<p>So since many Universities have an extreme liberal bias, I was wondering if admissions officers will discriminate against political preferences?</p>
<p>Should I leave out internships and volunteer info related to conservatism? </p>
<p>First of all, there are many universities that are conservative (in various meanings of the word): Grove City, Hillsdale, Gordon, Wheaton (IL), Houghton, Calvin, Hope, Roger Morris, PLNU, Baylor, Birmingham Southern, Florida Southern, Samford, George Mason, Ole Miss, Washington&Lee, Sewanee, McKenna…
Second, I don’t think colleges have “an extreme liberal bias”, unles you’re interested in, say, Smith and Oberlin. Certainly, lots of people there are liberal (young people tend to be more socially liberal than their elders and divide themselves evenly on economics, so fiscal conservatives are not infrequent at all at most colleges). However, there is no “liberal bias” in admissions.
Unless you consider that anyone left of the Tea Party is “liberal”… you should find lots of colleges that are conservative, and if you are fine with having liberal, moderate, and apathetic classmates, you should be fine on any campus.<br>
As for admissions, unless you’re like the kid who told me the junior branch of the KKK was like the boyscouts, your activism will actually be considered positively: volunteering for your Republican senator’s campaign, helping a party or a church, having voting drives, writing the conservative editorial in your college paper, all of this will be good for you and you should not leave it out of your application.</p>
<p>There is no political bias in admissions that I’ve ever detected, but given the vast number of schools in this country, if there was one at a particular school, would you really want to go there if they would reject you over your political beliefs?</p>
<p>Conversely, there does seem to be some sort of widespread anti-conservative bias in hiring and grad school admissions in certain subjects, and there really shouldn’t be, so I suppose it is possible at the undergrad level as well, but as I said, I’ve never detected it. Too bad it’s too hard to run an experiment on various admissions offices.</p>
<p>Admissions offices are smart enough to have figured out that the political beliefs of a 17 year old HS senior are very likely to change over the course of 4 years of college–to say nothing of the 60 years post college. What they’re looking for is evidence of intellectual curiosity, No college is going to care about what you believe at this point in your life. They will care about the thought process that got you there, so trying to hide those conservative activities because you’re feeling persecuted is not a great idea. </p>
<p>And since MYOS singled it out, even that liberal bastion Oberlin, not only admitted Michele Malkin but also saw her graduate. Oberlin also currently has a Ronald Reagan lecture series that has sponsored visits by Karl Rove and Rand Paul to campus. Oberlin has a small but thriving Republican club, plus the Con students tend to lean further right than the college, so you may actually find your peeps even at (gasp) Oberlin or Smith. This is not your “Berkeley in the 60’s” generation. All schools-even the ones with lefty reputations have conservative students these days. Try to move beyond the stereotypes.</p>
<p>I think most colleges want students with different views. Or am I mistaken?</p>
<p>Okay, thanks guys. I guess I was just under a false or exaggerated assumption that the Ivys and some UC schools were far-left leaning. But I DO know for a fact that there is a lot of anti-Israel sentiment going around (lots of anti-semitism in Berkeley and Irvine thanks to some radical Muslim groups). </p>
<p>I’ll just try to seem moderate in my app, that’s probably always the best thing to do. </p>
<p>I’d say most top schools adore a diverse student body. What they try to ferret out are un-original and parroting thinkers. Avoid that trap and you’ll be fine. My ivy alma mater, in some people’s eyes, is a hotbed of lefty radicalism. My alumni magazine just ran a blurb where the 3 largest employment fields of graduates from the class of '13 were 1) finance, 2) education and 3) consulting. 1 + 3 accounted for 1/4 of all students who were going into the job market. There was plenty of non-left dialogue and thinking.</p>
<p>Foolish thinking leading to foolish action.</p>
<p>@Hiya12345 there is a big difference between anti-Israel groups on campuses and anti-semitism. But if you are passionate about something, don’t hide it. Colleges appreciate diversity of beliefs and opinions as it fosters dialogue on campuses, and frankly any schools that that would not admit you on the basis of political leanings are probably places you would not be very happy for four years anyway</p>
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<p>Such groups tend to be noisy but small. The same can apply to groups with views similar to far-right Israeli political parties and settlers whom the IDF sometimes has to protect Palestinians from.</p>
<p>@jazzcatastrophe really, there’s a difference? People who are anti-israel are not against the 20% of Israeli citizens who are Muslims; they are against the Jews. And please don’t tell me that sending fake eviction notices to Jewish students in UC isn’t anti-semitism. </p>
<p>Well then, don’t apply to UCs. </p>
<p>There is no relationship between political leaning and religion, only between strength of faith and conservatism (ie., the more “overexposure” - ie. exposure to other faiths or different viewpoints all treated with equal respect and seriousness- is considered a bad thing, the more conservative people - tend to be, both religiously and politically, regardless of faith.)
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<p>If Jewish life if of interest to you, check out how active the Chabad or Hillel groups are.</p>
<p>But, yes, there’s a difference between groups that don’t support Israel, groups that protest some of its policies, and antisemitic groups. Some may overlap but the three groups tend to be different (e.g., there are some antisemitic groups that strongly support Israel due to the belief all Jews should be in one country, and preferably not theirs.)</p>
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<p>A little bit of web searching brings up mostly an incident at NYU, not any UC campus. Probably just a typical noisy but tiny fringe group.</p>
<p>Hiya, I said that as a Jewish student who in fact received one of those eviction notices under my door at NYU. The eviction notices went to all students in the buildings, not just the Jewish ones, it just so happens that those we have a large Jewish population. Opposing Israel as a political entity is very different from opposing Judaism as a religion. But anyway, like I said, even liberal schools will probably appreciate the diversity that your views will bring to their campuses</p>
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<p>How about just trying to be yourself… that is the best thing to do.</p>
<p>As @jazzcatastrophe said there IS a difference between being anti-Isreal and anti-Semetic. For example -not condoning the events of the NYU eviction scandal- but I would imagine that the eviction notice thing could be a representation of the “forced eviction” of Arabs living in what became Israel. I put forced eviction in quotes because this is a hotly debated issue -traditional Israeli historians say that Palestinians left on their own free will whereas traditional Arab historians say that Palestinians were forcefully evicted from their homes.
Note that nowhere in that particular issue lies a bias against Judaism itself but rather the supposed actions of the Israeli army.
Also in regards to the comment about anti-semetism in Berkeley. I’ve spent a lot of time on and around the Berkeley campus and never once have observed an instance of anti-semetism. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, just that I haven’t seen it happen. It does help that anti-semetism is treated with an appropriate social stigma. However I have seen multiple instances of anti-muslim or anti-arab bias in both in public and in state legislature. </p>
<p>Now onto the original point. Something like 90% of schools won’t care about your political views so long as you aren’t a KKK member or something. </p>
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<p>What the $#!#?</p>
<p>Back on subject, don’t worry about being a conservative, any EC’s that show passion is viewed as a plus. If you’re concerned with the SJP and BDS movement, do a bit of research and avoid those schools that make you uncomfortable. However, even at those schools, when these groups cross the line, the administration will take action.</p>
<p><a href=“Vile at Vassar – New York Daily News”>http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/vile-vassar-article-1.1795686</a></p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>yes Gator88NE, I’m not kidding. And sorry to all applicants who have that “EC”, that is among the “extracurriculars” that don’t fly anywhere where ECs matter.</p>
<p>Of course, there are enough noisy extremists (on all sides) regarding Israeli / Palestinian politics that it should be expected that such politics will get nasty and offensive (and racist since the noisy extremists tend to be racist).</p>
<p>So don’t expect to be able to avoid seeing nasty, offensive, and racist politics on this subject, unless you attend a school with low political activity in general.</p>
<p>Agree</p>