Help us restore balance to the universe - please suggest one or more schools you think would be appropriate choices. Thanks!
P.S. Though the language in the search tool is broad enough to encompass all kinds of liberal leanings, I’d interpret this as a mostly political kind of leaning vs., say, a strict environment on campus or a particular religious emphasis. Hence, a Christian school that had rather strict campus rules but embraced liberal social causes (and attracted students who did so, too) would be liberal, not conservative.
I’d personally nominate Texas A&M and Pepperdine University. Their student bodies have an astounding number of conservatives, regardless of religious affiliation.
On the note of Pepperdine, it’s law school was known to be a breeding ground for conservative lawmakers in the 80s and 90s but I’m not sure if that still holds today.
Some schools have libertarian-leaning (or neo-classical or freshwater or whatever) economics departments (economics as a whole has pretty much abandoned command economies in favor of markets given all the empirical data on command economies, though there is still plenty of room for neo-Keynesians, “nudgers,” and the like).
U Chicago used to be the most famous, it was the home of the neo-classical renaissance in economics. I hear it’s not like that anymore. I have heard the following schools’ econ departments described as libertarian-leaning:
George Mason (their professors are all among the more popular econ bloggers)
Harvard (yes, that Harvard)
Ohio University
University of Indiana-Bloomington
UCLA
Stanford
Washington and Lee is very conservative, Wake can be at times. UChicago’s econ department on the grad level still has many conservatives, and I know their main intro econ professor has said things like a flat tax is the only intelligent form of taxation, so take that as you will. Stanford’s study body is super liberal, but they hire a good amount of conservatives there. Wharton is a shining beacon of conservatism in a lake of liberalism at UPenn
By mistake (we are not at all conservative :)) my son’s father picked up a book called “Choosing the RIGHT College” a couple of years ago when we were starting the college search. It gave a green/yellow/red light to a wide range of colleges based on how much they espoused conservative values. You might find it useful–we did (mostly, by singling out all the “red-light” colleges and focusing on them).
Washington and Lee
Miami of Ohio
Thomas Aquinas College
BYU (obviously)
University of Dallas
Wheaton (Il)
University of Mississippi
Auburn (according to a friend that transferred from there to Emory)
Baylor
Most big Southern state schools would probably be fairly conservative with the exception of UNC, simply owing to the fact that most of their students are from much more conservative backgrounds.
Whoever said Georgetown has never been to the school. The only conservative part of this school is buying contraceptives at CVS (or getting them free from H*yas for Choice) and the College Republicans who are outnumbered at least 5 to 1
Notre Dame is a top school with a conservative vibe, social life, and a good football team/athletics to root for and enjoy yourself at least while you’re there.
I second Wheaton of Illinois. Great school but also unapologetically conserative and evangelical. Students and faculty sign a community covenant that bans things like drinking, drugs, and dancing. If that’s your thing it’s a great school. A lot of ministers and one of the highest rates of Bachelor’s to PhDs in the country.
Beyond that, BYU, Grove City, Liberty, Patrick Henry, and any of the service academies would be good choices as well. Texas A&M, as mentioned before, is also a notoriously conservative school.
This is an interesting website, too. It tells you which colleges have a more traditional core of required courses leading to a more classical education.