<p>Are southern colleges more unwelcoming (racist-ish) than colleges up north? Would a liberal democratic, northern student fit in at a southern school? (Vanderbilt, Rice,Duke, UNC etc.)
How are their culture different or is the culture even that different?</p>
<p>I don't mean to be ignorant or stereotypical of the south but I've never lived there, therefore I don't really know their culture well.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Most colleges and universities are liberal, even in the south. The schools you listed are located in the south, but they all draw students nationwide. You wouldn’t be a fish out of water at any of them.</p>
<p>My liberal kiddos were quite fine in the southern schools. They looked at every one in your OP plus others (Emory, etc), and attended Rice and Tulane. Quite fine.</p>
<p>The OP didn’t ask about politics, jym626. He/she asked about racism.</p>
<p>The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education did a ranking of colleges for “their relative success in attracting, enrolling, and graduating African-American students as well as their progress in bringing black professors to their campuses. Universities are ranked according to a blending of 13 widely accepted quantitative measures of institutional racial integration.”</p>
<p>The ranking:</p>
<p>1. Duke University
2. Emory University
3. Princeton University
4. Washington University in St. Louis
5. Vanderbilt University
6. UNC Chapel Hill
7. Georgetown University
8. Harvard University
9. University of Virginia
10. Brown University
11. Columbia University
12. Stanford University
13. Yale University
14. Rice University
15. Cornell University
16. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
17. University of Pennsylvania
18. Dartmouth College
19. University of Michigan
20. UC Berkeley
21. Northwestern University
22. University of Notre Dame
23. Carnegie Mellon University
24. Johns Hopkins University
25. California Institute of Technology
26. University of Chicago</p>
<p>sligh Anarchist:The op asks
and I answered. The term “racist-ish”, whatever that implies, was used, but it seems to ask about open-mindedness. Thats my take and I have zero intention of getting into any discussion on “racism”. Please don’t go there.</p>
<p>There’s some conflation between liberal and the absence of racism. I’d be really happy to talk to you about the history of the Democrat party, if you’d like. </p>
<p>Bottom line, the conflation is insulting to Southerners who may not be Democrat.</p>
<p>No thanks, sligh. I am a transplanted northerner. Born and raised in the NE, now living in the south. I am familiar with the terms I am using in reference to the OPs question. I understood the question and answered it accordingly. Please do not twist this into something is isn’t.</p>
<p>There is a reason the South is known for its hospitality. You’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Well, on my USC Class of 2015 facebook page, I’ve seen posts from blacks, whites, Asians, and Hispanics. I’ve added/been added by all.</p>
<p>And… in my South Carolina neighborhood I have whites, blacks, and Hispanics as immediate neighbors.</p>
<p>Our culture is very different in some ways and not that different in other ways. I know that we have a bunch of yankees coming to USC and I had some friends in high school who were transplants. They all basically said the same things. They don’t understand why random strangers wave at them when they pass them or why we literally have a church on every street corner… basic things like that.</p>
<p>I’d recommend visiting the schools that you’re interested in and the cities/towns that they’re located in. You should get a good feel for what it’d be like to spend time there. In my experience, colleges and college towns tend to be much more liberal than most actual southern towns. I say this, because I’ve grown up in a college town in South Carolina that has a strong (not majority though) liberal population. Almost all of my friends who have parents who are professors at the colleges are left-sided. South Carolina, as a whole, is overwhelmingly right-sided though. So, like I said, I think you should just visit the campuses that you’re considering and just get a feel for the environment. :)</p>
<p>As a very liberal person who mostly grew up in the south, moved away, and came back again…</p>
<p>If you’re really liberal, small things can get irritating (like the anti-Obama bumper stickers, stupid political commercials, etc). They’re small things and easily ignored. </p>
<p>College campuses are usually pretty liberal. Look up student reviews, visit the campuses, or just learn as much as possible about the area before committing, same as with any other new area. </p>
<p>The culture, etc is different, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Like AUgirl said, people will occasionally randomly wave at you from the side of the road, and almost always have a smile and a friendly greeting waiting. </p>
<p>Racism isn’t as prevalent as it used to be, as the south is a pretty diverse place. It’s usually not a huge issue. </p>
<p>It’s really beautiful down here and I highly recommend that you visit the schools and get a feel for Southern Living.</p>
<p>Just watch out for the tornados, hurricanes and all around brutal weather</p>
<p>I agree with Princess Mahina in the fact that certain things can get annoying, such as bumper stickers, etc. I’ve lived in Texas my whole life and am very liberal, and find my surroundings in Texas extraordinarily irritating at times. However, Austin (UT) is a pretty liberal city. Yes, many folks here are Conservative and are very unwilling to listen to other views. However I will note that people in the south are some of the nicest people around - ever heard of southern hospitality? Just like anywhere, you’ll find people you like, and some you don’t.</p>
<p>This may come off wrong, but I hope people see my point.</p>
<p>Once you cross over from the poor and uneducated people to the educated and well off people in the south, there is a big difference in personality and willingness to accept others. Sure, you’ll meet a few you are still racist, but since you are going for education you wont come in contact with many of the people you are thinking of.</p>
<p>You’ll obviously have very different political beliefs as compared to the average person who lives in the city/state/area that the campus is located, but the thing is, at the top universities people come from all over the world to learn. You wont get along with all of them, but there will be enough people there to guarantee you make friends with enough of them even if you dont share the same political ideas.</p>
<p>Emory is known as a northern school in the south. We have a huge jewish population from the northeast. Its a very welcoming school in terms of race. One thing that I have found is that some of the top frats/sororties tend to be have few minorities at Vanderbilt and Duke. The greek scene at Vanderbilt and Duke seems to be dominated by white southern protestant kids. Emory’s frats/sororities, even though they are traditionally white frats/sororities, they still tend to have a significant minority of jewish kids/asian kids/black kids in their greek houses.</p>
<p>Bottom line you probably won’t experience any racism at any of these schools. This isn’t the 1800s. However if you want greek life to be a major part of your life while you are in college, just know that some frats/sororities may seem racially exclusive at Vandy and Duke. I am not saying that if you go to Duke/Vanderbilt you won’t be able to join one of the top frats on campus, just know that usually these top frats at both schools don’t have a whole lot of minorities.</p>
<p>Rice doesn’t have the Greek system, it relies on a residential college system.</p>
<p>Good call by Colleges 00701 bringing up the Greek system. In my experience, even at liberal universities like my own (UNC), the Greek system is very much still strongly conservative. This is a good thing, as it helps balance out the liberalness of the school and creates diversity of thought amidst the classrooms. </p>
<p>Bottom line is, no matter what your race or political affiliation, you’ll be able to find people who you have many similarities with, but you’ll also be able to find people who are different from you in thought and in appearance yet who still respect you and value what it is that you have to say. This isn’t unique to the South, but I think people sometimes overlook this.</p>
<p>
Racism exists everywhere. Off the top of my head, I can think of several fiascos:</p>
<ul>
<li>The racist Christmas carol at Tufts</li>
<li>The “South of the border” party at Santa Clara</li>
<li>The “Halloween in the hood” party at Johns Hopkins</li>
</ul>
<p>I think it’s more fair to say you are unlikely to encounter more racism at southern colleges than at any others.</p>
<p>
That is true of KA at Duke. The other frats, not so much. </p>
<p>Southern - I wouldn’t say Greek life is composed of people from any particular geographic area. It’s pretty mixed, and students from the Northeast are certainly well represented.</p>
<p>Protestant - Again, I wouldn’t say this is true, particularly because Duke has a large Catholic population. It is perhaps more viable to say that Christianity and Judaism (e.g. AEPi) are predominant, but most agnostics and atheists feel quite comfortable (this fit many of my friends). </p>
<p>White - This part is, unfortunately, true. I can only think of a single frat that doesn’t have at least one URM in it, but the demographics of Greek organizations are at odds with those of Duke as a whole. I think this has less to do with any sort of “exclusivity” and more to do with self-selection – for whatever reason, many black and Asian students at Duke simply don’t care to join the Greek scene. I’m not very familiar with Emory’s Greek scene, but glancing through the website, the photos seem to indicate Duke and Emory have similar demographics in their Greek organizations.</p>
<p>Greek life at Duke varies…there are some high profile groups that are pretty selective, and there’s others that are pretty laidback and open. One, for example, is at least 50% marching band members and gamers by composition. Most Greek parties, of course, are open to all students, and those are more diverse than the organizations themselves.</p>
<p>
LOL. But don’t worry about too many blizzards or ice storms. Enjoy sending your northern friends, who are bundled up in their ski jackets, hats and gloves in Dec-Feb or so, pictures of yourself by the pool :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Maybe not the blizzards… but ice storms suck in the south. If you lose your power, there’s a good chance you won’t have it back on for days, if not weeks. Whenever it snows here, everything shuts down. If snow covers the roads, it is dangerous to drive. Up north, you have snow plows. Down south, most counties don’t own any type of equipment and the equipment that the state owns is very limited. We have to wait for everything to melt. I know plenty of people who move here and say “Oh. I know how to drive in bad weather and you’ll only get a few inches of snow.” What they don’t realize is that where they’re from, the roads actually get cleared, making it safe to drive on. Here in the south, they basically do nothing.</p>
<p>I say this from experience. Every county in my area of the state was closed for a Monday-Friday earlier this year from snow that fell Sunday night and just sat there for a week. The temperature didn’t go back up like it usually does, so the snow sat there for a week and there was no way for the roads to get cleared. If it does melt through the day, it freezes at night and they you end up with black ice.</p>
<p>Obviously it doesn’t happen very often and it depends on where you are. You also won’t be at the pool in December-February unless it is heated. It does actually get cold here… just not as cold as up north. But I’ve seen it snow in as late as March three out of the past four years. Our ice storms have usually been around November or December.</p>
<p>That being said, I’ve never had any problems with tornadoes or hurricanes. haha. It really depends on where you end up living.</p>
<p>I don’t know where you are in the south, but I’ve been here for 40 years or so and have NEVER been out of power for more than a few hours. That said, I lived through some pretty long blackouts up north when I was growing up. When I was in grad school I was further south than I am now-- was at the pool 12 mos/yr (but summer was pretty darned hot). Our neighborhood pool is closed labor day-memorial day, but there are apt complexes with pools open most of the year.</p>