Schools for a Cerebral, Liberal Jock

<p>Students don't walk between the campuses at UM. There are buses every few minutes, it seems; it's a way of life and no big deal! The north campus, which was an underpopulated outpost in my undergrad days, is now a thriving campus in its own right.</p>

<p>I didn't see anyone suggest Notre Dame (though I may have missed it). Definitely cerebral and athletic, and despite being a Catholic college is both comfortable for non-catholics and fairly liberal.</p>

<p>Notre Dame liberal? Compared to what...BYU? I don't think most people would consider Notre Dame anything but a conservative Catholic school.</p>

<p>Another plug for Dartmouth where my S who interned on a presidential campaign this summer (Democrat) has been very happy.</p>

<p>^^^I haven't had any experience with Notre Dame in a long time, but back when my H taught there for a short while, the faculty and administration were indeed quite liberal. The student body seemed rather unpolitical to me.</p>

<p>I have plenty of friends and students who attended ND - it is indeed a rather liberal campus, speaking from a rather liberal point of view.</p>

<p>Do people on this board think the "Students' Guide to Colleges" is accurate? In that guide, students rate ND, Vanderbilt, Duke, Georgetown and Colgate as leaning toward the right. Northwestern and Dartmouth are "split". Of the colleges on my son's list, just Michigan, Wisconsin and Cal - three huge schools - were rated by students as left-leaning.</p>

<p>Should my son look at Bucknell? How about Syracuse as a safety?</p>

<p>I would agree with the above political evaluations of the college mentioned.</p>

<p>Correction: Michigan and Wisconsin are also "split" in how they lean politically. Seems as if UC Berkeley is the only bona fide cerebral, liberal jock school.</p>

<p>Most colleges are split if they are big enough. The vast majority of colleges are also left-leaning, due to the fact that college-age students tend to be left-leaning. So when someone says a college "leans to the right," you have to determine whether that's in relation to colleges in general, society in general, or the region in particular.</p>

<p>I'd say the majority at Northwestern are liberal, as well. They may not be "crunchy" liberals, but they lean left. There's a decent conservative contingent there, too - a minority but established.</p>

<p>I'm from the Chicago area, so I'm rather familiar with regional schools such as Northwestern and Notre Dame, hence my comments.</p>