<p>Which Ivies would you say are the most conservative, which the most liberal, and... are any balanced politically?</p>
<p>To try to mark a set of schools on some sort of spectrum is foolish. Each of those excellent schools has individuals of all stripes – and people who even shift side to side. Dartmouth used to have a very conservative rep due to some bad publicity about the Dartmouth Review.</p>
<p>Hint for you: upon closer exam, you’ll find people are there just to learn.</p>
<p>I have heard it said that Dartmouth is one of the more “conservative” Ivies…when I say this, I"m referring to the faculty. I’ve heard it said that not all the faculty there have bought into Keynesian economics, which is the cornerstone of the progressive movement. My S is at Cornell and is in engineering, so he doesn’t brush up against the bias in faculty members. The College Republicans group at Cornell is one of the most active in the country - they actually contacted the College Republicans at Vanderbilt for tips (another strong club). At Cornell, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Ann Coulter (alum), and jeb Bush have all come to speak and receive respect and standing-room-only crowds. I get the feeling that the STUDENTS at Cornell are balanced. My guess is that most professors at most colleges and universities are liberal. They live their lives in the world of idealism and theory. Just the way it is.</p>
<p>As a Dartmouth student, I can honestly say we have a mix of political views. I think “Conservative” is a bad term to describe us. The term “independent” is much better. We represent a broad range of views, from our crazy Realtalkers to the Dartmouth Review (which I am a moderate member of). For the most part, students here enjoy engaging in constructive political discussions. Most pride themselves in being opinionated, but not obstinate. Yes, we do have more conservatives than the other Ivies, but more students are “neo-Conservative” than traditionally Conservative.
Brown is without question the most liberal. Do not go there unless you want to go to a “hippy school.”</p>
<p>As a current Dartmouth student, I would say that most people are pretty open-minded to different political views. As a conservative, I’m definitely in the minority, but I’ve never felt alienated or looked down upon or anything like that.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize that Brown University was a hippy school</p>
<p>For an Ivy, I would say Dartmouth is one of the most conservative, but when compared to where I’m originally from, it’s still crazy liberal in a lot of ways.</p>
<p>However, if I had to categorize most of the students. I would say half libertarian, a fourth to a third liberal radical protest-y types, and the rest conservative with a only a few offensive level conservatives (although I think the media portrays a much higher level)</p>
<p>@EleazarWheelock why are you labeling Brown as a “hippy school.” Also saying that the Realtalkers are “crazy” reinforces what conservatives are notorious for: their bias and close-mindedness.</p>
<p>The idea that professors are liberal because they “live in a world of idealism and theory” is both ignorant and offensive. Professors are trained to look at all sides of a question, to evaluate and to balance views before forming their own conclusions–that is the fundamental assignment of higher education. You don’t get to be a professor at Dartmouth, or any other good college, by remaining close-minded and intolerant, or unaware of “reality” in the form of history. The idea that professors are bent on promulgating their liberal ideas on unsuspecting blank slates in the form of students is a darling one of “thinkers” like Rush Limbaugh, and is simply the reaction of people who do not like to have their own ideas challenged, but would prefer to live in a bubble of likeminded opinion, rather than to engage in the far more difficult process of examining their thinking for contradiction or fallacy.</p>
<p>It is true that, by choosing to become professors, they have chosen intellectual pursuits over possibly more remunerative careers, and to that extent they may be guilty of “idealism,” since apparently some people consider any choice that is not based on materialism to be idealistic. If the definition of conservatism is to be narrowed to “someone who thinks money is the only good,” then professors in general have not chosen to adore that god, and they may be fairly considered to be idealistic. If, however, conservatism has a wider meaning than enthralled to the golden calf, then the choice to become a professor cannot be considered to be entirely idealistic and thus unconservative.</p>
<p>Well said, marysidney.</p>
<p>Hippie, people, not “hippy.”</p>
<p>Carry on.</p>