<p>Which schools have liberal to middle of the road student bodies in the south?
My guess is the Univ of North Carolina. Emory? Tulane? Others?
Anybody know about Trinity University of Texas?</p>
<p>Trinity is pretty conservative. Emory is pretty liberal, I think. UT is liberal!</p>
<p>UT is liberal--for Texas. :)</p>
<p>On the list of most liberal/most conservative cities Texas had three in the top five most conservative...Waco (Baylor), Abilene (Abilene Christian), and Lubbock (Texas Tech).</p>
<p>On the least conservative Dallas was in the ninties and Austin dropped down to 140-something. I saw this on the news but I'll try to find a link.</p>
<p>What you will find at many schools is that most kids fall towards the center--slightly to the left or right, and basically apathetic when it comes to politics. Then you will have your left, your right, and your "lunatic fringe" on either side. Sometimes one group may be more vocal than another, but that doesn't mean they speak for the whole school.</p>
<p>My son attends Bucknell in what he refers to as "Pennsyltucky"....two "blue" areas (Pitt and Philly) with one red area up the center. While the BUCC (conservative club) has more money, the Bucknell Dems have more members. Most of the student body, however, is apathetic.</p>
<p>Are you looking for a large school or a small school? Trinity is quite small with regards to UT-Austin. Tulane and Emory would be mediums.</p>
<p>Guilford College in Greensboro, NC definitely has a liberal student body.</p>
<p>I still can't find a link to the whole study, but according to our newspaper:</p>
<p>Dallas = 32
Austin = 93</p>
<p>on the "liberal" list</p>
<p>and it was </p>
<p>Plano (not Waco)= 5
Abilene = 3
Lubbock = 2</p>
<p>on the "conservative" list</p>
<p>From what I can tell, this is based on the 2004 election--and no other criteria.</p>
<p>texastaximom, I was talking to a friend of mine and we started talking and the subject of liberal schools in the south came up. I know somebody that would like to go to UNC, but let's fact it, out-of-state makes it tough. Any school similar to UNC in the south that is easier to get into? (And not larger than UNC).</p>
<p>Tell me about Bucknell. Pennsyltucky doesn't sound like a word of endearment. How does your son like Bucknell? Is it a good school for somebody who likes sports?</p>
<p>New College in Florida. A small public LAC.</p>
<p>What about the other UNC schools?</p>
<p>I should have added one thing. The school has to have a good sports scene. That's what makes UNC such an attractive option. Trinity University has a great sports program for division 3. I have a feeling it is a very conservative place though.</p>
<p>Hmmm....I'd have to research UNC- ish liberal unis of the south. I'm assuming you mean state unis? I think what you would find is that it's a matter of degree. Some will be more liberal than others, but not as liberal as those you would find in the north. </p>
<p>It also has a lot to do with student body. Most Texas state unis, for example, are two thirds (or more) Texan. Texas being a more conservative state in general will then have more conservative unis (comparatively so) just based on the number of Texans enrolled. Some more so than others. UT is more liberal than Texas Tech. It's all a matter of degree. </p>
<p>BUT...UT-Austin is very hard to get in if you are out-of-state, which seems to be the issue with most out-of-state students applying to state schools. And then if they are admitted, sometimes the $$ are just not there. I don't want to paint everyone with the same brush, but that has been our experience. I've done this twice in two years. :)</p>
<p>If you are just talking southern unis in general, you would probably have more luck as they tend to have 30% or so in-staters and 70% from somewhere else. However, the somewhere else is going to be geographically skewed. And example would be Vanderbilt which has not only a lot of TN but also a lot of TX kids. Cities seem to be better than boonies with regards to "liberal." </p>
<p>My son loves Bucknell. He found the 2004 election to be quite the challenge, as his school is located in the red part of the state, but they did increase the Dem registration by 400% in that particular county, which still went red. He doesn't find any political preference overly dominant at school. Most students, he says, are apathetically left-leaning. There is a vocal conservative group, but they are in the minority. The students just don't express their opinion one way or another for the most part, until a speaker or music group comes along that raises a stir. I think this is quite common...there is always the lunatic fringe, and some that lean to the right or left, but the chunk of the student body is pretty much in the center, and not very involved. It is an age demographic that tends not to vote, even when registered.</p>
<p>As for sports, Bucknell (and the Patriot League in general) have great athletic programs for student-athletes; and great facilities and club sports for those who like to be active. Neither describes my son. :p He's more into the live music scene--but he doesn't feel that being non-athletic is an issue. He is also not going to rush. Oh...and he's not an engineer. (seems I keep seeing posts that Bucknell is a bunch of collar-popping lacrosse playing frat boy engineers...which has not been our experience and certainly does not describe my son.)</p>
<p>dstark: Oh..okay sports scene as in spectator sports. </p>
<p>Yes, I would say that Bucknell vigorously supports the football and basketball teams. The other sports get good write ups in the student paper, but I don't know how the turn out is. BUT...there are 4,000 students at Bucknell, and they play similar teams....so it definitely is not the same as going to a UVa-UNC ball game with thousands upon thousands.</p>
<p>Bucknell played Villanova, Cornell, Columbia, Georgetown, Penn, Lafayette, Lehigh, Holy Cross, Fordham, Colgate and Dusquene in football last year. </p>
<p>Now we have really gone astray from liberal southern unis. My apologies to those who are looking for that information.</p>
<p>Hey, being into the live music scene is good. How is the live music scene at Bucknell? Do you know anything about Trinity?</p>
<p>We're allowed to drift. I started the thread. :)</p>
<p>I would think the liberal/conservative issue only really matters at smaller schools, where the student body tends to be much more homogeneous? At most flagship state U's, I bet you'd find a large range of political tastes. Heck, even the true blue northest universities have their conservatives.</p>
<p>I'm sure anyone who popped in will wonder why the heck we are discussing Bucknell under liberal southern unis!</p>
<p>I know very little about Trinity from personal experience because my sons wanted "not in Texas, not touching Texas." There are quite a few swimmers and soccer players from our high school that go to Trinity each year, however this year the swimmers opted for Southwestern. (35 miles east of Austin in Georgetown) Both schools take a lot of the top students from our area that want something smaller than the state unis, or want to participate in athletics. We have a friend who's daughter is currently attending Trinity. She stays during the summers to do research, and really has enjoyed the school. Trinity is in San Antonio, which is a nice-sized city. Southwestern, on the other hand, is in Georgetown which is quite small--but it is close to Austin. Another "overlap" would be Austin College in Sherman. </p>
<p>You might want to do a search for Trinity threads because I know I've seen a few. I have little else but anecdotal evidence, which really does a disservice to the school.</p>
<p>As for the live music scene....Bucknell has a lot of live concerts during the year, a live music club that operates all year, and you can always bum a ride to Philly, Pitt, NYC or D.C to catch a show. They've had everyone from Fall Out Boy (alt) to Jurassic Five (rap) to Gavin DeGraw (mainstream pop). This is independent from student bands that show up at a lot of frat gigs, singing groups etc....</p>
<p>texastaximom, thanks for the info.</p>
<p>Liberal Colleges in the South? This is an interesting question . . . For what it's worth, I think there is probably a high correlation between drawing students from a nation-wide pool and having a more 'liberal' environment. I am familiar with Tulane and Emory (both mentioned in earlier post) and they definitely have a high percentage of students from outside the South. Even a school like Vanderbilt which is overall pretty conservative politically has space for more liberal voices. On the other hand, I think that schools that are bound to their region probably are very conservative. A school like Baylor may draw from a wider audience, but it purposely promotes a rather conservative religious identity.</p>
<p>Sorry TexasTaxiMom, but I feel the need to input a little insight on Bucknell sports fans in a negative light. This past year, Bucknell advanced to the 2nd round of the NCAA basketball tourney for the first time ever. They had to hire another school's band to play for the team. (Which means they couldn't find 20-25 instrument playing students willing to be paid to go to an NCAA tournament game)</p>
<p>Guilford. Warren Wilson. Spelman. Agnes Scott. New College.</p>
<p>Actually, muppetcoat, the other band filled in gratis, because they were caught up in the excitement. It was my understanding that Bucknell did not make plans with regards to the band due to the fact that it was a 14 v 3 seed and it was at the tail end of spring break. After the upset, one of the OK bands filled in because they were rooting for Bucknell, too! The Bucknell fans that were there were very excited according to the Western Adcom who drove in just for the game. Considering the game was way out of Bucknell's home region there was a great turn out. And you have to remember Bucknell has a fraction of the grads/students that a Kansas has.</p>
<p>When the team returned, there was a huge parade. oh...and the Bucknell fans managed to rally the troops and vote the Bucknell V Kansas the "upset of the year.'" It won an ESPN Espy award, determined by on-line voting. :)</p>
<p>That probably doesn't count as rabid fans though....since most Bucknellians are not recruited athletes we have a different kind of sports system.</p>
<p>I can't believe Dallas is rated so much higher on the "liberal scale" than Austin....Austin is KNOWN in Texas for being "that other liberal city." Dallas is pretty much 50/50 Red/Blue.</p>