<p>ThisCouldBeHeavn: You are right, my mistake, Norte Dame is Catholic though not Jessuit</p>
<p>ParentOfIvyHope- HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA have you BEEN to Bryn Mawr before? There are perhaps 10 republicans on campus, all of whom remain firmly in the closet on their conservatism. Many straight students feel like they’re in the minority. Everyone on campus went to a pro-Obama election night party. During the first week of the year, there’s Q Forum in every dorm which explains to all the freshwomen about identities and sexual preferences that don’t include the heteronormative. Bryn Mawr is the most liberal place I have ever been.</p>
<p>Hypermom - Have you talked to Hypergirl about what she wants in a college? Once you learn this, the list will be narrowed down. I got a book about colleges in the Mid-Atlantic States and Odessagirl read through it and looked at all of the charts in the back and wrote all over it. It was a good way for her to weed some schools out and also to select some that she wanted to visit. Some schools automatically were crossed out - she did not want an all-girl’s school. She did not want a “suitcase” school. She did not want a school where a very high percentage of students were in the Greek life, etc. I believe the book helped her so much. Mainly the charts in the back of the book.</p>
<p>Also, Hanna- while the majority (I’m talking 51/49%) of the drinking at Bryn Mawr happens at Haverford, it’s only because they throw more parties. Within a month at BMC you’ll make at least one upperclassmen friend who will buy you alcohol, and then it becomes a major part of your college life on-campus, I have to agree with SmithieandProud.</p>
<p>padawank,</p>
<p>The op said she has no political preferences. Learn to pay attention.</p>
<p>I understand that; however, I also want to be perfectly clear that Bryn Mawr is not the choice for those seeking a conservative college environment, politically conservative or otherwise.</p>
<p>Wait, is it a realistic expectation that OP’s daughter won’t have sex during the 4 years of college? How many college grads are virgins?</p>
<p>This might fit the bill, but I fear they don’t offer undergraduate education. [King</a> Abdullah University of Science and Technology](<a href=“404”>http://www.kaust.edu.sa/)</p>
<p>Many people from socially conservative (often immigrant) families send their daughters to Bryn Mawr. Of course it’s a liberal campus in the sense of being very queer-friendly, but that’s not the issue for some of these families. The issue is men living in the dorms. Maybe there aren’t any of these women in your customs group, but they are definitely there.</p>
<p>“Within a month at BMC you’ll make at least one upperclassmen friend who will buy you alcohol, and then it becomes a major part of your college life on-campus”</p>
<p>I had two years at BMC and am quite an active alumna, so you don’t need to enlighten me about what goes on in the first month. I don’t disagree that you can find a 21-year-old to buy for you if that’s your goal. Are you claiming that this is a “major part” of life on campus for all or even most Mawrtyrs? You’re describing your own experience as though it were generally true. Aren’t you a first semester frosh?</p>
<p>How many college grads are virgins?</p>
<p>cross out college and submit high school.</p>
<p>Hee hee, mawrtyrs, I always loved that term. </p>
<p>I have to side with Hanna on this one, a lot of people from socially conservative countries send their daughters to women’s colleges because they want them to get a top U.S. education but still be in a womens-only environment that the family is comfortable with. (it’s funny that JHS should bring up KAUST in Saudi Arabia, because the women’s colleges do a lot of recruiting in Gulf countries these days). Of course, as owlice sort of noted, this doesn’t stop their daughters from being exposed to the experiences of most U.S. college students – drinking, sexual activity, drug use, etc.-- but I think that parents feel that the single sex environment is a good one for their daughters and that their daughters are mature enough to not indulge in behavior that goes against their values.</p>
<p>Right, for a lot of those families, their own daughter’s modesty would be compromised by living with men, even if she doesn’t have sex with them.</p>
<p>I was going to say that the women’s colleges certainly aren’t convents, but one of my friends did a history PhD on lesbian nuns in Medieval Europe, and apparently there was a lot of action. So maybe they are more like convents than we even realize.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to set up a “taking sides” issue, though. We’re not always going to see the same school the same way.</p>
<p><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Let me clarify my original post :</p>
<p>Religious Preference: Secular (wouldn’t like focus on one religion)</p>
<p>Academic: Reasonable rigor, if not the top tier.</p>
<p>Political: no preference</p>
<p>All I am looking for is, for my daughter to be away from drinking/drugs/sex </p>
<p>THANKS to all those who replied with great suggestions.
Also apologize to all those who felt my original post didn’t have specifics.
Apologize again for not having come back to the thread for a while (had an emergency in the family… )</p>
<p>Agree with parents who feel that it should be within the kid. As a parent we try to do our best, but can not garauntee that all we tell and practice actually gets into the kid’s head! May be as an over-protective parent, want to prevent exposure to achohol/drugs etc if possible! </p>
<p>-hypermom
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<</p>
<p>Hypermom,</p>
<p>Welcome back! :)</p>
<p>Frankly, I don’t think there is a college (besides strongly religious ones) that won’t have a fair amount of sex, drinking, etc.</p>
<p>So, I propose is this…</p>
<p>“Some” of your concerns might be minimized if your D chooses a college that has “theme” dorms. I know that some heavy drinkers are forced (by parents) to be in “substance free dorm”; I’m not talking about those dorms necessarily. I’m talking about honors dorms, or engineering dorms, or nursing dorms, etc.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Life is nuanced. Some of those families may have unrealistic expectations, but I suspect in many cases, what “the family is comfortable with” is the ability to tell others their daughter is at a college with only women, and also a sense that when the daughter passes through the rebellion phase of coming-of-age, better it should happen a long, long way from home. What happens in Bryn Mawr stays in Bryn Mawr.</p>
<p>The women’s colleges seem like your best bet, IMO.
Some probably moreso than others, you’ll have to investigate.</p>
<p>Welcome back OP!</p>
<p>Until I saw you didn’t want overtly religious schools, I was going to suggest Catholic colleges, where you can get a good education and the atmosphere is not party-oriented. I am most familiar with Xavier University in Cincinnati, and I know it does not have only “Catholics” (practicing or not) but also Jewish and Muslim students.</p>
<p>Just happened to see an ad (hmm…does “conservative” in the thread title mean you’ll see ads for a certain kind of college?) for one called Incarnate Word, in Texas, which had this to say about itself: “a diverse campus culture composed of students like you from around the world”…</p>
<p>Sounds pretty conservative to me, but still interesting.</p>
<p>I think some/many of the Catholic colleges would be a good choice regardless of one’s religious bent. Many are pretty secular in feel (except for some statues and crosses around). The kids are usually pretty “laid -back” religion-wise.</p>
<p>Many Catholic colleges have single-sex dorms and strict rules about “opposite sex” visitors in dorms.</p>
<p>Catholic colleges might not satisfy the OP’s desire for a sober environment, though. Yesterday I asked my niece, a freshman at a Jesuit school, whether she encountered a lot of drinking. Well, she said, I run into drunk students sometimes but they’re not belligerent. Oh, and someone puked on our costumes for our play.</p>
<p>OP, I can’t remember if you had a geographical preference, but how about St. Olaf? It’s not secular, but Lutherans don’t proselytize, so I don’t think your daughter would be made uncomfortable. Good academics, socially conservative in a good way.</p>
<p>St Olaf is a great school. However, there are plenty of people who party, and heavily. Because of the college’s status as a dry campus, however, most of the drinking is underground. It is my belief that underground equates to a lot of pregaming for an evening and involves hard liquor vs cheap beer. I have this information first hand from professors, administrators and students. It’s a great school, but it is not really any different than competing schools in terms of culture.</p>
<p>I disclose I didn’t read all the posts. This topic (shopping for conservative colleges) makes me jumpy. I live in Falwell country and …
never mind.</p>
<p>OK, I am a graduate of Furman University, a college which cut all financial ties to the Baptist church about the same time as Wake Forest, University of Richmond, and others in order to end all interference with academic freedom.</p>
<p>Furman’s greatest asset, if I can refrain from focusing on the stunning campus and really fun New South and upscale downtown of Greenville and on the access to the glorious mountains of NC right up the road. (The Pisgah Forest is to die for if you need a refreshing Saturday.)
Oh and Furman is Swarthmore compared to the across the town campus of Bob Jones.</p>
<p>Furman’s greatest asset is the rigor of the classroom and the intimate access to an excellent faculty entirely focused on undergrad education. My classmates went to Univ of Chicago, Stanford, Yale, UVA, Harvard, etc for grad school and have had very interesting careers. Many of my classmates are very principled and thoughtful people. Although I was not as conservative or religious as my classmates, I still bonded with many of them and maintain long term and valuable ties with classmates and teachers.</p>
<p>Furman very much wants to have a strong national draw but remains more regional than it would like to be. </p>
<p>Furman is still a dry campus. This means that pretty much the kids doing weekend drinking are Greek and drink off campus. There simply are more people that are culturally not into drinking at Furman than at many other colleges. There is much rumbling about the dry campus deal these days and I think it will get abandoned pretty soon as a policy. I can’t believe it still stands frankly…alum are in the way I hear, and students are not much for protests but there is a movement to end the dry campus policy now. Furman students are generally very polite and the faculty is more liberal than a portion of the students who show up.
For those unfamiliar with the South, do not underestimate the vigor of a part of the USA with a good economy and plenty of movement in from other regions. Greenville has Germans and French citizens making BMWs and Michelin tires and plenty of new blood moving into the region all the time.</p>
<p>If I was going to joke, I would say that many kids at Furman will try drinking here or there but then they feel guilty about it! Yep! Although a couple of friends have substance abuse issues and going to Furman is no guarantee…it is not at all strange to be at Furman and be a non drinker as a student and you are pretty much the norm if you don’t care to drink or you are a light social drinker. </p>
<p>Something I really respect about Furman is that faculty members are very good at meeting students "where they are"on arrival and make a big impact on them over time…plus there are many great foreign study components in the school. The Science Building is out of this world and just opened last year…state of the art. Chemistry is world class on campus and there are many other great departments on campus.</p>