Impact of the Election on Applications

<p>Conversations with some of my friends about their children's applications have revealed that they (students) are now re-thinking applications to red states. Those in Jr year and below have also confirmed that the election results have driven their kids to strategically avoid certain areas (i.e. the South). They usually express concern when I mention that one of my son's target schools is in Georgia. </p>

<p>I wonder how the election will imapct applications to schools in red and blue states.</p>

<p>Tell your friends that the South is OK....Really!! I've lived in Conn, NY, Maryland, Florida,Alabama,Georgia,Virginia,PA......despite the red vs blue implications people just aren't a whole lot different. Why rob yourself of a chance to go to Duke, Emory, Rice, UNC, UVA.....
The average fellow in Boston is not brighter,prettier,wealthier,etc. than his buddy in Charlotte. Just ain't so.</p>

<p>If someone is basing their decision on whether to go to a great college or not on whether the state was red or blue... they dont deserve to go to college. Isnt being tolerant of other opinions, beliefs, and practices everything that the blue states preach? I'm pretty certain that if travel down south you won't find anti-gay banners on doorsteps.
I happen to live in NYC and consider myself a "liberal republican" -- I'm sure there are people in the red states that identfily themselves as democrats. It's a personal decision that has nothing to do with the type of education you hope to recieve.</p>

<p>(Anyone else thought that the "red" color of the republicans is pretty ironic?)</p>

<p>Seems like a peculiar and uninformed way to pick a college. But what the heck, maybe a trend like Momsdream describes will bring red state bastions Oberlin and Grinnell a tad more to the center, politically. Hope it doesn't hurt the music scene in Athens Georgia, though. U of G gave the rock world REM and the B-52s, among others. Where will the environmentalist Aspen Institute or WV's Mountain Institute go for their interns? Do these kids and their parents intend to boycott all those red state national parks? Seems like the wrong way to go. Personally, we intend to continue looking at blue state schools, despite the local electorate.</p>

<p>Isn't Antioch in Ohio? Or did I dream that?</p>

<p>I don't agree that the idea of not wanting to attend a school in a state where the majority of the residents don't support your views is an indicator of not derserving to go to college. What happened to"you don't just go to school there, you live there for four years" mindset?</p>

<p>What happened to opening your mind and learning something about another culture....while you live there for four years?</p>

<p>I can't believe an adult posted this. As a Canadian going to school in the States having a hard time understanding the intolerance of diverse views here, I think I just got a major hint of where these kids get that intolerance. Do you really want your kids to segregate themselves? Had you suggested racial or socioeconomic segregation this whole thread would have been deleted. This is ignorance, pure and simple.</p>

<p>A friend of mine told me of a conversation he had with his Jr D (who he thought was fairly apolitcal). It started with why are people opposed to gays and concluded with her statement that she would like to move to a more liberal state.</p>

<p>There are two ways of looking at this. For one, if you are a conservative student, you'd probably like a conservative leaning education. (although that might be a bit harder to come by than its opposite: a liberal student looking for a liberal education.) There is nothing wrong with choosing the worldviews of your education environment, especially since most are paying thousands of dollars a year for the opportunity. </p>

<p>On the other hand, it is -- I think -- a limiting decision to go to a college that ONLY supports your views. A real education will teach you both sides of an issue and allow discussion and new/old ideas to be aired. You shouldn't be afraid to have your beliefs challenged -- if they are proven wrong, you have learned something. If they are proven right, your opponent has learned something. In either case, you have both been forced to support your assertions and research your cause, which is another component of an education. </p>

<p>So somewhere these opposing sides meet, and you learn. The only way you don't learn is if you censor yourself from learning other viewpoints.</p>

<p>Relax canuckeh....it's too bad your point is lost in the insults hurled.</p>

<p>If you really read the opening thread, you might have understoood that I was of a different opinion since we are considering southern schools. I was relaying information about phone conversations and thought it was interestign that some KIDS might take this stance. The parents are relaying their children's messages and wondering if/when my son might change is mind about his choices (based on the trend). Whne you kids start trends, we adults take notice.</p>

<p>Thanks for your opinion, though.</p>

<p>When I discussed colleges with the kids, I told them I had a hard time with them considering schools in certain areas, because I thought the culture clash would take up more of their time than appropriate. I realize now that I was instructing my children to avoid schools in red states. Of course, I am a flaming knee-jerk bleeding heart left wing liberal effete snob intellectual.</p>

<p>momsdream, I did read the original post and just reread it. IMO, it is extremely ignorant of these parents to be questioning your son's choice, and not immediately putting to rest their own children's narrow minded thoughts. If a parent replied to a child questioning a college in a blue/red State by hellping them understand that getting along in the world will mean keeping an open mind to diverse views, I would think the kids would see the wisdom. Kids at 17 generally reflect the thinking of their parent's. What I see here is closed minded thinking being passed on. We can all move to a more liberal/conservative State, we can keep away from everyone different from ourselves or we can learn to function in the real world.</p>

<p>^ yes, but it can also be frustrating argueing with a stone frozen in bibilical times.</p>

<p>"Conversations with some of my friends about their children's applications have revealed that they (students) are now re-thinking applications to red states. Those in Jr year and below have also confirmed that the election results have driven their kids to strategically avoid certain areas (i.e. the South). They usually express concern when I mention that one of my son's target schools is in Georgia. "</p>

<p>I don't see anything surprising about the above. I think that while many people welcome diversity, they don't necessary welcome a diversity in values. The differences between the red and blue states are perceived as differences in values, and people who disagree with those differences may wish to avoid being around lots of people whom they think don't value what they do.</p>

<p>I don't see anything particularly offensive or even narrow minded about that. While people in some other countries take pleasure in having friends whose political beliefs are very different than theirs (I have heard this is the case in Australia or NZ), that is not usually the case in the US. Here, when it comes to politics, birds of a feather....</p>

<p>In fact, I would imagine that many of us wouldn't mind being in an environment in which just a few people disagree with our political beliefs. Many of us, though, wouldn't choose to live in a city, for example, when only a small minority of people agreed with our political beliefs. Using the same thinking, why would a h.s. student choose to apply to a place where more than likely they'd spend 4 years in a place where the majority are people whose views are very different than theirs? That's a very long time.</p>

<p>People might make such a decision if, for instance, that means they'd go to an excellent college where their unusual views might tip them in for admission. They aren't as likely to make such a decision if there are plenty of other places where they can go where they are likely to find many peers whose views are similar to theirs.</p>

<p>And how many parents here are hoping that their kids will go to a school where their kids will be mainly surrounded by people whose views greatly differ from how they were brought up? I imagine that most parents would tolerate and welcome some diversity, but not so much that one's offspring's perspective is very much a minority view.</p>

<p>yes and after decades we are still talking about evolution</p>

<p>ATLANTA (AP) -- First, Georgia's education chief tried to take the word "evolution" out of the state's science curriculum. Now a suburban Atlanta county is in federal court over textbook stickers that call evolution "a theory, not a fact."</p>

<p>....</p>

<p>Earlier this year, science teachers howled when state Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox proposed a new science curriculum that dropped the word "evolution" in favor of "changes over time."</p>

<p>That plan was quickly dropped, but comic Jimmy Fallon still cracked wise on "Saturday Night Live": "As a compromise, dinosaurs are now called 'Jesus Horses'."</p>

<p>.......</p>

<p>Some scientists say they are frustrated the issue is still around nearly 80 years since the Scopes Monkey Trial -- the historic case heard in neighboring Tennessee over the teaching of evolution instead of the biblical story of creation.</p>

<p>"We're really busy. We have a lot to do. And here we are, having to go through this 19th century argument over and over again," said Sarah Pallas, who teaches biology and neuroscience at Georgia State University in Atlanta.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/11/12/evolution.embarrassment.ap/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/11/12/evolution.embarrassment.ap/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>This thread just confirms that many of the people who call themselves liberals are in fact the biggest practitioners of bigotry. </p>

<p>As someone once said: “There is nothing in this world so vicious, so hateful or so harmful as a liberal that has a self-issued license to hate”.</p>

<p>That is why it is so easy to be a liberal. No thought or responsibility is required. Just feelings. </p>

<p>(BTW, I am NOT a conservative).</p>

<p>No matter the color of the states, the national universities tend to draw students from all over the country, those from red and blue states, no? And don't the counts of the 18-34 population show they voted Democrat, no matter the color of their state? And very few professors, even those teaching in red states, vote Republican. So it doesn't follow that at say, Emory, you'd find very many professors or fellow students who vote red. Unless I'm missing something, what would be the point of staying away from colleges in a red state?</p>

<p>I come from a home where the prevailing political beliefs did not turn out to be my own. I would have never found my own views had I stayed where everyone believed what my parent's do. There are 18 years of brainwashing, and then we get to go off and hopefully find our own views. Hillary Clinton talks about this. She came from a very RED home and turned very BLUE. I agree toblin, this is bigotry that just sounds so much like racism to me. Why would we want to let our kids go where they are a minority? Please!!</p>

<p>" Unless I'm missing something, what would be the point of staying away from colleges in a red state?"</p>

<p>Choosing to apply only to red or blue states has a major advantage: It considerably narrows the field of colleges that one can apply to. Considering the large numbers of colleges in the US, having any way to narrow the field can be a big plus to students who feel overwhelmed by their choices.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, I personally wouldn't care if people commented about where my S might apply. Their thoughts simply wouldn't make any difference to me.</p>

<p>S, meanwhile, has said that he does not want to apply to a certain state because it went overwhelmingly for a candidate that was not his choice. I know that there are wonderful colleges in the state -- colleges where I think S would be very happy, so I am exposing him to those colleges. These include some where the political climate is not the leaning that S, DH and I prefer.</p>

<p>That's how I see my job as a parent. What other people choose to do with their kids is their choice.</p>