Are Davidson or Wake Forest students very conservative or more moderate? Could a liberal minded Midwesterner find a place at either school? I wouldn’t say our son is uber-liberal, but definitely a Democrat. While North Carolina is a beautiful part of the country, I worry that the politics may be a bit conservative for him. Trying to get some advice before we start planning college tour trips next year!
Most colleges are more liberal than their environs. Davidson is located just outside of Charlotte, which is a pretty liberal part of North Carolina. I am pretty sure that neither school is “very conservative”; moderate to liberal is probably the best way to describe Wake Forest, at least, and Davidson might lean even more liberal soon.
Remember, too, that North Carolina is a diverse state. Some of the more rural areas are conservative, but the cities are generally pretty liberal pockets. In 2012, Barack Obama won 48% of the vote to Mitt Romney’s 50%. The Greensboro/Winston-Salem area (where Wake Forest is) was one of the blue areas, as were Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill (where UNC and Duke and NSCU are all located). It’s mostly the more rural far eastern and western reaches of NC that are more conservative, and even Asheville - the small college town where UNC-Asheville is located - is a light blue pocket. (Source: an electoral map.)
@julliet thanks for responding. I only ask because I’ve been reading some college guide books and they both say that these schools’ student bodies are moderate to conservative. Wanted to get some first hand feedback before we would plan a trip to NC to see schools.
On the flip side, I thought Oberlin could have been a match but now I am thinking it might be too liberal for our son. May still visit since it’s closer to home. Don’t want to go all the way to NC if we know in advance that our son wouldn’t fit there.
@homerdog We visited both schools last month as well as Duke. I found Wake Forest to be the most conservative of the three as is Winston-Salem compared to the greater Charlotte area and Raleigh-Durham. However, we are quite liberal and I saw nothing about Wake Forest that would turn me off politically or socially.
Davidson is very liberal. Take this with a huge amount of salt, but it does give some flavor: http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/28251/