<p>Or is there such thing at all? I saw a thread on gay-friendly colleges and it sort of made me think about this. I'm thinking "quirky" colleges like Oberlin and Reed.</p>
<p>Test</a> Prep: GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, SAT, ACT, and More | The Princeton Review</p>
<p>PR's "Students Ignore God on a Regular Basis" list.</p>
<p>Hmm are there any with at least a "visible" atheist population though? I mean it's a small number nationally but there are some atypical colleges.</p>
<p>Anything in the Pacific Northwest sans Linfield, George Fox, and the religiously affiliated ones. </p>
<p>Lewis & Clark, who tope the list atrophicwhisper mentioned.</p>
<p>Oh yea I forgot that Washington has a really high %age of non-religous population. What if I had to stick on the east coast? Any reputable colleges besides Vassar and Wesleyan?</p>
<p>I know Berkeley had a reported near-50% of students who had no religious affiliation. (Not that they're necessarily atheists, though.)</p>
<p>Most of the elite universities will be very secular and have a large atheist/agnostic subset of the student body. Stanford definitely does.</p>
<p>I think that you'll find that at a lot of top colleges in the Northeast, atheists are pretty accepted and there's a fair amount of them there. </p>
<p>For example, at Brandeis (right near Boston), there is mosque in addition to a synagogue and a Christian church. About 50% of students consider themselves "Jewish" (this is a very wide range from the "I'm only ethnically Jewish" to more orthodox). PR once had the school as #20 for students "who pray on a regular basis." However, Brandeis is also very liberal, and I was assured that I wouldn't be discriminated against for being an atheist had I attended (nothing like Bob Jones.)</p>
<p>Well, I'm happy to find a fellow atheist on CC! It seems like you go to Dartmouth now. How is it like there?</p>
<p>Thanks, kyledavid80 =)</p>
<p>It seems Reed was meant for you...</p>
<p>Oh, I was admitted to Dartmouth this year, so I haven't officially started yet, but I did go to Dimensions (the "open house" for admitted students), and I had a blast. I felt right at home. </p>
<p>By the way, I'm not quite an "atheist." I'm kind of a cross between an agnostic and an atheist in that I think that although the existence of God is possible, it's highly unlikely. I'm basically a secular humanist.</p>
<p>@atrophicwhisper, I feel the same way. To me, atheism is my best "guess" because I won't absolutely know that God exists or doesn't exist. Thanks for your advice. I was actually considering Brandeis, but I was worried because it was on the "who pray on a regular basis" list.</p>
<p>Cornell was founded in 1865 as a univesity with no religious affliliation. This was scandalous at the time and earned Cornell the nickname of "Godless Cornell", for over half a century. Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White wanted to offer an alternative to the religious zelotry that was sweeping the Northeast at the time, the creation of the mormans, 7th day adventists and others. Cornell was created with only one small chapel on campus (sage chapel) and it was prohibited from having resident clergy. The denomination of services are rotated on a weekly basis and to this day it is a favorite wedding spot for non-religious Cornell Alumni to marry.</p>
<p>Cornell has also produced or nutured three of the most famous atheists in America, Kurt Vonnegutt, Carl Sagin and Bill Maher. </p>
<p>Case Closed.</p>
<p>shermanbus83, wow!!!! How do you know about this?</p>
<p>Avoid the South...if you aren't a Protestant, you aren't welcome, let alone atheist or agnostic (which is what I consider myself).</p>
<p>Reason #5809 I've been dying to leave...</p>
<p>I'm at Dartmouth, and nobody's tried to save me yet. I haven't encountered any problems.</p>
<p>@elven_hobbit, that's one of the reasons why I'm reluctant to go down South.. Would it be different for southern urban colleges like Rice?</p>
<p>I'm not sure about Rice--I'm from Tennessee. I know that urban areas tend to be more liberal/progressive/accepting (including Austin and Dallas in TX) than the rest of the South, although still have a thriving conservative population.</p>
<p>Hmm... Well there goes the southern colleges from my list.. Not that I had many anyways</p>
<p>The South is certainly part of the Bible Belt, but its a misnomer to suggest that it is overwhelmingly Protestant and therefore anti Jewish or anti Catholic or anti Hindu or whatever. To the contrary, the New South has been kicking around for quite some time.....decades. There are large Jewish populations in many major cities in the South including Birmingham Alabama. There are VERY large Roman Catholic Populations in Charleston, Charlotte, Atlanta (an Archdiocese), New Orleans, Biloxi, Nashville, Raleigh, Richmond, Greensboro-HighPoint-Winston-Salem. They stopped burning crosses decades ago, folks...and frankly its a felony if someone did that. As for Atheists, they certainly exist and proliferate, even if they arent marching on Selma. Sorry for my cynicism, but I always get a little defensive when people not from the South start picking at it with generalizations that are not true. </p>
<p>On the East Coast I think MOST schools have atheists, even at some religious schools, except the VERY religious types. UVa, UNC, Duke, Wake, Emory, W & L, William and Mary, JMU, South Carolina, Clemson and Furman all have atheists and agnostics. By definition non-believers are a small minority where ever they go. </p>
<p>I have heard that Tufts University is particularly non-religious. But I am not an expert on it, so don't hold me to that "religiously" pardon the pun.</p>
<p>The thing that I think would be interesting is to engage agnostics and atheists in civil debate....where BOTH sides have an open mind. Some of the worlds most famous converts to Christianity, for example, have been former Atheists. Not that I am trying to convert anyone. But the possibility of civilized debate would be interesting. </p>
<p>I think you would even be safe at Georgetown or Fordham, even though they are Jesuit colleges. Jesuits are not dogmatic and simply try and engage your thoughts. Whether you would be comfortable at a Jesuit school is perhaps another matter.</p>