<p>I got an email today about Grinnell's homepage on a site called *****. The site is really cool and has a bunch of reviews written by students. However, one student review really worried me:</p>
<p>"If you'd like to have your liberal values reinforced, Grinnell is the place for you. If you'd rather form your own worldview, look for another college. Grinnell is very similar to fundamentalist Christian colleges in that anyone who has the audacity to challenge the liberal party line is ostracized and belittled. However, there is a small minority of moderate students, though they're often viewed as a foreign species. "</p>
<p>Can anyone confirm/deny the above statement?</p>
<p>Edit: why does cc bleep out the website where I found this review?</p>
<p>The majority of students are very liberal at Grinnell. That being said, they will respect other political views a lot. Republicans are not left out or have no social life, Grinnell is very accepting about different ideas. I recently read an article about Grinnell in which it said they were seeing a rise in conservative students. Its teaching in no way forces you to choose one political view or another. Please do not let one student who sounds like he doesn't know what he is talking about discourage you from grinnell, it is an amazing school.</p>
<p>There is a Republican Club there, I think. No question that more students are left-leaning than right leaning, but I don't think it is as the reviewer describes. My son is very left-of-center and I know he's had friends of all political persuasions. I'd be interested to hear about this from others though, who have more direct experience than I do.</p>
<p>I'm actually an editor at the site you're writing about here (U-ni-go, minus the dashes). I think the thing to remember when reading these student reviews is that they are more representative of someone's personal experience rather than the school at large. They are not meant to reflect the school or student body absolutely. </p>
<p>These reviews are very subjective...but also, that's kind of the point. We felt that you couldn't generalize people's college experiences by putting schools in categories such as "liberal" or "conservative" because even in the most liberal schools, there will be pockets of conservatives. </p>
<p>Anyway, the best way to take these reviews is to read a whole bunch of them (as well as the summaries, which are composed of quotes from student reviews) and come away with a general impression informed by many student opinions. </p>
<p>If you have any other questions about the site, please feel free to get in touch directly.
My email is <a href="mailto:Julia@u-ni-go.com">Julia@u-ni-go.com</a><a href="again,%20please%20remove%20dashes">/email</a>.</p>
<p>I think your site sounds great and I agree that if you get input from enough people, you can get a pretty accurate idea of what a school is like. Even at a great school, some kids won't have a great experience. Similarly on the site that rates professors, you need to read all the reviews and not put too much weight on any one review.</p>
<p>Dottikance, one way to get a quick feel for a school is to read the student newspaper. The back issues are usually on-line, and you only need to look at half a dozen to get a feel for the views of the student body, their concerns, and the kinds of activities that are taking place on campus. I wouldn't look at just one issue-provocative perspectives are likely to get more air-time-but over the course of a year, you will begin to get a feel for what students care about most.</p>
<p>i don't get why CC is even kinda competing with u-ni-go bc they do two different things. CC is great for specific questions and u-ni-go is great to get an extremely wholistic view of a school.</p>
<p>Grinnell College is a very liberal school as is Oberlin, Wesleyan, Swarthmore, Vassar, Carleton, Macalester & Smith among many others. Bucknell, Colgate, Washington & Lee, Furman University & St. Lawrence University are much more conservative.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the input, everyone! During my college search I've been trying to keep an eye out for colleges that aren't defined as either liberal or conservative but just have a mix of viewpoints. Unfortunately they all seem to be classified as one or the other! So now I'm just steering clear of the ones that seem to be well-known for being extremely politically slanted. I didn't think Grinnell fell into that category, and everyone here has reassured me of that.</p>