Prestigious universities: Liberal or Conservative?

College Search & Selection
41

<p>"But as Erica said, the only truly conservative school in the top 50 or so is Washington and Lee, if it is in the top 50. Yuck!!!"</p>

<p>wow. if it is in the top 50? W&L is of course in the top 50. and an important distinction needs to be made. W&L (along with davidson, wake, UVA, etc) are often seen as 'conservative' bc the student bodies are conservative. this does not necessarily reflect to what side the institution leans politically, but rather, what kind of students the university attracts. i am going to w&l next year and while it is true that its preppy country club image is rooted in some truth, that stereotype is blown out of proportion--on each of my several visits there, i was looking especially to see how true that stereotype seemed, but found that a large percentage of people did not match the pink-polo shirt image.</p>

42

<p>"The same goes for diversity. While Dartmouth is about 1/3 minority, those other schools are 5-15%. HUGE difference." </p>

<p>slipper, where are you getting these statistics from? Vanderbilt is 22.7% and (this doesn't even include the international students) and increases rapidly every year.</p>

<p>"Dartmouth isn't the place people stereotype it to be, those days are long over."</p>

<p>Yet, you like to do the same disservice and stereotype universities that have made recent strides in diversity. Practice what you preach, or atleast get your numbers right.</p>

43

<p>I disagree pert, W&L has a reputation for being much more conservative and is much less diverse than those schools. Its overwhelmingly republican and less than 10% minority to boot (12% if you count internationals).</p>

44

<p>w&l's minority representation is undoubtedly weak. but once again, in saying "it is overwhelmingly republican," you are referring to students, not the faculty or administration. i agree that a higher percentage of students there are republican than in other places, but, as i mentioned above, it is not as many as is made out to be.</p>

45

<p>in texas...most liberals go to UT-Austin and private universities</p>

46

<p>To get Allorion's joke about generalizations:</p>

<p>John Yoo teaches at Boalt Law at Berkeley and is this neo-con who recently published a book providing the academic justification (in terms of the Constitution) of Bush's actions in regards to Gitmo (like Gonzalez, advocated that ppl captured in Afgahnistan who were at Gitmo were not POWs and thus not subject to Geneva Convention and thus could be tortured) and that the President as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, can do whatever he wants with the military and all legisliation by Congress limiting Presidential War Powers (i.e. the Presidential War Powers Act which restricted time President could send the army somewhere to fight w/o consent of Congress to 60 days) is unconstitutional. He also helped write the PATRIOT Act. </p>

<p>Coming from "rival" schools, he and Condi seem remarkably well-suited for one another.</p>

47

<p>As far as Dartmouth goes...the impression I have is that it's a little more accepting of conservatives than some of the other Ivies and top colleges. I've heard conservatives describe it as too liberal, and liberals describe it as too conservative. Basically, it's liberal with a small but strong conservative streak.</p>

48

<p>Nice to see from this thread that any liberal claims to value open-mindedness, tolerance of all viewpoints, respect for individual rights of fellow students (including Republicans), and a desire for a diverse community have been so overtly abandoned! And rather ironic that the lack of these same characteristics is what some of you may be using to define "conservative" schools?</p>

49

<p>Very Liberal:
Yale, Columbia, Brown, Berkeley, NYU, BU</p>

<p>Liberal:
Stanford, Northwestern, Emory, U Michigan, MIT, Cal Tech</p>

<p>Moderate (leaning more liberal):
Harvard, Penn, Dartmouth, Wash U, Johns Hopkins, U Chicago, Tufts, CMU</p>

<p>Moderate (leaning more conservative):
Princeton, Duke, Cornell, Rice, UVa</p>

<p>Conservative:
Georgetown, Vandy, Notre Dame, UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest</p>

<p>Very Conservative:
I can't think of any...</p>

<p>This is just based on my opinion and what people have told me. Generally, the only conservative schools are either in the south or religious. Most big-city schools are very liberal.</p>

50

<p>Has anyone in here taken AP Government...lol...it's usually held that the more prestigious a school is, the more liberal it is. On the other hand, a school strongly affliated with a particular religion is more likely to lean consevatively. Location usually influence a schools political designation as well...ie, Northeast- Liberal, South- Conservative, Midwest- Conservative, West- Liberal.</p>

51

<p>Eric, I like your PA description. It's similar to James Carville in his discussion of the last election that PA is Philadelphia & Pittsburgh with Alabama in between.</p>

52

<p>another contributing factor: People attracted to academia as a profession tend to be liberal in their thinking and world view. If they weren't, they'd use their smarts and go to work on wall street or in corporate america.</p>

53

<p>If Berkeley is very liberal, I can think of a list of very, very, very liberal. </p>

<p>And mchs, I can't agree with your assesment entirely- generally, sure, but plenty of liiberals cna use their abilities in business and donate money to others. Conservative business men can do this, too.</p>