Hi! This is my first time posting on College Confidential, so all of the features of this website are new to me. Anyway, I saw a thread here where top 50 universities were sorted in categories ranging from Mega-Liberal to Mega-Conservative. I liked the idea, but I thought it would be interesting if this was done exclusively for liberal arts colleges, and specifically the ones that I’m looking at.Obviously I won’t take these rankings too seriously, I just thought it would be interesting to hear what people had to say. I’m not going to provide info on what I want in a college, my stats, ect., because I’m not really looking for recommendations or anything like that. Also this is in NO WAY a finalized list, I haven’t gotten too far into the college process yet. THE COLLEGES ARE: MIDDLEBURY, DAVIDSON, HAVERFORD, HAMILTON, COLGATE, BATES, UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, COLORADO COLLEGE, MACALESTER, BUCKNELL, FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL, LAFAYETTE, and UNION. If you don’t know the school, leave it out. Thank you!!
I’d consider Richmond, Davidson, and Bucknell among the most conservative LACs. We got something of a conservative vibe from Hamilton, Union, and F&M, though mostly a preprofessional, college sports, country club kind of conservatism. Colgate and Lafayette, maybe a little less so, perhaps more diverse. Then Middlebury, with Colorado College and Bates the most liberal schools. I don’t know about Haverford. That is a very subjective list and typically based on a couple of visits to each school, although I know a couple better than that. I’m sure others would have different takes.
Only a handful of highly selective LACs are conservative. Of the top 50 or so LACs, I’d argue that only Washington & Lee, Sewanee, and Trinity (CT) lean right of center, but others may add the more moderate Furman and Richmond.
The HERI surveys provide data on the political leanings of freshmen and seniors at each college, but unfortunately very few colleges choose to make their survey results publicly available. In the absence of better data, the Niche surveys may be relevant to a discussion of political leanings on campuses, though they’re obviously not a representative sampling of students.
College - Liberal/Very liberal - Moderate - Conservative/Very conservative
**Bates - 69% - 31% - 0% **
**Bucknell - 19% - 33% - 23% **
**Colgate - 31% - 30% - 21% **
**CO College - 95% - 5% - 0% **
**Davidson - 24% - 52% - 12% **
**F&M - 48% - 29% - 10% **
Hamilton - 64% - 30% - 3%
**Haverford - 91% - 0% - 0% **
**Lafayette - 41% - 37% - 8% **
**Macalester - 100% - 0% - 0% **
**Middlebury - 92% - 5% - 0% **
**Richmond - 2% - 61% - 31% **
**Union - 27% - 27% - 14% **
Other students
Bucknell - 2% libertarian, 23% not sure
Colgate - 18% not sure
Davidson - 4% libertarian, 8% not sure
F&M - 2% libertarian, 12% not sure
Hamilton - 3% not sure
Haverford - 8% not sure
Lafayette - 14% not sure
Middlebury - 3% not sure
Richmond - 5% not sure
Union - 3% libertarian, 30% not sure
Looks like I my impressions were pretty close to the data provided in above post. Colgate is more conservative than I had it, and Hamilton is more liberal. I definitely felt like the Colgate students I know/met skewed liberal. I felt like Hamilton had something of a preppy, upper-class vibe. I think it’s spectacularly beautiful (though very cold) and obviously terrific academically. I know one of mine was turned off that an off-campus dorm had a chef. They said they did not want to go to a country club. Good luck!
Seems to have a typical distribution of family SES for a highly selective private school – 15% Pell, 47% no financial aid according to https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=hamilton&s=all&id=191515#finaid . But maybe they flaunt wealth more.
Just for perspective, I have a freshman at Richmond and when I asked her about politics she said that it seemed like everyone was "kinda liberalish, but less so than at home (Bay Area CA).
It is all relative.
Note that young people generally lean left relative to old people.
In http://www.people-press.org/2018/03/01/the-generation-gap-in-american-politics/ , millenials and their boomer parents in 2017 gave responses that suggested (first column is millenials, second column is boomers):
25% 17% consistently liberal
32% 22% mostly liberal
31% 28% mixed
10% 19% mostly conservative
02% 13% consistently conservative
Whether or not there are more liberals, there are still conservatives. Of course, there are. That includes Bates, Haverford, Macalester and Midd. And not just tokens.
Better to spend time finding your right matches and safeties. If you’re looking for most liberal- or trying to avoid that- try looking at what students do, what activities are available on campus.
lookingforward, I’m totally aware of this, after all a school can’t lean completely one way or the other. This thread is more out of curiosity than anything else and it’s not something that I make decisions with. I’m just interested in the political climates on each of the campuses and how they differ. Thank you!
I understand. But rankings can be suspect. What’s it mean to label, say, Midd, more liberal, when they have plenty of kids nose down into their own schoolwork and non political clubs and activities? And on CC, “liberal” often leads to accusations that profs aren’t fair, roommates will dismiss someone conservative or apolitical, non partiers, etc. It gets mucky. And gets very little, in return. Just saying.
My daughter who considers herself to be liberal is applying to a couple of schools on this list that have a sizeable moderate population (based on above report). Since she isn’t really an activist they seem comfortable for her. She is afraid to go somewhere that she thinks is too conservative. What I want to know is how can you tell for sure by going to an info session and tour? I don’t trust the niche stats.
One interesting resource is Heterodox Academy (Google it) which lists 150 universities and 50 LACs acording to “the degree to which each school is likely to be a place that welcomes diverse viewpoints and open discussion about politics and politically charged social issues.” The lists are based on an aggregate of several sources, and the methodology may be as questionable as any, but it may be a place for you to look.
Interesting thread. I wonder if a student who is a staunch conservative republican would be happy at a liberal school such as Berkeley? Would he/she be able to make friends easily? Would they be ridiculed or condemned by others? Another concern would be if they would be subjected to the liberal bias of professors and other people who have authority over them.
Depends on what kind of “conservative”. An alt-right white nationalist/racist conservative may not be warmly welcomed by the mostly non-white students there, who are likely to see that as an attack on them merely existing. But being conservative on issues like wanting freer trade, wanting lower government spending and taxes with a balanced budget, wanting a strong military defense and a careful assertive foreign policy, etc. without being racist is unlikely to lead to the kind of unfriendly reaction that the alt-right white nationalist/racist types are more likely to encounter.
“An alt-right white nationalist/racist conservative may not be warmly welcomed by the mostly non-white students there”
Nor by the majority of people of any race anywhere.
“Another concern would be if they would be subjected to the liberal bias of professors and other people who have authority over them.”
The majority of faculty at the majority of universities lean liberal. Nor is this new. Many conservatives attend these universities with no issues. College is about broadening one’s mind and learning different viewpoints. That doesn’t mean having to embrace every point of view one hears,
I think that, in most cases, it classmates and not professors who apply a sense of pressure to conform. (Obviously, there will be exceptions.)
I have known examples where in class someone expresses a viewpoint with which most of his classmates disagree, and, from the reading selections and the professor’s experience and research interests, it is pretty obvious the professor disagrees with it as well. Yet the professor has been nothing but welcoming and supportive of the student with an unpopular viewpoint, and I think the professor enjoys when such a student brings in additional research and enlivens class discussions.
However, there is a different feel when students rally around an issue or circulate a petition or plan a protest. If you do not embrace the issue at hand and choose not to participate, sometimes there can be a sense of a fear of ostracization, especially if you are a member of a club or identity group that mostly supports that protest— even if such ostracization never actually materializes (and it generally will not!), the anxiety can be there. At those times, it helps to have friends with whom you can be open and honest about your opinions and talk them out together. Sometimes, finding just a few people who will either share your view or support you by saying that they disagree with you but respect your viewpoint and find you an “ally” on the more important underlying issues, can make all the difference. Luckily, it is often the case that you can find those people!
In short, I do think that, on campuses, there can be a sense of a political orthodoxy that can act to stifle the expression of less popular views, but I also think that a college campus is a place where students get to know one another well, and that anyone offering a well-considered, research-backed opinion can find friends who will stand by them or agree with them. It helps to realize that sometimes the loudest voices on campus do not really represent everyone else’s views.
Don’t confuse conservative with being intolerant. Many of the Jesuit schools would be considered more conservative than some other schools, but they are also very inclusive and tolerant places.
“Anywhere” may be an overstatement, since some places elected politicians like Duncan Hunter and Steve King despite (or probably because of) their bigoted statements and ads.
This started about a ranking. As I predicted, it has sloped into a discussion of liberal and not, and various reactions.
Back to the rankings…
Oberlin very liberal and admirably diverse
Hillsdale a top conservative College