<p>I've heard that Princeton is the most conservative of the Ivy's; how conservative is it really? What wold make it a relatively conservative campus versus other schools?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I’ve heard that stereotype as well. I doubt that any of the ivy league schools are particularly conservative, but it would be nice to hear what a current student has to say.</p>
<p>I think a conservative college may well attract a hardcore ‘loony-lefty’ such as myself. Convert the non-believers and all that. Plus I have this thing about not conforming.</p>
<p>I live around the Princeton area, and know a few students there. What I have gleaned is that it isn’t necessarily the “southern conservatism” but it is very Waspy. For instance I don’t remember the exact percentages but I remember reading that the jewish population lesser by a large margin, vs the other Ivies and really most top schools.</p>
<p>People call Princeton conservative. I laugh so hard at those people that my sides hurt. Granted I’m from a red part of the country, but…</p>
<p>In my experience, Princeton’s “conservatism” goes as far as “not everyone is a liberal OMG”! We’re probably a little richer on an individual-student level, so that influences students’ politics, and yes, you may meet people who aren’t pro-gay-marriage or are pro-life! But we’re pretty darn liberal all the same.</p>
<p>Also I think we have a lot of jews? We have a kosher dining hall that’s part of the meal plan by default, which attracts a bunch of Orthodox jews. However, often Orthodox jew != liberal the same way that “cultural Jew” does.</p>
<p>Here are some polling results from different campuses in the Ivy League for the 2008 presidential election. (I couldnt find all the results for 2012 but I doubt theyre much different.) The polls were taken at different times using different methodologies and all have a margin of error, so small differences of a couple of percentage points are meaningless. A quick review of these will show that there isnt much difference among the campus political cultures. All lean heavily toward the liberal side.</p>
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<p>Princeton</p>
<p>79.3% supported Obama
15.6% supported McCain
5.1% undecided or other</p>
<p>58.6% identified as Democrats
22.9% identified as Independents
14.9% identified as Republicans</p>
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<p>Yale</p>
<p>81% = supported Obama
12% = supported McCain
7% = undecided or other</p>
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<p>Harvard</p>
<p>82% = supported Obama
11% = supported McCain
7% = undecided or other</p>
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<p>Penn</p>
<p>81% = supported Obama
17% = supported McCain
2% = undecided or other</p>
<p>62.2% identified as Democrats
23.6% identified as Independents
14.1% identified as Republicans</p>
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<p>Cornell & Dartmouth</p>
<p>Apparently no student polls on the 2008 presidential race were conducted but there are reported results of political identification.</p>
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<p>Cornell</p>
<p>50.8% identified as Democrats
35.1% identified as Independents
14.1% identified as Republicans</p>
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<p>Brown</p>
<p>86.1% = supported Obama
6.3% = supported McCain
7.6% = undecided or other</p>
<p>The town of Princeton is also surprisingly liberal: the Congressional representative (Rush Holt) has been ranked one of the most liberal members of the House. Plus he’s a physicist! (Just a cool fact). As for the Jewish population, it’s large if you look at national and world population numbers (the student body is ~13% Jewish) but compared to peer institutions and other institutions in the northeast, it’s pretty low. Being Jewish (culturally) and coming from a high school on Long Island that was 35-50% Jewish, Princeton took a bit of getting used to but my background is not the norm.</p>
<p>There are a lot of Christian groups on campus. I’ve never heard any anti-right wing or anti-left wing comments. People certainly share their opinions but it’s nothing like the national political rhetoric in 2012</p>