I know the usual suspects, liberal: UCB, Reed, Yale, Swarthmore, etc.; Conservative: Hillsdale and… Religiously affiliated schools. My question is are there differences in the “types” of liberals and conservatives you’d find at these college campuses? And what be the most liberal/conservative schools based on different degrees of liberalism/conservatism?
There are a lot of conservatives/libertarians at UCB and Yale(because the pool of elite schools is rather small, so conservatives wanting a ‘prestigious’ option have relatively few choices), while next to no liberals at the less-known schools like Hillsdale, because many equally-selective liberal alternatives exist at that level.
I would argue the more STEM-ish schools trend libertarian; those with a strong ROTC presence trend more conservative; those with a strong liberal arts tradition with no religious affiliation trend liberal. Of course, most universities are fairly left of center, so my descriptions are more how they compare to each other, rather than to the populace at large.
CLaremont McKenna is about a third liberal a third conservative and a third moderate. Usually schools with a bigger emphasis on economics/business, or at least the students in that area tend to be more conservatively economic.
Mere religious affiliation may not say that much about the liberal/conservative political and social environment. Compare the various Catholic schools in their degree of religious influence on student life (e.g. Holy Cross versus Christendom).
http://www.collegeguide.org/ is a (conservative aligned) web site that gives “traffic light” ratings for what it sees as the liberal/conservative political environment at each school (green = conservative, red = liberal). Of course, if you prefer a liberal environment, you may prefer the red light schools.
However, such broad brushes do not necessarily cover the distinction between the different types of liberals and conservatives, such as whether “conservatives” are more libertarian or more socially and religiously conservative.
http://www.cwu.edu/~manwellerm/academic%20bias.pdf lists survey results of faculty liberal and conservative leanings by department.
Most liberal: English literature 88%, performing arts 84%, psychology 84%
Least liberal: business 49%, engineering 51%, nursing 53%
Most conservative: nursing 47%, business 39%, economics 39%
Least conservative: political science 2%, English literature 3%, theology/religion 5%
Expect strongly feminist and pro-LGBTQ beliefs at the most selective liberal arts colleges.
If a person wants to make this distinction between liberal and conservative, then it is also worth do so for the student body compared to the faculty/administration. Notre Dame, for example, has a slightly left of center administration but a relatively conservative student body. The gap between the two is larger at Marquette (distinctly liberal administration, quite conservative students). This is not rare among major Catholic universities, although some small Catholic liberal arts colleges are fairly conservative across the board.
State universities have a tendency to correlate with the politics of the state, at least for the students. Auburn University, in Alabama, is rather conservative. So is Texas A&M. While almost all the California universities are fairly liberal. Here in Ohio – a swing state – the political leanings are mixed.
Conservatives in the South are more likely to be conservative on both economic and social issues, while Mid-West conservatives are more centrist on social issues.
I’m surprised that Yale is considered very liberal. I’ve heard it was one of the more conservative Ivies back in the day (and no, not just because the Bushes went there, haha). Granted, it’s probably changed quite a bit in recent decades since it started admitting a much more diverse population of students.
Good call on Texas A&M. What about BYU? It’s located in Provo, Utah-one of the most Republican-voting cities in the country. And not only is it run by the LDS, but its student body is over 90% LDS. Mormons are generally very conservative/Republican politically (which became a more well-known fact in the last presidential election, on account of the Republican nominee being a prominent Mormon himself). On top of that, BYU has a large business school-which likely only compounds its conservatism.
This is an interesting topic by the way!
Vanderbilt’s College Republicans is considerably larger than its College Democrats, but the overall campus political leanings are quite mixed, with a bunch of Conservatives, a slightly smaller to equal number of Liberals, and perhaps the largest group being moderates or those who don’t care. I’d say that 80 or 90% of my friends are Republicans, but that is by choice!
Collegeguide.org is a PAID site; you need to pay to see the ratings.
Yes, it is a pay site, but it shows its “traffic lights” without requiring payment.
@ucbalumnus
It also always has seemed to be more about the administrations and less about the students/faculty. That is especially evident here at Vanderbilt where the students and faculty are quite Conservative relative to other schools, but where there is a Liberal administration (I, as a Conservative, often find myself disagreeing with things that the administration says). Also, some of the schools it ranks highly are more for a traditional curriculum (with a large core) than anything politically.
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Also, for any student going into history/polisci, I’d highly recommend reading “A Patriot’s History of the United States.” No matter where you go (save for some religious schools and colleges in very conservative locales), you’re likely to hear more liberal opinions than conservative ones. That book would provide some balance. If you’re a liberal (or even a libertarian, like me), you’ll find parts of the book hard to read/swallow (I did not like its support of Prohibition, for instance), but it’s always good to hear the other side of the story.