Hello.
I would be very grateful for suggestions of colleges that do not have a liberal bias.
Thank you,
spruce123
Good luck finding one! ?
Just kidding. Kind of. Can you give more detail on your program of study, geographic preference, SAT/ACT, and budget?
A commuter-based college will have less political activity of any kind on campus. Students commute to the college, attend classes, and go home (and do whatever political activities they may do from home).
People of college student age generally do lean somewhat left compared to the general adult population.
However, what kind of conservative one is matters in how you may experience the political environment. Fiscal / economic conservatives, foreign policy / national security conservatives, religious conservatives, and alt-right conservatives may encounter politics differently (on campus or otherwise).
Hello OhiBro,
Thank you for your reply.
I would welcome almost any sort of suggestion.
Thank you,
spruce123
Hello ucbalumnus,
Thank you for replying.
What I meant by “conservative” in this case, is someone who holds general conservative values (not involved in activism).
Just google conservative colleges and you’ll get a list. A good analysis of the political scene at colleges can be found at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. They used to publish a college guide similsrvto Fiske’s but focused on discussion of the political atmosphere and teachings of colleges
Liberty and BYU come immediately to mind.
Niche has a list of conservative schools.
Here’s a start:
Many conservative colleges are going to be religious, such as BYU, Biola, Pepperdine, Baylor, College of the Ozarks, Wheaton IL, Liberty, U Utah
Non-religious schools that are on the conservative side: US Service Academies, Washington and Lee, TAMU, Virginia Military Institute, Norwich, many of the UNC system schools.
University of Utah is public and not religious.
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Still, a dry campus and has a not insignificant proportion of LDS students.
Hillsdale. Constitutionally based conservatism regarding government and its purposes, structures and America as a republic. States rights and all that. It’s not a religious school and personal freedoms etc are respected.
The refuse any and all federal funding. College President Dr Larry Arne is a very well regarded academic and appears weekly each Friday on Hugh Hewitt national radio show (the only conservative with a show on MSNBC). He is very measured and impressive.
You should look at some his commentary on line.
Hillsdale offers a free on line class on the constitution.
If that’s not what you’re looking for the posters above make some great recommendations. Pepperdine too. Probably most schools of mining and engineering are too focused on studies to be big time activists. With the notable exceptions.
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I’ve probably been exposed in some form or fashion to less than 1% of American colleges, but Hillsdale College is easily the most conservative I have seen. Milton Friedman, von Mises, etc. Noted conservative Pat Sajak from Wheel of Fortune is some sort of ambassador.
More conservative leaning relatively speaking: Washington Lee, Baylor and all your SEC schools. Samford (Stamford) in Alabama, Clemson, SMU, TCU. Look in the south.
Texas A&M.
Dartmouth and Princeton are among the more conservative of the Ivies (admittedly a decidedly liberal group), and Chicago is publicly dedicated to allowing all points of view on campus. In California, both Chapman and Pepperdine may be of interest. Most large schools have enough students to have all types, and pre-professional schools with an emphasis on engineering or business usually have a cadre of conservative students.
It’s sad to see this kind of threads from time to time. Isn’t college about being exposed to new ideas, different ideas, and even flawed or mistaken ideas? Isn’t it better to have an open mind to critically examine any ideas, including your own? Why self-segregate? Do you really want to live in your own cocoon?
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BYU.
It has a strong religious affiliation. The LDS community tends to be very conservative in political beliefs and personal behavior (w.r.t. drinking, drugs, etc.) However, LDS doctrine wouldn’t necessarily be at odds with scientific consensus on issues such as evolution or climate change. BYU’s sticker price is relatively low even for non-LDS students. The academic quality seems to be fairly high. Of the USNWR top 100 national universities, few if any are likely to be considered more conservative.
Wheaton College in Illinois is a smaller school that also has a strong religious affiliation and good academic reputation.
Most state universities in the rural midwest or deep south, with the possible exception of some of the flagships, would tend to reflect their Red State ties. They may have some professors and students you’d consider rather liberal, but most are large enough that any perceived liberal bias should be fairly easy to avoid.
You also might want to consider the military service academies, some engineering/technical schools, or virtually any of so-called Christian Colleges (in addition to Wheaton). Among highly selective/prestigious colleges, Washington & Lee seems to be one of the most conservative.
You may want to keep in mind that most US colleges are institutionally neutral with respect to political doctrine. If we’re talking about core beliefs associated with the institutional mission, virtually all the exceptions seem to be conservative, religious, or (usually) both. So your safest strategy may be to seek out one those exceptions (that is, a school with an explicit conservative bias) rather than try to avoid a perceived liberal bias that can’t be predicted easily from mission statements or policy.
The mission statement has very little if anything to do with the reality of life on most US college campuses, nor are most colleges actually institutionally neutral anywhere except in their mission statement. Nice try, though
Generally it would be worthwhile to ignore the colleges’ marketing materials often written by well paid ad agencies and actually speak to students when evaluating a campus
@1NJParent , if this student is looking for more conservative colleges, I say fair enough. We see tons of threads from students wanting suggestions for liberal campuses. I myself am an ardent liberal, btw.
OP, there are plenty of colleges that are more conservative or not super liberal. Liberty, IMO is extreme, as are some of the others mentioned here. You can do a search on CC for threads addressing your question, or look up some lists, etc… Colleges that come to mind, for me, are mostly in the South. I’m thinking of Clemson, Washington and Lee, Davidson, most in Texas and other Southern states, Gettysburg, Baylor, U of South Carolina, and U Alabama. Lots of others too.
In general, the more selective the college, the more likely you are to find a mix of all kinds of political views. The colleges I mentioned above probably lean more politically conservative than socially conservative, but I don’t know for sure. If you’re looking for socially conservative schools, look at some that are associated with religions.