<p>so your kid should take Furman over Harvard/Georgetown? seriously? forget the politics. no intelligent non-sheep takes that stuff seriously anyway. not even real politicians take that stuff seriously.</p>
<p>^ That’s what I’m thinking. I just don’t know how to point out that this is about my education, not my political environment. What if I held liberal ideals before I even got to college? Would they resent and abandon me? To me, there’s no logic in the aversion of liberal schools when searching.</p>
<p>Well, what’s your major? If it’s some kind of STEM field, it shouldn’t matter at all. You should be able to make that argument.</p>
<p>But if it’s history and your parents are full-pay, well then sure they’re gong to be reluctant to pay a quarter million bucks for what they might view as total horse crap. Tougher argument to make.</p>
<p>Somewhere in the spectrum there’s a happy midpoint.</p>
<p>Definitely something science related, unless I somehow have a MAJOR change of heart my senior year. Definitely not full pay… FAR from it. But that’s a whole different story.</p>
<p>bluebayou: Many faculty members only welcome you to repeat back to them what they churn out</p>
<p>HayStack: I can say that it all my years as an undergrad or grad student, I never felt compelled to regurgitate what a faculty member said in a paper or on a test.</p>
<p>I don’t think bluebayou meant that in the way you heard it - as in being required to repeat back the same facts. It’s more a matter of needing to be very careful to present your contributions/arguments under the proper ideological framework if you want that “A.”</p>
<p>As a STEM major, this was never an issue in the sciences. But in my humanities classes, it occurred several times. Back in the day, I thought it was transparent and silly, with one case being so ridiculous that it provided a lifelong funny story. But now, looking back as adult, it’s kind of annoying; those classes were wasted money.</p>
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<p>This is what I saw in my experience too. Since I was liberal at the time, my experiences weren’t political, but rather, whether one agreed with another on interpretation of the author’s intent. I had one prof in a humanities class who gave us two writing grades and took the better of the two. I took a chance on the first paper and wrote my views knowing they contradicted hers. I got the expected F. On the second paper I regurgitated what she wanted to read. I got an A. I suspect it happens anywhere with certain profs. It happens.</p>
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<p>Nope. I just want my guys to get an education as free of the political nonsense as possible. Since there are literally thousands of choices, probably a hundred or two schools meeting my academic standards, I see no reason not to shorten the list by this. If it were a choice of “get educated or not” it would be different. It’s not. Middle son has 4 of the top 20 research U’s on his short list along with a couple of safeties. I don’t think he’s being shortchanged.</p>
<p>Believe it or not, schools DO have different political climates. We’re not hardcore far right by any stretch of the mind. I do, however, feel strongly about not wanting higher education to be a “liberal affair.” You are free to choose differently, of course. And I’m sure some kids are into hardcore politics and relish political schools for the argument or for the camaraderie. We’ve never been a highly political family. We vote, but that’s it. My guys will still go to great schools that are fits for them. </p>
<p>To each our own.</p>
<p>I was talking to a friend from college (Wheaton in Mass.) who did a year at Georgetown. I asked her what it was like back then, the difference between the two. She said that at G’town (she was a Gov. major) the profs were happy to just have you parrot back what they taught. No back and forth. Hopefully that’s changed.</p>
<p>I always thought the point of college was to create insightful, independent thinkers. </p>
<p>If you want a clone, home-school them. If your years of raising them and instilling your values can be so easily undone by four years of college, then perhaps your positions were weak from the start. On the other hand, in sending them away to have their (your) beliefs challenged, you just might find that they’ll come back having learned you were correct all along.</p>
<p>*“I was never liberal when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.”</p>
<p>— Robert Frost, former Poet Laureate of the US*</p>
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<p>My point was that no school would use your money to further a political agenda, regardless of its political tilt.</p>
<p>Nilesdavid: agree with you. ;)</p>
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<p>Perhaps true, but that doesn’t hold for the faculty, which with tenure can teach what they want, how they want… Think about being a supply-sider in an econ course taught by a Keynesian prof. While even Larry Summers now references Arthur Laffer in his current text, that is a recent event. </p>
<p>Regardless of what I personally feel about the OP’s situation, its his/her parents money and I have really hard time understanding why/how a 17/18 year-old should be able to tell them how to spend their quarter of a million dollars.</p>
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Good thing I never said I wanted to tell them how to spend their money. In fact, all I said was “I’m not sure what to make of the situation.”</p>
<p>Secondly, I’m not so sure my parents will be paying for my education much, if at all. I have a whole different thread on how without some substantial financial aid, I’m not going to college (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1084018-huge-need-financial-aid-good-student-not-sure-where-start.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1084018-huge-need-financial-aid-good-student-not-sure-where-start.html</a>)… I didn’t really want to even mention this, because it’s not at all relevant to this thread. But yes, it is pretty frustrating to be getting this pressure from all ends, especially when my parents are unable to adequately fund an education for me. </p>
<p>I was just looking for insight as to whether it’s a valid concern and how others have handled it, what other families’ take is on the issue, etc. Not trying to seek ways to “tell my parents how to spend their money.” Sorry you read it that harshly.</p>
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<p>Reading the OP’s posts, it does not appear that the parents are saying “pick a conservative school or else.” It appears to be as much or more the extended family applying pressure.</p>
<p>Also - I wonder how much of the conversation the OP is hearing from family members who think that liberal college professors are trying to stuff evil liberal ideas down their throats is due to their conservative politics being challenged for the first time in their lives?</p>
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<p>If more people on both sides of the political spectrum felt that way, perhaps our public discourse would be less toxic and our political process would be less broken.</p>
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<p>Schools do lobby politicians for various causes important to them, even though such causes may not be typical “left” or “right” wing causes. And schools may be part of entities that are involved in politics (state governments, religious organizations).</p>
<p>we can speculate all we want, but speculation is irrelevant, IMO. It is THEIR money, period. </p>
<p>Why should political bent of a college (however defined) be any different than many other reasons to pick a college, including geographic (close to home), gender (all girls), military (academies), location (urban, rural, suburban), D1 sports (or lack thereof), size…</p>
<p>How many would have a similar reaction if the OP said, ‘I live in SoCal and I really, really, really want to go to NYU, but my parents will only pay for USC’?</p>
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<p>Some of it, maybe. Some of what I hear comes from family members in their sophomore/junior/senior years of college. It is safe to assume that they’ve never had their political ideals challenged elsewhere in the past. But some other family members, my parents’ age, who have been through college and one who went back a few years ago also explain how the professors can be very touchy and very forceful in their approach… When she went back to college, it wasn’t her first time being challenged in her political beliefs, so I think she has a healthy understanding of what it’s like.</p>
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You are right. My dad is the only one who is purely about the quality of education. He couldn’t care less what the political atmosphere is like. My mom is totally not involved in politics, so she’s neutral. It is indeed the extended family who likes to try to get it in my head that going to a liberal school is going to “ruin” me. I haven’t let them get to me yet, I’m just trying to think of ways to perhaps hold my own with them. Because ultimately the decision comes down to my parents and I, not my whole family… it’s just a hassle to have to hear the anti-liberal school ranting anytime college gets mentioned.</p>
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It’s not that cut and dry in my case. My parents aren’t threatening to not allow me to go. In fact, the three people who will contribute to making the decision (mom, dad, me), have no selectivity in colleges based on political aura. It’s just pressure from other family members.</p>
<p>I come from a conservative family (and personally have very mixed views). I don’t necessarily feel pressure (nor would I conform to it if I did), but my grandmother on one side tends to say things about schools I’ve visited like, “I don’t know, they’re really liberal there.”</p>
<p>The best ammunition is probably just to say that most schools are liberal, that a Catholic school like Georgetown though liberal would be less so than many other schools, and that a liberal student body won’t negatively impact your own views.</p>
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<p>When they cough up some cash to pay the tuition, they can have a voice; otherwise, ‘thank them’ for their input and ignore 'em.</p>
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<p>Because that attitude says, “My mind is firmly closed and I want to keep it that way.” Which is exactly the opposite of what college should be about.</p>
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<p>Even science cannot avoid getting dragged into politics. Consider subjects like evolution and global warming.</p>