<p>I am big into politics and plan on majoring in Political Science if I get accepted. I am very, very conservative and I've kind of always gotten the impression that the UC system is pretty liberal (maybe it's Bezerkly and SC an LA that's given me the general impression).</p>
<p>Basically, I was wondering if SB was as liberal as SC and Berk? Am I going to get scrutinized because I am Republican? I feel like a lot of campuses alienate kids just because they're Republican...they're not "cool" like the liberals. I do remember reading a magazine about 'SB from my grandma (she is a UCSB graduate) that basically updates alumni on current school news, and it had stats on the approval ratings of obama, and it was fairly even...not quite 50-50, but it was like 52-48 approve-disapprove. Hoping this is the general thing at the school...</p>
<p>No one really asks what your political views are unless you want to get into a discussion about politics. There are liberals and conservatives. Really I think you’re blowing this whole thing out of proportion. Come in with an open mind to accept other people have their own views and you’ll be just fine.</p>
<p>SB is also generally a liberal college, but I, as a liberal myself, do have some friends that are actually conservative. You don’t really need to worry about that. There’s definitely a niche that you can fit in in every college.</p>
<p>UCSB’s liberal history probably rivals that of Berkeley (Google “Isla Vista Bank of America Burning” or “Governor Reagan National Guard Isla Vista” for info…), but I think the school has moderated considerably till then. I was off-and-on involved with a political club on campus (I was a Poli Sci major) and I found the relations between the conservative and liberal campus clubs were much better than what I saw at home (used to live 1 mile from San Francisco State). Campus Democrats and College Republicans get along and used to host regular debates back when I was a student (05-08). </p>
<p>I think there is still a bit of a tinge of the belief that being liberal is “cooler” than being conservative, but I’ve found that to be true almost any place that is dominated by a younger demographic.</p>
<p>The school is definitely more liberal than conservative. I’m somewhat into politics myself and, as a liberal, I find it difficult to find conservatives if I ever want to discuss something.</p>
<p>If you’re worried about social life though, then don’t. No one but the most radical liberals will alienate you for being conservative. There’s a die-hard liberal in my hall who likes to call people out when they admit to being conservative, but he just has a big mouth in general and, at the end of the day, political affiliation has no impact on friendships.</p>
<p>There are a few conservative organizations on campus where the kids are really into what they do. In fact, they sponsored Karl Rove to come here in about a month, so that should be interesting.</p>
<p>I do wish there were more conservatives here - I’m tired of everyone agreeing with me. I’m used to being in the minority back home :P</p>
<p>There have been a lot of big time speakers at UCSB, both liberal and conservative, and one nice thing is that I never saw a speaker having to suspend his speech due to protesters which has happened at many other schools. Also, when Ward Churchill spoke a few years ago, the College Republicans protested outside Campbell Hall where he was speaking. The club hosting Churchill allowed the CRs free admission into the event because they wanted the CRs to at least hear what Churchill was saying, and they listened to his entire speech without making any noise (though it did get pretty contentious in the Q&A period after the event). That goes to show that relations between differing political clubs is very professional.</p>
<p>By the way, little known fact, Fox News’ Sean Hannity got his first radio gig at UCSB’s student radio station, KCSB. He was fired for being too politically controversial. You can read the whole story here:</p>
<p>Being a conservative at UCSB has caused me no problems so far. I find that people here are generally very nice and willing to listen. Professors and a majority of the students are liberal like most UC’s, but its nothing like the people at UCSC or UCLA. I’m not a political science major but I do follow politics very closely. (As a history major, we have the most liberal prof. on campus I think lol) So far my roommates haven’t complained about me watching Glen Beck everyday although I have had some good debates with a few of them. I always disliked Santa Barbara because it was so liberal, but you have to remember your going to be living in Isla Vista/Goleta, surrounded by students and professors not the Santa Barbara crazy liberals. Overall, UCSB has exceeded my expectations by far. I find that people are willing to listen and have good discussions even if you disagree. As a conservative, I love it here.</p>