Conservatives at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

The “loudest” students are always liberal…true at all schools^.

Not all schools. Not only are there smaller schools that openly cater to a primarily conservative student body–some religious, some not–there are some huge, public universities where the vast majority of the student body leans conservative. Think Texas A&M, Oklahoma, or Alabama. All fabulous schools with top-notch programs in many areas. (Oklahoma and Alabama have been going hard to boost their enrollment of National Merit Scholars in recent years…though whether that translates to elite is another topic.) Perhaps when we disagree with what we’re hearing, it sounds “loudest” whether it is or not? That goes both ways, conservative and liberal. It’s human nature.

What’s important for prospective students is to spend time on campus and talk to as many current students as possible. If politics/fitting in is a concern, ask about it. If a prospective student is willing to check out the clubs on campus, read those organizations’ websites (if they have them), and talk to students, they can get a feel about whether they’ll find their group on that campus.

Nice. Real deep thinking going on here. And liberals are the intolerant ones.

When the students start earning money on their own and realize that lots of it is being used for things they neither like nor approve of, their views will change. It’s pretty easy to be pro free stuff when you are not paying the tab for it. The withholding on their first paycheck always comes as a shock.

Does anybody know the answer to @goblue8721 's question? (“Hey I have a question for anyone who has experience on campus. Are there any conservative groups that are very active on campus? Many schools have these groups but they hardly meet, or host programs! Thank you!”)

All my son said was he was going to vote for Trump. He was attacked and ridiculed. To the point when I asked who he voted for on the phone, he didn’t even want to mention trump’s name fear he might be heard by someone.

@JH8888 That is consistent with what the culture at U of M from my experience - see my post on how professors abuse their position of power to advance their agenda.

@bearcats it brought back memories when I visited MSU 24 years ago. Husband and I got into a discussion with our friend 's friend about welfare. In the end he resorted to calling us heartless.
I also want to point out, people change. Now days I do agree with many of his points.

JH8888, Trump and Clinton were very polarizing, and most college students at elite universities did not support Trump, although Clinton was not that popular either. As a non-American myself, I have seldom seen such shamelessly partizan politics. Too bad. Politicians are really taking their constituents for a ride, and the only ones losing are the voters.

That’s unfortunate, @JH8888. No one should be ridiculed for simply stating who they support. My son is currently at UM and neither he nor the friends he’s made have experienced anything like that (and they’re from the range of political persuasions.) However, it’s a large campus, with thousands and thousands of students, which means it draws all kinds. That makes the original poster’s question the important one–what groups exist? How active are they? My son is more into sports so he’s unaware of what political groups are on the UM campus or how active/involved/extensive they are. Does anyone know?

There are a couple of conservative groups at UM (See YAL, College Republicans etc…) but most of the conservative students are focused on getting into the B School, getting jobs, or surviving engineering classes. If you’re inclined to slap on some Birkenstocks and roll around in patchouli oil, you’ll probably find a lot more groups to join and a lot more opportunities to march around the Diag railing against the system.

As a long ago grad, still frequent visitor, and long time middle of the road pragmatist, I never felt threatened by the Left at UM. I was very amused by them as a freshman but it was mostly background noise once I settled into my major, my social group, and started planning for the future. Not sure I would have ever been brave enough to wear a Trump hat on campus though.

@brantly you could get the transportation break. It’s not a corporate thing. Your employer just has to be willing to do it, bc there is an expense to running it.

PS: we are in it together, yes. But we are not all in it equally, which was that poster’s point. It’s easy to be"for" something if it costs you nothing.

@MiamiHeat16 I think Turning Point USA is a strong and active organization for fiscally conservative students, but i’m not a student yet so that’s just speaking from looking at websites, social media, etc.

@goblue8721 Are you starting next Fall?

@MiamiHeat16 Yes going to be a freshman!

@HRSMom I don’t have an employer. I’m a consultant in the gig economy.

Outgoing to incoming will never, ever be perfect to the penny for every person. We have to be comfortable with the idea that helping someone else helps us too.

the point was not whether we should help each other. It is that college kids who do not pay taxes yet are less inclined to think of the costs involved in certain policies.

^^OK, I can agree with that.

@goblue8721 See you there!

@MiamiHeat16 yes for sure! also if you want to, there’s a UM conservative online newspaper called the Michigan Review, they have a twitter as well!