Conservative colleges

College Search & Selection
1

MODERATOR NOTE: This thread was split from another thread.

does anyone have opinions on just how liberal are these schools:

University of Wisconsin
University of Texas Austin
university of Michigan
University of North Carolina
Vanderbilt
Georgetown

Thank you MackAg for this response: (I do not know how to credit this the correct way!)

It is my belief that conservative does not mean what it meant even 10 years ago on college campuses.

With that said, I have my last of 4 kids in school now. Between them, I’ve reviewed and visited well over 50 campuses. This by no means makes me an expert. I welcome anyone to disagree with me as this might provide you even better insight.

Conservative leaning schools you have not listed: Oklahoma State, Arkansas, South Dakota State, Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn

Texas A&M: Our family is on fourth generation Aggie. The culture remains overall conservative, especially when compared to other parts of the country. There is a huge push by the university to force-feed the global idea of diversity and inclusion down the throats of students. I consider this a financial decision similar to any other mainstream business, think Target’s advertising initiative beginning some years ago. But, there is room for all beliefs, especially with 60,000+ students. No matter your beliefs you can find a group.

Texas: We have family members and many friends connected to UT. Austin is the most liberal large city in Texas, but this does not make all people liberal. I feel comfortable saying that conservative voices are shamed more often than praised on campus. Shame is the new weapon. My conservative friends that are Longhorns do not speak their opinions, they keep silent simply to avoid the hassle, until they get away from Austin.

Clemson: Reminds me of A&M but smaller and prettier. It appears to be further along in saturating the campus with left leaning ideals. But again, in comparison to the rest of the country I feel it can be classified as conservative.

Virginia: One of my best friends graduated from Virginia. His entire family still lives near the campus. He would not let his two sons attend UVA because it is “easily 65% liberal” (he just texted me this after I asked). For better context, his wife went to Baylor, and both his sons are at Baylor. I know nothing more about UVA.

Florida: I believe around this time last year UF barred several conservative groups from holding on-campus events, but did not do the same for the Greek System. Whatever that might be worth in your consideration, if any. Hopefully someone else can provide better information.

As for the remaining schools on your list (Wisc, Mich, UNC, Vandy, and George), I believe having these on your least conservative list is accurate. Vanderbilt is not conservative despite being in Nashville. Vandy is somewhat similar to Rice. Michigan and UNC are somewhat similar to Texas. Georgetown has a high liberal student body but is often considered more conservative when compared to others of similar region.

Thank you!!! This is exactly the type of response my question was intended to elicit .

2

You can see on Niche how they are rated. Nonetheless, college (unlike society) should be about experiencing various viewpoints, forging relationships regardless and at all these schools, while they’ll skew liberal (maybe not Gtown), there will be many of all sides on campus.
My son goes to a very conservative school - Alabama - and has no interest or clue about politics, etc. and while it’s not good, I’m sure most students are similar.

I wouldn’t pick or not pick a school from the list above based on politics. Whatever you are - you’ll find your people.

1 Like
3

I thought college is supposed to open your mind, with exposure left, right, and in between? (I went to one of these “liberal leaning” schools you mentioned and they too had conservative professors.) Develop your mind into critical thinking and not accept what is “force fed”. If you are looking for just one viewpoint, and can’t determine what is truth and what is not, you’re probably in trouble for the rest of your life.

2 Likes
4

Georgetown is very liberal. Although it has Catholic roots, it pretty much parted ways with those quite a while ago. UNC is in a very liberal part of North Carolina as is UT Austin in Texas.

The general rule these days is that higher Ed skews left and it’s really more a sliding scale of center left/political apathy to SJW.

1 Like
5

Using UNC-CH’s location in a “very liberal” area as a reason not to send your child to a nationally top rated school at a very reasonable in-state price is really cutting off your nose to spite your face. 80% of students of the nearly 20,000 undergrads come from all over NC- a conservative student is pretty certainly in the majority.

There were complaints about this in my grandparent’s generation- and you can find complaints going back centuries about ‘modern’ thinking both by students and professors ‘tainting’ the ‘impressionable’ students.

“Liberal” and “Conservative” are current labels for a continuum that has always existed, from people who want everything to stay as it is to people who want everything to be different. In real life, the world seems to do best when there is a healthy push-pull between the two groups: neither is entirely right or entirely wrong. Moreover, for all of time it is young adults who have challenged the status quo. Being in a pool of people with a range of views can actually helpful in figuring out where your own natural center is. Figuring out your values for your adult self (vs the ones that your parents imparted) is part of becoming adult- even if they end up being the exact same values, they are now yours to own, and the stronger for it.

I am a bit bemused at how anxious people can be at having their adult children exposed to “SJW” or “ultra-liberal” people. Have some faith in your children, and some confidence in the values that you have been instilling for the last 18 years.

14 Likes
6

I’m not concerned about exposure, I’m concerned about situations like the strike at Haverford where the academic part of the equation is completely shutdown or strikes like the ones at Berkeley where speakers are disinvited because students are offended. If you’re offended then don’t attend. But college administrators lack backbone in the majority of these situations. It isn’t the conservative students striking, picketing and whining.

11 Likes
7

UT, Vandy and Wisconsin have strong Greek systems with students who aren’t going to be especially liberal. I know quite a few conservative people at each especially if in the b-schools.

1 Like
10

So you’re concerned about situations where speakers are disinvited because students are offended?

You do have a way with words. It had nothing to do with students being “offended”. The students have as much right to express their opinions as do any speakers. They weren’t consulted when decisions were made at Berkeley to bring in speakers like Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter. So, when the decisions in these and other cases were announced, they spoke out. I defend their right to free speech.

Should we shut down the free speech of the student demonstrators because you’re offended? Objecting to a white supremacist who advocates in favor of pedophilia is hardly speech that should be shut down. Who will be our next speaker? A representative of NAMBLA?

The college administrators undoubtedly recognized that there was no up side to defending the decisions to invite hate mongers like Milo and Coulter. I doubt that the administrators were consulted in advance either, so when the situation was called to their attention, they did the responsible thing. I imagine that they followed that up with some piercing questions for those responsible for inviting those speakers.

As for liberals being the only ones who are demonstrating and picketing. There was that small incident at the Capital on January 6th. No liberals there.

24 Likes
11

Nice spin but those speakers were invited to speak and you’re judging them right now 
.saying they’re not worthy of speaking to students based on your standards. Thus providing a yet another perfect example of how free speech is fine as long as it’s what you deem acceptable. Those students who objected have every right to do so peacefully. But that’s not what they did. And again I point out it’s never the conservative students who do the protesting, the destruction, the threats and violence. So all the students at Berkeley have to agree as to who can speak on campus? Seriously? No one was forcing those students to attend those speeches. They weren’t guest lecturers in a class like Hunter Biden will be at Tulane. Students were free to attend or do something else. But if they don’t want to hear it then no one can. This is the exact opposite of free speech.

9 Likes
12

When I was at Syracuse, Louis Farrakhan spoke. I’m Jewish
I attended. It was a waste and he’s a loser (my opinion) but it was his right.

Now the question is - what makes these people worthy enough that they are invited to speak?

I mean, why not Bill Marsh or Jon Smith or Jane Doe.

Anyway, I’m not sure what the OP is getting at because the question was merged - but I would contend colleges should have the speech of all as long as it is peaceful.

The U of Michigan student government just made a “boneheaded” anti-Israel vote (my opinion) but if they did so peacefully to make a point, I’m fine with it. It’s their beliefs.

I love AOC even though I personally can’t stand her politics. Why? She is young, stands for what she believes (right or wrong) and debates it. And that’s how society works.

I cannot stand people like Marjorie Taylor Greene - that is someone who should be disinvited - not because of what she stands for - again, that’s her right - but because of how she acts.

College should be welcoming to dissenting voices on all sides, no matter how harmful, if it’s done so in a safe and non-confrontational matter.

After all, while we disagree as people, we should be civil enough to do so in friendship.

6 Likes
13

“never” is a big word


7 Likes
14

Colleges with strong preprofessional orientations in business or engineering tend to be more conservative. Both UNC and UT are liberal within their states, but would not be considered particularly liberal nationwide.

4 Likes
15

If you’re looking for conservative business-wise/financially, you’ll find it in many places.

If you’re looking for conservative with certain social issues it will be hard pressed to find in higher education, because (as my son told me), once students get away from home and meet people outside their bubble (race, gender, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic class, etc) and find out they are truly “people” just like they are, they wonder why they ever wanted to discriminate against them. It’s a good thing.

If you’re looking for any particular faith, you’ll find groups on any campus. True faith is not tied to politics. I’m a solid Christian having been one since my teens and it pains me to see a large segment of my religion tied to one “side.” The Bible I read doesn’t promote politics (no one in the NT suggested aligning - or not - with a political leader), but I’ll stop with that. If you want New Testament Christianity, it’s on campus - even liberal campuses - and likely has voters on both sides.

There’s no way in the world I think Hitler should have been allowed to speak on a college campus, so I think lines need to be drawn somewhere personally. It shouldn’t be a case of “any idiot with a theory/belief gets an open podium.” With the internet, there’s not really any limiting of what students hear if they are interested in it.

10 Likes
16

My comment was in the context of free speech and allowing speakers and different points of view to be discussed on college campuses.

https://www.voanews.com/usa/american-college-campuses-increasingly-hostile-free-speech

However, if we are going to expand the discussion to any violence on campus we can do that as well.

1 Like
17

This thread is rapidly becoming very political and the tone is increasingly antagonistic. PLEASE remember the Forum Rules, which state that Cc is for discussion, not debate, and that civil discourse is expected of all users. FAQ - College Confidential Forums

I’d like to remind users that the original post is to discuss conservative colleges, and that the original post is asking for feedback on several colleges, as well as providing overviews of several colleges.

I am putting this thread on slow mode for several hours.

18

I love this thread - raises topics that should be talked about repeatedly. So important for America.

I agree with those who say the words conservative & liberal should be adequately broken down. They mean various things to different people and often come with an emotional charge now. Knowing what you want more clearly is helpful.

[Which leads me to my next thought – parents, we should be teaching/modeling and pleading with our primary and secondary schools to teach our kids true social-emotional/conversational skills and compassion. We can have great ideas on how to operate this world, but if many of our high school students don’t understand how to recognize their biases to some degree and resolve conflict peacefully, how can we expect a general American college culture that truly reflects that?]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think you (OP) are mostly looking for a (a very smart) university setting that has done a good job of setting a peaceful table for discussion.

You may be hard-pressed to find that 100% of a given university’s administrative decisions agree with all of your opinions, however. Just try to hit a high percentage and look for a decent balance of intellect-compassion. A good mix of what you would deem a “healthy space” for your student to grow in mind, body, & spirit.

5 Likes
19

This is my third try at examining this thread and I really appreciated @hardy8635 P.M.ing me with his clarifications. IMHO, if you focus solely on what other students are doing or speaking out against, you are going to miss out on a lot of great educational institutions, including a good many of the best state flagship universities in the country. I think I read somewhere that the human brain is hard-wired to keep track of 150 close friends and family members for any extended length of time. Every college and university mentioned thus far has a student body many times larger than that, so this isn’t really a question of whether your child will find their peep. They will.

This really seems to be a question of how much stomach the child has for commanding the public stage. Some conservative kids love it and go on to lucrative careers with Fox News and National Review. Others hate it and quietly seethe on the inside while (in their view) the rest of the school loses its mind. Another thing to consider is how much political discourse remains confined to cyberspace (almost all of the commotion at Haverford last year took place while the school was in lockdown!)

Yeah, so if Hillsdale and Liberty are out, I’m really hard put to make any recommendations. Every college and university in the country that’s worth its salt, is going to have liberal students attending it; the very concept of the modern university is rooted in the idea of liberal (meaning wide-ranging), secular (non-religious) inquiry. The idea that they are also engines of social-change or of socialization is a very, very recent outgrowth of our own times. Maybe, start your search with some of the SEC schools? The University of Anchorage?

2 Likes
20

As for suggestions: Personally, I like my (grad school) alma mater Pepperdine and my daughter will be starting undergrad this Fall. To us, it is a space that encourages civil discourse and all-around healthy living (which is key imo in making this country/world more peaceful).

I was very excited to see these guys invited to speak in December and is indicative of the school’s intention on campus/in the classroom for discourse. I have read them say elsewhere that the “purpose of dialogue is not to refute another’s position but to inch toward truth.” And - “We need to model the love of truth over the love of one’s own opinions.”

Amen. ; )

https://www.pepperdine.edu/newsroom/2020/12/presidents-speaker-series-launches-robert-george-and-cornel-west-dialogue/

4 Likes
21

Just chiming in to say this isn’t actually true. Wherever you put young people together, in any decade/century, you are going to see those young people vociferously champion causes they deem worthy.

For one example we can go back to Amherst College in the early 1890s when Calvin Coolidge was a student. There was a huge controversy on campus regarding the liberal way a popular professor taught his Philosophy class. Fed up, the dean fired the professor. The students created such a ruckus the professor was reinstated.

At several campuses in the northeast specifically but across America in the early 1900s, students rose up to demand change regarding police unions, support for oppressed workers in the growing industrial age, and women’s suffrage. In the 1960s and 70s, college students rose up against the Vietnam War. The idea of students speaking out for causes they support is nearly as old as the institution of higher education in America.

The only thing different is the topic, not the existence of student outrage. And even the topic hasn’t changed. It seems to always be about equality and fairness in some form.

8 Likes
22

Agreed.

And on a more general note: If we recognize we are social creatures who are greatly nurtured by our primary environs, naturally we do much (unconsciously or consciously) based on that nurturance.

So, the idea that colleges are also new spaces for socialization is not quite accurate either. Where we spend the bulk of our time affects us, and in turn often affects how we operate in this world - until and unless we become very conscious beings.

Learning how to check one’s own biases throughout life and hold civil discourse, is immensely important for peace & conflict resolution. Colleges that want to nurture this as a culture need an intentional mission to establish and maintain it. It isn’t enough to (mostly) simply house a diverse and/or large group, if seeking to create a truly compassionate, impactful intellectual home.

4 Likes