” despite ISI’s political slant.
It’s difficult to answer the question because there’s so many variables at play. At the same university, one department can be much more politically charged than another. To take my alma mater as an example, the literature program is noticeably more “politically correct” than the English program, and the science departments are decidedly apathetic.
If you’re set on your list of colleges, the best thing to do is to wait until you have your acceptances and financial aid offers in hand and then visit as many of the viable options as possible. A lot depends on how assertive you feel comfortable being in a seminar setting and the diversity of viewpoints you want represented.
All of your colleges are very selective. Do you have a safety? UT Austin would be excellent for your interests if you’re in the top 7% of your class, and Plan II might be a good fit for you.
@warblersrule How else did the literature program differ from the English program? And in what did you major?
Yes, their selectivity worries me. I’ve been told my essays are exceptionally good, I’ve won a national writing award (Scholastic) and a creative writing award at my school, have good extracurriculars, and highish SAT scores (2300 superscore, but unexceptional subject test scores, so we’ll see). My GPA is somewhat below average for these schools but not bad.
I can’t see myself going to UT Austin or anywhere in Texas even though all of my friends are applying there and UH, and many to Rice as well. I know people who were far from the top of their classes (well, top quartile, probably) who got into Oberlin, Reed, and NYU. Is it crazy of me to treat the latter grouping as my safety schools?
When it had school mini-profiles on the web site, it used to have a red/yellow/green light rating for political environment. Green seemed to include both extremely right-leaning (often heavily religious) schools as well as those where there seemed to be (at least in their opinion) a reasonable spread of political diversity. Red seemed to indicate what they saw as excessively left-leaning schools.
Why can’t you see yourself at UT Austin or other Texas schools?
Oberlin and Reed consider level of applicant’s interest, so they may not want to be anyone’s safeties. NYU is expensive with poor financial aid (though perhaps not as bad as in the past).
Almost anywhere you apply nowadays, if there’s even a modicum of diversity on campus (and, at most places there is) it’s likely to be polarized politically. Trying to thread the needle between schools that are diverse, but, where everyone shouts at each other, and schools where everyone is polite to each other, but aren’t very diverse may be futile.
And, FWIW, Williams and Wesleyan have no business criticizing Amherst for its PCness as both have been in the news lately for their own skirmishes.
Be sure to read through the course listings.
Compare the offerings in each department/major that interests you.
Reed’s philosophy department offers full one-semester courses on Aristotle, Hume, Wittgenstein, and Locke/Berkeley/Hume. Courses like this used to be a staple of philosophy departments, but there don’t seem to be any in Oberlin’s listings. In Reed’s philosophy course descriptions (http://www.reed.edu/philosophy/courses/index.html) you won’t find a single reference to race, gender, or feminism. In Oberlin’s, feminism is a topic even in the “Ancient Philosophy” course.
Larger schools can offer a greater variety of courses. At UChicago for example you can spend a term focusing on Aristotle’s Physics or books III and IV of Nietzche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Williams offers similar courses (e.g. “Aristotle’s Metaphysics”), but many are marked “not offered this year”.
your list are schools where you are most likely to run into intolerance and people trying suppress the free flow of thought. (it has gotten really sad)
look at schools like hendrix college ( the coolest hidden gem in the world) https://www.hendrix.edu/
or
muhlenebrg college http://www.muhlenberg.edu/(the best all around school in the world for undergrad)
you will you run into intolerant special snowflakes at these school too… but it will be less of an issue and they are fun places where you can get a great education!
p.s. (a little sarcasm when I said best and coolest in the world)
Unfortunately, http://www.reed.edu/philosophy/courses/index.html indicates that all of these courses are “Not offered 2015-16.” Only about 15 of 41 listed philosophy courses appear to be offered this academic year, indicating that Reed’s philosophy department is probably too small to offer all of the courses that it wants to offer.
^ Yes, that’s unfortunate … although even 15 courses may be as many as (or more than) you are required to take for the entire major. Check the major requirements carefully. You have to weigh the advantages of broader course selection, which you’d tend to get at a bigger school, against any advantages you might see in a LAC.
I’m pretty darn liberal, but I really valued my undergrad years at UChicago because I got to know a lot of really smart people who were more conservative than I was. The university is liberal overall, but it definitely is more moderate, which is partly because of the econ department, but also, I think, because nearly a third of the student population is from the midwest (28%) and a good portion (11%) is from the southeast (https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/page/profile-class-2018). I remember looking at a website last year that looked at geographic diversity that showed UChicago as one of the most diverse in this respect, and I suspect this leads to diversity of ideas as well. Most of its peer universities are on the coasts. I really think this makes a difference (it would be interesting to see how Northwestern compares).
At Chicago, most of the more moderate/conservative folks are not very conservative, especially in the social sense–libertarians are very common. And for the most part, I think students are pretty respectful of one another and have great discussions. Many of my peers made me angry and frustrated–I thought a lot of their arguments were dumb and I did not agree at all–but they really made me think through my own opinions and understand other perspectives. Check out a FB group called “UChicago Open Discourse.”–it’s not free from the mess of internet arguments, but it’s pretty good, and I think it really says something that such a group exists at all (ETA: you might need to be in the UChicago network to view).
It might be a good strategy to look up geographic representation as a proxy for what you call “intellectual diversity.” But size also can give you that–Berkeley mostly has Californians, but California is a huge and diverse place despite its reputation, and the same probably is true for the school to some extent. Cornell is a big school with all types. I wouldn’t rule out Reed despite its liberal reputation–the Reedies I know are careful thinkers, more likely to play with all kinds of ideas than to dismiss anything they disagree with outright.
I would NOT get the “Right College” book and I would NOT agree that those reviews are fair and balanced, though. Chicago gets a green light from them because there is a core curriculum with a lot of dead white guys, which they think highly of, and the emphasis on free speech and open discourse is real. But the things they hate at the “red light” colleges exist at Chicago, too. There are lots of classes that emphasize the “multiculturalism” that they somehow think is terrible, there’s a student run sex magazine (at least, there has been in the past), etc, etc. While I was glad to see someone recognize the valuable diversity of ideas at Chicago, I also wanted to write to them and inform them of all of the ways that Chicago was just as much a liberal, heathen, and multicultural place as the red light schools, and that it does not remotely belong on a list with a bunch of religious colleges. The dominance of the list by religious colleges suggests that it is not a good indicator of free speech and diversity of ideas.
Sure. Yet somehow the editors were able to see past that and give Chicago a “green light”.
I’m not a huge fan of the ISI. In my book, the “train wrecks” would include schools like Liberty University and Bob Jones. The top 10 “exceptional” schools would not include (certainly wouldn’t be dominated by) Christian colleges. However, given the OP’s description of himself and the colleges that interest him, I doubt he is even looking at Christian colleges. He seems to be focusing on top ~50 colleges, most of which are at least fairly liberal. If he is trying to identify those among them where conservative viewpoints would be treated fairly, why not read what conservatives themselves have to say about that?
I suspect the difference here is on a social vs. economic liberalism. You will find a wide diversity of opinions on most campuses when it comes to the value of capitalism vs. socialism vs. other isms, free trades, how to manage externalities, state-owned enterprises, etc…and a lot of thoughtful discussion about same. If you are talking about social issues like race, gender, immigration, sexual identify, abortion, drug laws, etc…most campuses, including all of those that you mention, are liberal and it could be very uncomfortable to advocate publicly for positions that run against the grain. For example, if you are against gay marriage and cite scripture as the basis for that (as opposed to objecting to the institution of marriage as a whole), you are likely to be quietly shunned by many people. I say this as a card-carrying social liberal, by the way.
If being a cultural minority amidst the majority culture is not an experience you want, then it’s a good idea to find schools where there are more people whose values are like your own. It’s not that I don’t value exposure to others whose views are different, by the way - but swimming upstream all day every day is exhausting and not something I would burden a freshman with on their first solo foray into the world.
@tk21769, thanks. I’m not applying to that many places (all of which are fairly selective), so I’ll go into this deeper when I get some acceptance letters.