<p>Oh, and since you mentioned the Ivy League, Princeton and Dartmouth are considered to be the two most conservative members. I believe Dartmouth is considered to be more conservative than Princeton, while Princeton is considered to be the most "Southern" of the Ivys.</p>
<p>Definitely check out Davidson, Holy Cross, Denison, Wabash, Colgate and Middlebury. Most of them are in the Northeast and Midwest. You may want to check out Ohio Wesleyan as well but it is probably too on the liberal side for you though very much like its sister-institution: Denison.</p>
<p>On the West coast, I think you will find for the most part that the public schools tend to be quite liberal and the private schools (with the exception of Pomona and Pitzer) tend to be quite conservative. Also many of the West coast private schools have some church affiliation, tending to be more convervative still.</p>
<p>I'd hardly call Reed, Whitman, Lewis & Clark, Mills, Scripps, Occidental, or Stanford especially conservative.</p>
<p>It also depends on how you go about labeling. The recent Williams Diversity report (Williams hardly being considered a hotbed of radicalism) found 57% of the student body characterizes itself as "far left or liberal" and only 12% as "conservative or far right". I doubt you'd find the numbers at Dartmouth or Princeton to be much different.</p>
<p>As far as schools in NC go, Duke is quite liberal. Davidson is probably somewhere closer to liberal than conservative. Wake Forest is somewhat conservative. In SC, Furman is pretty conservative.</p>
<p>I will add that my conservative daughter is at what seems a fairly liberal Duke, but she has been extremely happy there. It's all in finding your niche and hanging around with the crowd in which you are most comfortable. There are plenty of conservatives at Duke, too. She is a very accepting person, though, and sees the benefit of being exposed to so many different ideas and concepts. To her, that is how one gains the best education. </p>
<p>You sound like the type of person who is going to find your niche no matter where you go.</p>
<p>Neither Holy Cross nor Denison are "conservative" at all. They both actually have a quite liberal and progressive student body. Surprising, maybe, for a Catholic school such as Holy Cross, except for its proximity to Boston and perhaps the fact that it is Jesuit (who tend to be more progressive and educationally advanced).</p>
<p>Holy Cross is fairly conservative in the religious sense.</p>
<p>Duke IS conservative.</p>
<p>Actually, Beginning, Holy Cross is actually not all that conservative in a religious sense either. The administration there has had a few disagreements with the Vatican's rulings on Catholic education. By conservative Catholic standards, the Holy Cross administration and faculty is something of a rebel. :)</p>
<p>carolyn's
[quote]
By conservative Catholic standards, the Holy Cross administration and faculty is something of a rebel.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Gotta love the Jesuits! :) They're rebels (well, relatively speaking!) here too.</p>
<p>this discussion is getting pretty funny. Once you separate out reproductive rights, I'm not sure professional politicians can really agree regarding liberal versus conservative, so how could we? Trying to typecast colleges into one of two such buckets is tough. Ever since the fade of the pot smoking, bead wearing viet nam protest leader days, I think it's becoming tougher to typecast colleges on this liberal-conservative spectrum, especially given the diversity of many student bodies. There are notable exceptions, of course, especially among religious affiliated schools - no one would ever think of BYU or Pepperdine as anything but conservative. OTOH, some famously "liberal" schools have been infected (to the horror of some older alums) with kids that want nothing more than a good job on graduation. Berkeley comes to mind here. </p>
<p>Rather than focus on sweeping summaries of campus culture, summaries that may be dated or imcomplete, I'd focus on finding a campus where one fits in with a reasonable set of peers. If you want a vibrant, outspoken, politically conservative activist group, for example, you'd find a different place than if your definition of liberal is centered on fashion. </p>
<p>Keep in mind, too, that "liberal" campuses often have pretty big blocks of conservatives. I'm not sure I'd say the same thing about "conservative" campuses, though.</p>
<p>newmassdad:
So true.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm not sure professional politicians can really agree regarding liberal versus conservative, so how could we?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No kidding. </p>
<p>Let's see. Within the last two weeks, the front-runner for the nomination in the "liberal" party in the next Presidential race has:</p>
<p>a) Called for a Senate hearing on video game violence</p>
<p>b) Endorsed the swift approval of a conservative judge to the Supreme Court</p>
<p>c) Co-authored legislation to increase the size of the military</p>
<p>d) Attacked the President and the majority in Congress for irresponsible deficit spending</p>
<p>That pretty much pushes all the hot-button "conservative" issues.</p>
<p>Come on patuxent, get real. I suppose you still call GWB a drunkard because in his youth (in GWB's case, anything under 40!) he led a different life? I suppose you think no one ever matures their views?</p>
<p>Oh well, it's polemics like yours that make for good discussion :-)</p>
<p>Apparently my post was found offensive by the powers that be. Perhaps Holy Cross is an advertiser.</p>
<p>"MASSACHUSETTS-At the College of the Holy Cross, in Massachusetts, the chair of the department of sociology, Professor Royce Singleton, demanded that a secretary remove an American flag that she had hung in the departmental office. The flag was in memory of her friend Todd Beamer, who fought and died on the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 over Pennsylvania. When she refused, Singleton removed it himself."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.assistnews.net/strategic/s0112019.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.assistnews.net/strategic/s0112019.htm</a> </p>
<p>As for maturing views, certainly that happens but there is a difference between political posturing and conviction. To be sure politician of all political stripes are guilty of the former and often lacking in the later but interesteddads list of Hillary's latest pronouncements was an especially egregious example of political posturing.</p>
<p>Holy Cross administration and faculty are more liberal than the moderate alumni body. Chris Matthews of Hardball TV show vs Clarence Thomas. Also HC counts 6 or 7 Congressmen both Republicans and Democrats. The wife of Supreme Court choice John Roberts is an active Holy Cross alum.</p>
<p>Definitely look into Ku Klux Klan University. I heard that they have a great science program their.</p>
<p>Definitely look into Pol Pot College of the Arts and Sciences. I heard they have a great large print library for people who used to wear eye glasses before they became politically incorrect.</p>
<p>emswim: You sound like a good match for Notre Dame.<br>
I think you'll get in. (Free opinion, worth nothing). I agree with momrath--almost ALL schools are liberal. The only religiously conservative Catholic schools are: U. of Dallas, Christendom College (VA), Thomas More College, Magdalen College (both in NH), Thomas Aquinas College(CA), and Franciscan University of Steubenville (OH). (And Franciscan is not liturgically traditional, so a lot of conservatives would not want to go there). These are all small schools that might not have the major/sports you're looking for. Conservative Catholics consider Notre Dame a liberal to moderate school, but probably more what you want. Jesuit schools are super liberal IMO. For conservative students in general, you might look at Texas schools.</p>
<p>I've thought about these posts, especially those decrying the liberality of higher ed, and can only reply: So what.</p>
<p>A few years back I was in the army, at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. Back before we even knew the phrase "sexual orientation" etc., I was leading a small Explorer group sponsored by a local catholic church. One day, I was talking to the pastor, only to learn he was a "flaming" antiwar priest. I asked him what he was doing next to a military post? He asked me if I thought he'd accomplish more serving in Berkeley, CA, or here? I've never forgotten that comment. </p>
<p>Flash forward a few decades. My D started her first year of college last year. Her roommate was a conservative (maybe with a capital "C"?) evangelical from SW Kansas. You've never seen a bigger mismatch in terms of world view etc. (Boston liberal meets heartland conservative...). Although the roomie struggled to adjust to the big city environment and college life and eventually moved out, I had a long chat with her during parents weekend in late fall, and learned about all the community outreach and Bush campaign activity she was doing. I admire her for that, and am quite sure she has had far more impact on her community than my D. At the same time, I'm sure she has learned far more, too.</p>
<p>There is a huge risk in trying to find a community composed ONLY of like minded spirits, especially for college. There is no better way to sharpen and strengthen one's faith, one's moral code, one's political philosophy than to have it challenged. And if the views are so weak that the challenge leads to change, is that bad? Isn't that what learning, indeed growing, is about?</p>
<p>Finally, a comment about the supposed "liberalness" of higher ed faculty. This received a lot of press last fall from one side of the political spectrum. What received no press was the observation that similarly educated and incomed individuals who were not faculty had similar voting patterns. The press also zoomed in on the few elite schools who seemed to attract a certain type of inconoclastic faculty member. At the same time, there were press reports discussing how student bodies were frequently more conservative than the faculty. Keep in mind the source of the reports and any unstated objectives.</p>
<p>To the OP: Good luck in choosing a school. Look for a community within the school in which you fit, not for a monolithic student body, and I think you'll have a much more interesting time.</p>