<p>I've heard tell that Cornell is a fairly liberal school -- how would a stolid conservative get along?</p>
<p>There is an active Republican group on campus that you can join. You will be in the minority opinion, but as long as you are not obnoxious about your views, you should get along with most people.</p>
<p>I agree with mickeyc, and while Cornell tends to lean more liberal, the Cornell Republicans is a pretty active group. They also bring a lot of conservative speakers to campus - this semester they brought Herman Cain and SE Cupp, and in the past, Ron Paul, Paul Wolfowitz, and Karl Rove have visited, so there’s definitely a community, and some events catered toward conservatives.</p>
<p>^
Don’t forget they brought Santorum last semester too.</p>
<p>The Cornell Republicans are absolutely LOADED money-wise because of all their grants. They’re very active and you’ll have a great community. As for Professors, I know Martin Shefter in the Government department is one. Probably a lot in Econ/AEM.</p>
<p>(I’m a Democrat, by the way.)</p>
<p>Perspicacious: Don’t buy into that ultra right wing propaganda about “liberal” colleges. Yes there are many progressives/liberals at many colleges – but why would that be a bad thing for someone who leans conservative?</p>
<p>The question shouldn’t be about the student body’s political leaning, but that of the professors. My son is an engineer, but has taken electives in all colleges. He doesn’t like the fact that they automatically assume their students are part of the progressive persuasion before discussion begins. He said it was annoying and chose not to have a minor in one of those areas for that very reason. Yes, he could have given them answers they wanted and played the game for a grade, but doesn’t want to.</p>
<p>^ True … having to supress oneself for groupthink would be annoying, very fast</p>
<p>I was a Econ/Govt major (arguably two of the most political leaning majors except for maybe ILR and PAM). I overall found the professors to teach the material quite neutrally and I am far from a progressive or left-leaning. Most professors don’t let their personal views be known and in many cases it’s not obvious. For the few professors who admitted their political biases, I did not find it swayed the quality or biases of the material they taught.</p>
<p>^
<em>Cough</em> Elizabeth Sanders <em>Cough</em></p>
<p>Even though I was hoping our S would go to Notre Dame, I’ve been so pleasantly surprised with Cornell! Even though it’s a huge university, the people who work there are so willing to go out of their way to help a student with an issue or a question. Everyone is so accessible. My S has really liked all of his professors. </p>
<p>mikey: that’s a great comment. Obviously, my son didn’t get too deep into any of these subjects. I’m happy to hear your feedback.</p>
<p>@Saugus: I never had a class with her.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, I’ve certainly heard complaints about some professors from some conservative friends, but I don’t think it’s widespread. Personally, I prefer a professor whose biases are different from my own because I find that more engaging (I’m not left leaning on many issues). But in my personal experiences, most professors do not express personal opinions and if they do, I don’t think it biased their teaching. Sure, you can sometimes make a decent guess at their biases, but it’s not usually obvious. There is a vibrant conservative community at Cornell if you want to talk with people who aren’t going to challenge you (often that’s nice).</p>
<p>In my opinion, Econ in general is biased towards more centrist policies (center right or center left), especially at the undergraduate level. If undergraduate economics “proved” one side over the other, there would be no economic policy debates.</p>
<p>Heard from one friend that her daughter did not get into any of the sororities she pledged because she’s a “real conservative”. Don’t know if this was the actual reason.</p>
<p>@bridgezon</p>
<p>sounds like your friend is biased.</p>
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<p>Which classes are those? When I went to college, I don’t remember any classes like that.</p>
<p>don’t know the class numbers, but I know he took some political science, econ, and history electives. The political science class automatically assumed he believed global warming was a problem that required taxation of the US, the econ class supported Keynesian economics (which was a continuation of AP econ in high school), and history emphasizes minorities, diversity, unions - but leaves out vital military and religious/political factors that led to the success of the US.</p>
<p>Swimmer726 That is pretty unfortunate, since a university is supposed to be a place where differing views can be discussed and where theories can be tested.</p>
<p>“Keynesian” economics is quite broad. Everyone is taught Keynesian economics because it needs to be taught and it would be irresponsible not to teach it. There is no such thing as Keynesianism being “true” or “false.” The Keynesian perspective provides extraordinarily valuable insight into many areas of economics. Both liberals and conservative economists heavily draw upon Keynes’ insights, albeit in different ways. I know sometimes I found classes less biased than other students because some students didn’t pick up on the nuance of the lecture. Just because there is lecture on Keynes doesn’t mean the professor is telling its students that fiscal stimulus is an obvious policy. Heck, understanding something as basic as GDP requires Keynes…</p>
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<p>Well, the scientific community overwhelming believes that global warming is occurring, so it would be hard to teach something else in a political science class. </p>
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<p>Keynesian theory is accepted by most economists. Not by conservative political commentators, perhaps, but an econ class is not about them.</p>
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<p>Was this a class about what caused the success of the US, or was it about something else?</p>