I am currently a high school junior in New Jersey, and I am interested in going to college down south. My issue is that I am fairly liberal and not very preppy, so I am wondering how I would fit into southern colleges.
Some colleges I was looking into was North Carolina State University, Elon University, University of South Carolina, Clemson University, Tulane University, and University of Alabama.
Just to gage on what kind of student I am in case you have any suggestions on other colleges, I have a 3.77 GPA, got a 33 on my ACTs, and have strong extracurriculars.
All of these except for Tulane are southern conservative/moderate and preppy. Tulane is mostly northeastern kids like you anyways haha and NOLA is a liberal city. I would suggest most schools in Florida like U of Miami. Again pretty liberal and northern. Also maybe UT Austin and Rice. Theyre in Texas but Austin is a liberal city. Rice is like a liberal bubble in Houston. All great schools. Rice would be reach for you though, not because your stats are bad, just because its so freaking competitive.
Rather than random generalizations you can review student surveys. Look on college niche for each school in the diversity ranking. If you scroll down you can see the political breakdown for each school.
@Sam998@intparent Mostly for the weather, and California schools are tough because they seldom accept out of state students. Why do you regret it @sam998 ??
California schools are tough because they seldom accept out of state students
There are plenty of private schools in California, and you have already listed some private schools you are interested in. What about the Claremont Consortium schools (5Cs)? You might get some merit aid at Scripps, and Pitzer is in range for you. Occidental is another option.
@wisteria100@julie846 Part of it is just the usual homesickness issue, I wish I didn’t go so far away. Specific to the South, however, is just the fact that it’s a region characterized by under-development and I am not fond of Southern culture. As for the first part of that, I always describe it to people back home by asking them to picture the most “Southern” place they can think of, and the most “Northeastern” place they can think of. Most of them picture some rural, poor place in the South and most of them think of some affluent suburb when picturing a place in the Northeast. Frankly, having lived in both areas now I find that kind of stereotyping to be accurate. There are certainly countless exceptions in both cases, but I’ve found Winston-Salem to be a dump and even though I never lived in a nice suburb or anything I sure do miss being surrounded by them back home. As for Southern culture, it’s a hard thing to describe but it’s just not for me. I don’t like the accent, the fanaticism around sports and the intense fraternity culture (both of which I believe to be more intense in the South), the supposed “hospitality”, and I feel that beyond those things there is definitely a component that I am incapable of putting into words but which I dislike. None of this is to say I have a problem with Southern people, my grandmother and her husband live right by Raleigh and I often visit them. My step-mom is from Birmingham, Alabama and I love her very much. But having lived here for the better part of an academic year (which I think is a fair amount of time albeit not enough to give me a complete perspective) I just don’t like the region.
@coffeebreaks I’ll admit I don’t have much basis for comparison, but I think if you want to see the general political climate at Wake you ought to look at some of the things that have occurred on campus recently. I believe it was just last year that they began the “Bias Report” system, which garnered national attention (I actually used it once to report a student intent on starting a group to be known as “The Wake Forest Black Panther Party” and nothing ever happened to the best of my knowledge). We have had multiple guest speakers come to talk about the black lives matter movement, opposition to the Confederate flag, being “out” as LGBT, and other issues that most consider liberal. Both this year and last, students have written messages in chalk on the lower quad decrying Wake as “White Forest” along with other messages that would be unusual on a more conservative campus. You’re right that the school isn’t especially diverse, but I get the impression that both the students and the administration have gone out of their way to outgrow their perception as a school in the old South. I think that in doing so they’ve overcompensated for it and have created a culture of political correctness, although it pains me to use terminology like that because I think the term is thrown around a lot.
My niece went to Clemson and is now in medical school. She is from the south but liberal, parents are transplanted northerners. She did well at Clemson obviously but she knew what to expect going in. She befriended several students who told her she was the only atheist they’d ever met, and how surprising it was that she was “normal” and furthermore that they couldn’t tell just by looking at her (expecting horns?? I don’t know).