<p>The usual criticism is not about English majors not reading Shakespeare, but that H/SS majors commonly criticize STEM majors as being “too narrowly focused”. Then the STEM majors point out that, at most schools, H/SS majors rarely take any substantial STEM courses (usually just “physics for poets” and “rocks for jocks” type of courses) while STEM majors have significant H/SS breadth requirements.</p>
<p>Also, sometimes STEM majors take what appears to be a substantial H/SS course that turns out to be much less rigorous than expected. Though to be fair, others deliberately seek out the “easiest A” H/SS courses – and find that selecting such courses is not difficult (even when there are no non-majors’ courses analogous to “physics for poets” or “rocks for jocks” type of courses), which leads to criticisms about the overall rigor and learning content in some H/SS departments at some schools.</p>
<p>Hmmm. Thanks to CC I like to think I’ve heard about a lot of colleges, but this top 10 list included two I’ve never heard of. First, from the description of Gordon College:</p>
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<p>And next from Christendom College:</p>
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<p>Now let’s take another look at ISI’s list of ratings criteria. Ooooh, looky here:</p>
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<p>:rolleyes: Gotcha. Political correctness is bad, but religious orthodoxy (Christian only, please) is good.</p>
<p>On a serious note, I do like the idea of providing a list of schools that are non-activist, or those that offer a strongly religious environment along with a strong intellectual environment. That’s no different than my Jewish kid looking for a good fit for her religious and intellectual interests, or another teen looking for a work/play hard school. The problem is conflating fit with a platonic ideal of “quality”. </p>
<p>The ISI’s methodology only considered 140 colleges. I wonder what the full list was, and how they came up with their 140 candidates.</p>
<p>I took a look at the majors and minors at Christendom College, and it’s eye-opening. There’s a grand total of 6 majors. Math and Science are minors, not majors, with very sparse offerings. There is no biology coursework. Not exactly what I’d expect from a list touting the virtues of a school offering a rigorous core curriculum.</p>
<p>UCSC is scolded because “the university failed to address a hostile environment for Jewish students on that campus.” Gordon College, on the other hand, offers a major in biblical studies with a concentration in Jewish Studies, though the department “prepares you to be a witness for Christ in our culture and contemporary world.”</p>
<p>Haha! This list gave me a chuckle. I like how Duke gets ranked so lowly because of one incident that didn’t affect 99.99% of the students. I bet it sure really did affect their education.</p>
<p>I’m guessing the “methodology” was giving arbitrary rankings to “Christian-friendy” or something and then adjusting the numbers to put some schools at the top of the list.</p>
<p>Not sure if they’re trying to promote half of these “train-wreck” colleges. All I know is after reading the description for College of the Holy Cross, my respect for the school increased profusely…</p>
<p>The rankings seem ridiculously arbitrary. I agree with brooklynborndad, I’d like to see a <em>real</em> train-wreck list.</p>
<p>I miss the days when article writers attempted to advance their careers by actually informing their readers rather than by saying whatever is necessary to provoke extreme responses.</p>
<p>Powerful transgender lobby? Hahaha, that’s excellent. Transgender people don’t have a stronghold at any college, or any place in the US (not even San Francisco).</p>
<p>Just a guess, but Princeton was put there for being the least liberal of the top-5 schools, its supposedly stronger conservative element, and its affiliation with the hate-mongering National Organization for Marriage (founded by professor Robert George, said to be the “most influential conservative Christian thinker today” by the NYT). And Chicago’s there for its famously conservative approach to economics. Conservatives adore Chicago for that.</p>
<p>I’m surprised they didn’t name Stanford for its affiliation with the Hoover Institution (where Robert George is a senior fellow, as are plenty of other scary people like Donald Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, and George Shultz).</p>
<p>I am REALLY surprised that DB would post such a worthless Poll on this website without investigating it first ! Or is CC now owned by a rich, right wing Christian ? tsk, tsk, tsk…</p>
<p>Because, you know, women’s issues don’t deserve to be studied, social unrest has never happened in the United States and gay people belong in prison.</p>
<p>This list gives conservatives a voice in academia. It is no secret that the overwhelming majority of American colleges have discriminated against Christian conservatives on campus for decades. These colleges have been dominated by liberal extremists since the 60s and 70s. Their ideology has shaped the worldview of most of the people who are commenting on this website. Accordingly, most of the comments on this thread show an overt prejudice against faithful Christian ideas. Many of the writers would prefer to stick with the tyranny of the majority and silence faithful Christianity. This obscure list is a small measure which helps to give conservatives a louder voice in how their children are educated. This is good for academia, free speech, and the United States as a whole.</p>
<p>My father and I are both graduates of Princeton. My son is a current junior at Christendom College and he loves it. He loves the great books approach, Socratic method, use of systematic deduction, and the Catholic culture that permeates the entire campus. He is truly well informed and happy. Christendom aims to form its students intellectually, morally, emotionally, and spiritually. They do a great job! There are many on this thread who would deny that he is earning a great education. Well, he is extremely familiar with all of the major works of Western Civilization, the unfolding of Middle Eastern, European, and American history, and can philosophize in the footsteps of Socrates, Plate, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas. He can even quote Herodotus and Cicero from memory extensively in Greek and Latin respectively. Can you? Can any Wesleyan student? The answer is an obvious “no.”</p>
I think the problem with Duke was the way the administration mishandled the issue. Remember that the entire incident was a fabrication, but Duke was happy to ignore the lack of evidence and blame the innocent students. A very poor response. </p>
<p>This particular organization (collegeguide.org) seems to be totally bogus, but Duke has lost a lot of credibility with reasonable people.</p>
<p>“Well, he is extremely familiar with all of the major works of Western Civilization, the unfolding of Middle Eastern, European, and American history, and can philosophize in the footsteps of Socrates, Plate, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas. He can even quote Herodotus and Cicero from memory extensively in Greek and Latin respectively. Can you?” </p>
<p>Big whoop! ANY graduate of the University of CHICAGO can, as can graduates from St Johns [and many other fine colleges]. BOTH are NON RELIGIOUS colleges, fyi. One does not need to go to a CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS college to study the great books. One would think a PRINCETON graduate WOULD know that!
sheesh…</p>
<p>my comments from another thread referencing this book … </p>
<p>The authors come at this with a bit of a bias. Have you read the “Choosing the Right College”? The name is a great pun … with the use of “Right”. I read the intro, which you essentially excerpt from above, and thought this might be pretty good if a student is interested in a classic liberal arts education … although schools without strict core requirements like Brown and Amherst would suffer in the ratings. However the meat of the reviews are a different story (at least to me).</p>
<p>Schools are criticized for not having a tradtional core and highly critisized for classed in women’s studies, or African-American studies, or virtually any other liberal topic … and heavily critisized if these courses can be used to fulfull reguirements. They are also cricized for not allowing diversity of thought and being biased liberal and not allowing or minimizing conservative or traditional thought. OK, I’m not sure these courses are necessarily poor options but the lack of openess to opposing views is certainly troubling and somethng about which I appreciate input.</p>
<p>Let’s follow that thought. </p>
<p>Grove City College is given credit for the rigorous hiring practices to ensure new faculty members fit into the school environment … that they fit in and do not create dissidence from the faculty … that they fit in and agree with the faculty’s Fundamentalist Christian viewpoint. </p>
<p>Grove City College is also given credit for sticky to it’s principles about it’s curriculum and not giving in to modern liberal trends and adding courses like women studies courses … somewhat Ok with this comment … extra credit for having stuck to teaching from their fundamentalist christian viewpoint.</p>
<p>So Grove City gets credit and a green light for screening faculty to ensure they agree with the mind set of the school and for ensuring all courses are taught from this viewpoint.</p>
<p>What happened to the thoughts in the intro about valuing diversity of thought and wanting a campus open to opposing viewpoints? In reality what this book is not rating that at all … it is rating how tolerate a school is of conservative ideas and how much it limits liberal views.</p>
<p>PS - even with my harsh criticism I think this guide could be useful for someone more neutral of even liberal when looking at schools. For me (very socially liberal) any school they rate with a green light would be out. However I’d be interested in why they rated a main stream school with a red or yellow light
what they consider as a negative course offering I probably consider a positive
what they consider as a negative because of imposing political correctness I would be interested in finding out more
what they consider as a negative for suppression of conservative thought I would be very interested in finding out more</p>
<p>I do think there is some prejudice against Christianity in higher ed, but rants like these hardly help with that. This list is hardly founded on “Christian principles.” College of the Holy Cross is degenerated,but Princeton and Chicago make up the top of the list and while more conservative than your average school, especially in economics with Chicago, they are hardly not liberal. Going to those schools will expose people to a whole bunch of secular people, who are, gasp, interested in gay rights and equality. Actually, one reason that people are biased against Christianity in academia is the fact that its more extreme followers go against various principles that have been established by the intellectual community, namely evolution and the aforementioned equality. A lot of Christians have moved forward into the 21st century and have accepted these ideals, but oh wait, I guess they’re not really Christians.</p>
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<p>The funny thing about really Christian liberal-arts supporters is their undying insistence that we stay firmly attached to the past, mainly the pre-1500s. Well, good for you that your son is familiar with ALL of those relevant works. If he isn’t familiar with them…well they just must not be relevant.</p>
<p>And nope, not a single Wesleyan student can. You would really know this, especially when you have not met a single one. And obviously, being able to memorize Greek and Latin is far more important to society today, than oh, having doctors or engineers.</p>