<p>The South is the South. If ya want liberal, go to University of Michigan :-)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that great South schools - public or private - will not isolate one from the conservativeness of the South overall. For the super-liberal New England kid that named his pet hamster ‘Dukakis’, it will be a different country altogether. I think of my years in the Deep South very fondly, but it was not anything like other parts of the country that I’ve lived in.</p>
<p>So, before you write off great universities in the South, big or small, public or private, could you elaborate on what kind of ‘liberalness’ we’re talking about? </p>
<p>Academic liberalness? Location liberalness? the places with national student bodies as others said, probably in North Carolina (most progressive of the conservative Southern states in my view). Anything in Atlanta? The obvious Austin? and so on… For smaller colleges, CofC, Wake Forest… and so on.</p>
<p>Pugmadkate: you rock! I am an “extreme” liberal and i live in a Glenn Beck show! Thank you for saying what you did about people wanting to take away others rights and promote atmospheres of bigotry, violence and fear. Some things are right and some wrong. Period.</p>
<p>My daughter, after growing up in a rural and conservative community does not want to continue to live in this environment. We witness too much hate, hurtful words and actions…why would she want to stay? And she is a very popular girl and still feels suffocated.</p>
<p>I need to stay away from this thread. I’m not feeling as generous as I did this afternoon. Nothing against the OP, but so many threads on cc demonstrate such an East Coast bias. It’s tiresome.</p>
<p>Large southern schools that have students from various places are going to be a mix of politics. And, these schools are going to have profs that are from everywhere, so that will also bring in different views.</p>
<p>Frankly, the profs are going to be rather liberal unless the school is a bible kind of school.</p>
<p>Also…particular majors at various schools tend to be more liberal or more conservative. The B-school and engineering majors are sometimes more conservative. The artsy, social science, education, and humanities majors are often more liberal.</p>
Agreed! DD graduated from Hendrix in 2010. In the end, it came down to a decision between Hendrix and Centre. Hendrix is quite a bit more liberal (in our opinion) than Centre. It was the perfect match for DD.</p>
<p>I must agree with floridadad and youdon’tsay…How anyone can honestly think the majority of schools in the south are overwhelmingly conservative is preposterous. College professors and other members of the academia have, and most likely will always be, quite liberal. This is true in the south just as it is in the north. If you consider their attempts to indoctrinate their agendas on the typical idealistic teenager who thinks he/she can create a utopia and rid the world of all ills, then there’s simply no way you’ll have the vast majority of the student body be conservative. I’ve lived in the south pretty much my entire life, and I can think of very, very few schools that aren’t religiously affiliated where there’s not at least a balance. (Most, in fact, probably have a higher percentage that would identify themselves as liberal.)</p>
<p>The New School is in New York. The New College is in Florida.</p>
<p>The part of the South I live inwhich is usually called the mid-South, as opposed to the deep Southis surprisingly tolerant although very conservative. I work in manufacturing, where the majority of employees are not college-educated and fit the typical redneck profile (and wear the label proudly, I might add). We have three gay employees (out of 150 or so) that I know of, two male and one female, and everyone gets along just fine. There is also an interracial couple and a number of Mexicans and southeast Asians who speak very little English. I am in a position to see and hear about any harassment that takes place in the facility, and I never have. My church also has an openly gay pastor (albeit one who chooses to be celibate based on his reading of the Bible.)</p>
<p>All of this has surprised me and made me rethink the view of the South I had when I was growing up in the North. I haven’t reached any conclusions yet, but I will say that it’s not as bad in my part of the South as I had feared.</p>
<p>At the risk of turning this into a political thread, I am a liberal myself, attended conservative colleges (Louisiana & Purdue among them) and live in a conservative state. The young ones, like it or not, will learn to deal with others that do not think like them in due time, one way or another. </p>
<p>What I have found out is that you really can’t fix ignorance and intolerance (from all sides) by simply interacting with other people, be it as part of your job or college education. If one feels comfortable only with ‘their own kind’, then go to Boston University or U Michigan and get it over with - Going to Auburn or Notre Dame or Purdue will raise your blood pressure by a few bars and accomplish nothing.</p>
<p>Part of the reason this country is in as dire straights as it gets is that we’re well past the ‘discussion’ point, and are now approaching the ‘dogma’ point. Entire generations of young liberals or young conservatives, created by geography more than by ideology, have grown up to distrust the ‘other side’. As such, the best ideological discussion that can be had is simply one that begins with a polite smile, a nodding of the head or two, and walking away.</p>
<p>I learned my lesson the hard way when, in the early 80’s, I countered one Prof’s arguments against France and French People. Having grown up in Europe I know a thing or two about the French, and decided to counter Prof’s (largely laughable) points with some counter-facts. That earned me a nice round C in the class…</p>
<p>The political science majors among us will call it ‘polarization’. Whether there is something to be learned trying to deal with polarization in college, I have no idea.</p>
<p>At least two people have mentioned Notre Dame. I did research there for a few years and found it to be conservative, yes, but tolerant, some people genuinely and others grudgingly. Remember that these are American Catholics we’re talking about. They divorce, have abortions, and openly question the Pope. The school goes out of its way to bring representatives of other religions to campus as speakers, researchers, and teachers. There is major emphasis on social justice, which for many means rabid support of government entitlement programs and access to education for all people, certainly not a typical conservative position.</p>
<p>I just wouldn’t want anyone to get the impression it’s like Liberty or Oral Roberts or something.</p>
<p>Saw a book in a discount bookstore once whose main point was that people in the US have been segregating themselves politically. I.e. even without gerrymandering, more districts or counties are becoming solid Democratic or Republican areas, with fewer people of some other party.</p>
<p>Other articles have claimed increasing news segregation – conservatives watch Fox, liberals watch MSNBC, and neither really gets exposed to other points of view.</p>
<p>Perhaps these phenomena, if true, could account for the partisan rancor that seems to have replaced reasoned political debate today.</p>
<p>As a student at UNC Chapel Hill the atmosphere is neither liberal nor conservative, but tolerant and accepting.</p>
<p>Most students (as they are instaters) come from a conservative background yet in day to day life personal beliefs do not really effect anything. However if someone were to start putting someone down for their beliefs or restricting someones ability to express their beliefs EVERYONE (personally for or against the party) will step in to argue the injustice.</p>
<p>I only know about UNC but most students here are interested in learning about other peoples beliefs and are comfortable discussing their own. There is a strong support throughout the campus for minority groups and strong dislike for anyone who attempts to create any sort of supremacy. </p>
<p>There are often heated debates in classes yet when the debate is over there is no personal hatred or discourse. It’s one of the things I love about UNC, you are not only not judged for your beliefs but you are also encouraged to learn about others without the pressure to change your beliefs.</p>
<p>Overall UNC is a very supportive school and an amazing student body, that welcomes anyone who is willing to be open minded and explore the other possibilities. I personally couldn’t ask for a better experience.</p>
<p>I agree that a politically diverse environment is a huge advantage. It can actually be hard to find such an environment in smaller colleges, especially if a student is not a candidate for an extremely selective school.
For the OP’s student, however, I agree with the poster who suggested that Warren Wilson is worth checking out. It is a unique college in that it is a “work college” - everyone has a job that contributes to the mission of the college, in addition to studying.</p>
<p>Me too. I’ve found that it’s usually best, when talk turns to politics, to just keep my mouth shut. I’m not going to convince them, and I do have to continue to live with them. Although I did shut down one of my employees who kept preaching the Gospel According to St. Glenn - I told her that political discussions were not appropriate for the workplace.</p>
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<p>My D says that when she graduates from college, if she can’t get a job, she’d live under a bridge in Chicago before she’d come back to our rural community. I think that’s hyperbole - but I’m not sure.</p>