Conservative yet selective schools?

Transfer Students
1

What are some good schools that share a more ‘right-wing ideology’ or slightly moderate? Or even schools that take a more philosophical look at discussion? (What if’s, past theories, etc.)

I’ve been looking to transfer as being a Political Science major in an extremely left leaning school isn’t the ideal ‘debate heaven,’ people seem to think it is. In reality it’s more like 1v30 fighting, calling the president racist instead of discussing political theory, spitting out facts unrelated to the central point, or some of that classic communism.
It’s really a motivation killer…

Honestly, I’m just sick of it. My intent was never to shut out other points of view, I handled this quite well in the first semester in which there were opportunities to rightfully debate. (It seems my PoliSci class isn’t as good as my SOC class was in that.)

What schools seem to value either/both:
Right-wing ideology solely:
Intellectual Discussion:
Both?:

Thanks.

2

Claremont McKenna.

3

CMC, Princeton & Dartmouth College. Johns Hopkins ?

4

Perhaps at some of the Catholic schools (ex. Notre Dame, Villanova, many of the Jesuit schools etc.) there will be more diversity of opinion including some students who lean conservative.

5

Washington and Lee

6

Wake Forest

7

claremont mckenna and washington and lee are two schools you need to take a good look at. they sound exactly like what you’re describing you want. (the former is more “neutral” and the latter has a reputation for being “conservative.”)

look into vanderbilt, villanova, georgetown, and notre dame as well.

others you may want to just take a quick look at/that i’m just spitballing as suggestions are davidson, uofmiami (honestly, i think it’s more neutral than people are led to believe), the university of the south, trinity college in connecticut, wake forest, + maybe denison and colgate

8

Washington & Lee tends to be more conservative than liberal although there are plenty of liberal leaning students there.

Colgate is not right-wing. My son is political science major there. It is left-wing leaning. I think some believe Colgate to be politically conservative because it produces a lot of business/finance graduates .You’ll find intellectual discussion but it is not a place that values soley right-wing ideology.

9

What’s your GPA? Your budget?

10

Hillsdale.

11

College GPA right now is 3.85, I don’t have a budget. (I know it sounds arrogant, but I can afford a private institution as of now)

12

Ok, think rich-white students. This will help narrow down the search, especially focus on schools that produce a large amount of finance/business grads. Keep far away from LACs, these will most likely not have what you’re looking for. However, the crux is that LACs are well known for their intellectual pursuits and inquiry, which is one of the things you’re looking for. Unfortunately, larger, more traditional universities don’t have the level of intellectual discussion/debate that the small LACs do. Also, look for Christian universities, those will have good chances of having a more right-wing population. Also, the vast majority of very selective schools have a very liberal student body, it seems that many students that are accepted into these universities have a more left-leaning mindset. You’re more likely to find a more right-wing student body in the places mentioned above, or in less selective schools.
Some choices: fordham college, trinity college, vanderbilt, georgetown, notre dame, johns hopkins.

13

Ok, that’s very good.
Do you have two safeties? If not, consider flagships in conservative states, including their honors college, you’re sure to have 50-50 conservative/liberal students: UKansas, UArkansas, UOklahoma, Mizzou, Montana State, UAlabama, USC Columbia (top notch honors college), Ole Miss (great honors college, topnotch program for international relations and political science), or even rhe honors colleges at moderate/middle of the road, less-urban flagships such as Penn State, UNH, UIowa, UGeorgia, Washington State? And don’t forget TAMU, one of the most conservative universities in the nation.
For matches, what about Gettysburg, DePauw, Villanova, Holy Cross, Lehigh…? Even UCI would be a good pick - I know California has a reputation for being liberal but UCI is at the heart of a well-known fiscally conservative Mecca, for instance.
W&L, McKenna (etc, as listed upthread) would then be your reaches (but within reasonable reach).
If you want strictly conservative (no/few liberals) and evangelical Christian, the list would be different.

14

Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.

15

I would not put UCI in this category. Even though it is behind ‘the Orange Curtain’ it’s demographics don’t tend toward the politically conservative.

16

OP, I am in the same situation! I want to attend a reputable school where I can receive a strong education, but it needs to NOT be aggressively liberal. I don’t need to attend a “conservative” school, per se; I’m not even religious. However, some of the schools I’ve visited have been liberal to the point where it’s clear I would not fit in (or have friends on campus, ever) even if I were accepted.

I went to visit a “top” school recently. They were pretty cold to the fact that I am an older, non-traditional transfer applicant, went to a community college, etc. When we went around the room to introduce ourselves, most students basically listed their resume. I guess I could have as well… I am in the honors program, Phi Theta Kappa and all that stuff. I’ve also studied abroad. However, I made the mistake of listing my actual/genuine hobbies: fishing, shooting, camping, auto repair (I fix cars for people in my town who can’t afford to get their cars repaired at the shop), etc.

Every.single.person. in the room gave me a dirty look, and the admissions officer avoided me like plague the rest of the visit… The vibe was clear: “You’re redneck (and probably right-wing) trash; stay away.” It was so awkward that I actually left the visit early. There is no way in h*ll I’m going to a school like that. It’s one thing to be liberal; it’s another to treat people from another culture like dirt. (For the record, despite voting Republican most of the time, I also support gay rights, I don’t think it’s right to discriminate against Muslims, etc. I think it’s very sad that we’ve become so polarized that the “other side” is immediately racist, homophobic, sexist, etc.). What is even scarier is that some schools are now demanding that faculty members resign if they say something they don’t agree with, or ban right-wing speakers completely. I am NOT interested in going to a school like that.

I agree with one of the above suggestions that you may fit in better at a flagship state school. I got into both Kansas and Mizzou’s honors programs and am seriously considering Mizzou.

Other schools you may want to look into:

Tulane (their students actually lean left, but they’re located in the south and I would say maybe 25% of their students are conservative/moderate, so they’re not the “you need to resign/be kicked out of school if you disagree with us” type)

Vanderbilt (same deal; relatively liberal school, but because of its location, they are less “my way or the highway”)

Saint Louis University (Jesuit school, moderate student body)

Carnegie Mellon is pretty middle-of-the-road to leftist, but people can express their opinions there without getting into trouble. (I went there last summer, actually, and people were great.)

17

Clearly, some liberal folks are as closed minded and judgmental as are some conservatives.

18

Brigham Young!!

19

I would look for schools with a lot of STEM majors, a business major, and relatively few humanities majors: humanities and some of the social sciences are bastions of US liberalism… while STEM and business students tend to be more centrist overall, maybe even right of center at least fiscally (certainly business students are…), and are more representative of the US as a whole politically.

Lots of preppy and/or jock students probably also points to some conservatism – again, at least fiscally.

Other posters have mentioned some of the schools I would have. I’ll add (hopefully originally…):

UChicago (a fair mix of ideologies)
Colgate
Bucknell
Trinity College
Colby
Middlebury
U of Richmond
Lehigh
SMU
Washington U in St. Louis
USC
Tulane
Wake Forest
The aforementioned Catholic schools

Fiscally and Socially conservative:
Wheaton College (IL)
BYU
Other protestant schools

20

@prezbucky: while generally true, the humanities/stem divide has shifted considerably in the past 10 years. What used to be very accurate has now been reversed, in that young scientists overall have become more strongly ‘not conservative/sort of liberal by default or libertarian’ due to the discrepancy they perceive between data and political announcements not to mention a form of anti science discourse. Another shift in some regions is among young people who are more likely to define themselves along the lines of libertarianism, including those who are fiscally conservative (including those in business schools).