<p>Okay, so if you go to one of the network pages on Facebook and click on statistics, it gives you a compilation of what people within that network selected for their political views. So, I thought it might be interesting to turn this into a list to show which schools are most liberal/conservative. I know that this survey isnt exactly all that scientifically perfect, but its still interesting.
For every percentage point of conservative, I will give the school positive one point. For very conservative, I will give positive two points. For liberal the exact same only negative (and this isnt to say that liberal is negative, but it works better in my head for left things to be on the negative side of a number line).
I will ignore apathetic, moderate, libertarian, other, and no responses.</p>
<p>Princeton -18
Harvard -24
Yale -27
CalTech -24
Stanford -26
MIT -18
UPenn -19
Duke -17
Dartmouth -20
Columbia -26
UChicago -26
Cornell -19
WashU St. Louis -27
Northwestern -28
Brown -35
Johns Hopkins -17
Rice -19
Vanderbilt -5
Emory -25
Notre Dame -1
Carnegie Mellon -23
Berkeley -28
Georgetown -18
UVA -14
UMichigan -20
UCLA -20
UNC -14
USC -18
Tufts -34
Wake Forest -1
William and Mary -19
Brandeis -36
Lehigh -11
UWisconsin -26
Boston College -16
NYU -30
URochester -29</p>
<p>Williams -30
Amherst -35
Swarthmore -44
Wellesley -42
Middlebury -33
Carleton -50
Bowdoin -35
Pomona (all Claremont colleges combined) -39
Haverford -45
Davidson -18
Wesleyan -44
Vassar -50
Claremont McKenna (see Pomona)
Grinnell -52
Harvey Mudd (see Pomona)
Colgate -17
Hamilton -29
Washington and Lee +7
Smith -53
Colby -30
Bryn Mawr -47
Oberlin -51
Bates -38
Macalaster -52
Mount Holyoke -49
Barnard
could not be found (probably considered part of Columbia)
Colorado College -38
Scripps (see Pomona)</p>
<p>Most interesting I think is that the liberal arts colleges tended to be much more political (usually liberal) than larger universities.</p>
<p>Hence the term "LIBERAL Arts". :D</p>
<p>Well, no, that term has nothing to do with politics, unless you are purposefully being humorous, in which case you did a poor job.</p>
<p>I would say that it's true though, that LACs are typically more politically active.</p>
<p>(With obvious exceptions, such as the universities in DC)</p>
<p>agreed with 45 per center, "liberal" arts means that students are learning things that will help them become effective liberals.</p>
<p>Cledenator, the only real surprise is Brown, with 38, and that its a great deal more liberal than Yale (which I thought was similar).</p>
<p>Only one conservative school, Wash & Lee at +7? </p>
<p>Hillsdale College: +3,000
Grove City College: +2600 </p>
<p>I find the lack of true diversity among these colleges disconcerting. So, are they all "think as I think" schools? Where are the true "free thinkers?" Gone, I guess.</p>
<p>"Reality has a well-known liberal bias"</p>
<p>I'm really surprised that Wake and Notre Dame are negative....</p>
<p>
I'm well aware of the true meaning of the term "liberal arts". My statement was in jest, hence the big-grin smiley right after it. But I guess to understand that, one has to have a sense of humor.</p>
<p>For starters, I think it is necessary to say that Facebook seems to have a slight liberal bend to begin with, so you can probably add a certain amount of conservatism to any of these shools, which would make Wake, ND, and Vanderbilt all slightly conservative.</p>
<p>Secondly, there are other conservative schools. Texas A&M, for example, would earn a +29. I merely didn't feel like expounding upon every school was a good use of my Monday morning. That's all. The "good" schools seem to be mostly liberal (which may be somewhat telling, but I'll leave that to individual interpretation).</p>
<p>Fencersmother, you're on the right track
Hillsdale +47
Grove City +48
(of course, even if 100% said very X, it would only be plus or minus 200 points maximum)</p>
<p>Oh, also, one more note (though it shouldn't make very much of a difference): the facebook networks are not strictly limitted to undergrads. Grad students and even a few professors have Facebooks and are thrown into this data with everyone else. That means that Yale Law, for instance, is helping to even out Yale University, wheras Grinnell is purely and entirely undergrad students (and a few profs).</p>
<p>thethoughtprocess:</p>
<p>LOVE it
(by it, I mean the quote, and Colbert)</p>
<p>Oh, also alumni count, too (if they have a facebook).
And higher numbers indicate political alignedness more than activism.</p>
<p>
Or it could be that people are generally more liberal when they're younger. But maybe that's too simple of a conclusion.</p>
<p>^^" And higher numbers indicate political alignedness more than activism."</p>
<p>Is there such a thing as conservative activism? Among college students, that is?</p>
<p>What I meant was that one school could have 50% say very conservative and 50% say very liberal and achieve a score of 0, even though they are clearly a very political bunch, whereas a school that has 100% moderate, apethetic, or no responses would get the same score with a lot less political atmosphere.</p>
<p>Conservative activism? Yes, I think you will find that, especially at Hillsdale, the very conservative Catholic and Christian colleges (Franciscan, Thomas Aquinas (CA), Grove City come to mind), they are very proactive in politics. However, there is a distinct lack of the "in your face" quality of some of the more vocal liberal groups. Maybe that's why we don't notice them as much.</p>
<p>Dorian_Mode, you may be right about people being more liberal as youths, but I can't imagine that there is quite that much disparity. And, I'll bet the left-shift is not just in the student body, but is embraced by the faculty, and maybe even staff positions. I always think one should be challenged to consider ALL points & sides while in college. I think it is sad that while in lock-step with other issues of diversity, that of thought simple doesn't exist in established academia.</p>