<p>OK, here's my idea. Can someone rank the top 50 colleges in the USNWR by how liberal/conservative they are, with the top school being the most liberal? I think that this thread can be a great help to any student who is curious about a certain school's political leaning.</p>
<p>This should be fun!</p>
<p>MEGA LIBERAL:
Brown University
Columbia University
Cornell University
New York University
University of California-Berkeley
University of California-Santa Cruz
Yale University</p>
<p>LIBERAL:
Brandeis University
Caltech
Carnegie Mellon University
Dartmouth College
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
University of California-Irvine
University of California-Los Angeles
University of California-San Diego
University of California-Santa Barbara
University of Chicago
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Texas-Austin
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin-Madison</p>
<p>MODERATE:
Case Western Reserve University
College of William and Mary
Emory University
Johns Hopkins University
Northwestern University
Pennsylvania State University-University Park
Princeton University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rice University
Tulane University
University of California-Davis (not entirely sure about this one, could be considered Liberal)
University of Florida
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
University of Maryland-College Park
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
University of Pennsylvania
University of Southern California
Washington University-St Louis</p>
<p>SLIGHTLY RIGHT OF CENTER (but not conservative)
Boston College
Duke University
Georgetown University
Georgia Institute of Technolgy
Lehigh University
University of Notre Dame
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt University</p>
<p>CONSERVATIVE:
The only top 50 university that I would classify as "conservative" is:
Wake Forest University</p>
<p>Other "major" universities I would qualify as conservative are:
Baylor University
Brigham Young University
Texas A&M University</p>
<p>I would say that Notre Dame is qualifies as conservative.<br>
To balance out the conservative lists, I would add Washington and Lee and Davidson from the LACs.</p>
<p>Princeton is also right of center</p>
<p>I'll start off the LACS</p>
<p>MEGA-LIBERAL
Bard
Macalester
Mt Holyoke
Oberlin
Skidmore
Smith
Vassar
Wesleyan</p>
<p>LIBERAL
Amherst
Barnard
Bates
Bryn Mawr
Carleton
Colorado College
Connecticut College
Dickinson
Grinnell
Hamilton
Haverford
Kenyon
Pomona
Swarthmore
Wellesley
Whitman</p>
<p>MODERATE
Bowdoin
Claremont McKenna
Colby
Colgate
Harvey Mudd
Middlebury
Union
Williams</p>
<p>SLIGHTLY RIGHT OF CENTER
Bucknell
Franklin & Marshall
Gettysburg
Holy Cross
Lafayette
Trinity</p>
<p>CONSERVATIVE
Davidson
Furman
Richmond
Sewanee
Washington and Lee</p>
<p>Also add Reed in the mega-liberal catagory for LACs (I know it's not top 50, but we all know it should be).</p>
<p>I'd also note that none of the mega liberal unis listed are quite as liberal as the most liberal of the LACs :D</p>
<p>I'm not so sure about Richmond being Conservative. It's all rich kids from New Jersey, so I think it probably falls under the moderate category.</p>
<p>Davis, USC, and the Clarmont-McKenna schools would only be considered Moderate next to other California schools. Up against, say Rice, they would be considered bleeding heart liberals. (And on Earth day Davis is closer to Santa Cruz than you would think.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm not so sure about Richmond being Conservative. It's all rich kids from New Jersey, so I think it probably falls under the moderate category.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That is a fairly recent change, however, and until the last decade or so, Richmond was very much a regional, old money southern school.</p>
<p>It's hard to "classify" an institution with thousands (or tens of thousands) of members/participants. "Liberal" Stanford is the home of the decidedly right-leaning Hoover Institute, for example. And "moderate" Claremont-McKenna has a strong rightish contingent also. I wouldn't be surprised if you found pockets of liberalism at BYU, etc., as well. Most colleges and universities are home to a variety of opinions, as befits the purpose of the institution. You're probably only "safe" at places which vigorously enforce a particular dogma, like Bob Jones U.</p>
<p>MIT has Noam Chomsky.....that alone makes them Mega-Liberal, especially given their ridiculous divestment from Israel since Chomsky is a self-loathing Jew who hates his own people.</p>
<p>Harvard, with the whole Larry Summers incident? Mega-Liberal in my book.</p>
<p>A lot of people felt that Emory sold itself to the ultra-liberal academic devil when they welcomed Jimmy Carter, the worst [mega-liberal] president in the history of our country. I pin it down as "Liberal" at least. Especially considering that despite its large Jewish population, I've heard that the school is not largely Zionist - kind of scary.</p>
<p>Cornell, though, I don't think is MEGA-liberal. Liberal, yes.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
MIT has Noam Chomsky.....that alone makes them Mega-Liberal, especially given their ridiculous divestment from Israel since Chomsky is a self-loathing Jew who hates his own people.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>Oh, come on. He's a professor of linguistics. Despite his obvious liberal/radical leanings, he isn't exactly making MIT into a bastion of "eebul liberalism". And that's an unfair charge to level against Chomsky, too.</p>
<p>Also, Emory isn't exactly liberal, and Harvard may be liberal (70% for Kerry in 2004) but people is Cambridge (85% for Kerry) consider it conservative.</p>
<p>Davidson is definitely not conservative</p>
<p>MEGA LIBERAL:
Boston Universtiy
Brown University
Columbia University
Cornell University
New York University
University of California-Berkeley
University of California-Santa Cruz
Yale University
Williams College</p>
<p>LIBERAL:
Boston College
Brandeis University
Caltech
Carnegie Mellon University
Dartmouth College
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
University of California-Irvine
University of California-Los Angeles
University of California-San Diego
University of California-Santa Barbara
University of Chicago
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Texas-Austin
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Villanova University</p>
<p>MODERATE:
Case Western Reserve University
College of William and Mary
Emory University
Johns Hopkins University
Northwestern University
Pennsylvania State University-University Park
Princeton University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rice University
Tulane University
University of California-Davis (not entirely sure about this one, could be considered Liberal)
University of Florida
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
University of Maryland-College Park
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
University of Pennsylvania
University of Southern California
Washington University-St Louis
Stanford University</p>
<p>SLIGHTLY RIGHT OF CENTER (but not conservative)
Bucknell University
Duke University
Georgetown University
Georgia Institute of Technolgy
Lehigh University
United States Air Force Academy
University of Notre Dame
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt University
United States Naval Academy
United States Military Academy
Wake Forest</p>
<p>I'm trying to think of school that come out as super conservative, but the most conservative ones are still slightly right of center with a conservative hint.</p>
<p>Oh, and when I was at Davis, our elections and politics class did a survey of Davis students on who they wanted for president, Carter, or Reagan. Anderson (the independent) won. By a landslide. I'm not sure what that makes them.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
MIT has Noam Chomsky.....that alone makes them Mega-Liberal, especially given their ridiculous divestment from Israel since Chomsky is a self-loathing Jew who hates his own people.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>There's no need for such attacks on people. Some people actual admire Chomsky and think highly of him (I do for one) so please keep your name calling to yourself.</p>
<p>I'd say the Naval/Millitary/Aor Force schools are most definitely conservative.</p>
<p>While Northwestern certainly has a good deal less liberal extremism than a Yale or Wesleyan, for example, it is a VERY heavily "mainstream" liberal-leaning school. When James Carville came to campus, the 1,000 free tickets available distributed in hours leaving standing room only. When Ken Starr came to campus, fewer than 100 could be recruited to present a respectable showing in an auditorium capable of holding multiples of that. College Democrats are effectively the only game in town.</p>
<p>Overall, the school is very politically tolerant and does not wear its liberalism on its sleeve as many others will. Students in all political and religious stripes will generally feel at home. Nonetheless, the campus slants very definitely to the “left,” left of the majority of the privates listed as “Liberal.”</p>
<p>Hmm, does anyone have stats (surveys, namely) on the political spectra for these schools (instead of general perceptions)?</p>
<p>Here's one on Berkeley (from 2005):</p>
<p>Only 12% conservative. =p</p>
<p>HSC epitomizes a conservative liberal arts college.W&L and Davidson are ok,but nowhere near the proper ambience of Hampden-Sydney.All three deserve to be much higher in the "rankings" but the blatant prejudice against the South in the peer assessment (bogus!) weighting kills them.</p>
<p>The rating isn't because it's a Southern school, it's because HSC isn't a very good school. I don't know what you mean by the "proper ambiance," except a rich, continually drunk student body, conservative student body. HSC is nowhere near the quality of W&L or Davidson. Besides, we're talking about the top 50 schools not one ranked in the 100s.</p>