@marvin100 Well, secular privates in MA tend to lean very, very left. Williams is more middle of the ground, IMO, and certainly has a conservative presence strong enough for me to notice when I visited. I cannot say the same of, say, Tufts or Smith. Which secular, private university in MA would you consider more conservative? Perhaps Bentley or Babson, but that has a lot to do with their heavy business focus; they’re unique.
That being said, the only truly right-leaning schools (vs middle of the ground) in MA that I can think of are religious.
Almost every college in the South–Washington and Lee, for example. Or one in the West: Pepperdine. How about Dartmouth? Or Princeton? I guess you could make an argument that Williams is more conservative than those last two, but it’s debatable at the very least.
Holy Cross would be a great choice and unlike most LAC’S, Holy Cross is near a big city-Boston. Most top LAC’S are located in very remote parts of the country. HC has strong science program and meets 100% demonstrated financial need.
Note that if you prefer conservative in terms of personal behavior, be aware that some of the schools named in this thread are known for being very wet, where parties with lots of alcohol are seen as a major form of social activity.
@ucbalumnus From what I’ve heard, drinking parties won’t affect daily lives of students as much. Those should be pretty easy to avoid if I stay away from certain places, stay away from frats and stuff, or hang out with the right guys. I’m mainly concerned about activism on campus and events that are highly noticeable and unavoidable.
A small rural school with little to do around the area and where most students join fraternities and sororities may be a socially isolating place if you do not care for parties with alcohol.
It should be a lot easier to avoid political activism than it is to avoid a rowdy party in the next dorm room with drunks vomiting in the gang bathroom while you are trying to get some sleep.
“a rowdy party in the next dorm room with drunks vomiting in the gang bathroom while you are trying to get some sleep.”
It’s entirely possible to spend four years at a college of the general type you describe without ever having such an experience. Individuals may over-indulge to the point of sickness; but pervasive, inconsiderate group abuse of alcohol is not the common ethos in a residence hall setting.
I realize that it may simply have been hyperbolic phrasing, but I have to question the “always” here, especially since it seems an important word in the context of the entire post. I would suggest that this is a blatant and unwarranted overgeneralization, and quite possibly serves mainly to reflect a bias on the part of the person making the observation about the relative value of tolerance, as well as what tolerance actually means.
(I’d also like to gently remind everyone that the term “politically correct” actually originally emerged as a joking, self-deprecatory term among some on the left. How it made the journey from there to a rather dismissive term used mainly by those on the right is actually a fascinating story in language change.)
Colgate, Holy Cross, Bucknell. I think you’d find they are all, as a previous poster put it, “middle tone” schools, where a range of people can feel comfortable, but certainly leaning more towards the traditional vs. the radical.
(I’d also like to gently remind everyone that the term “politically correct” actually originally emerged as a joking, self-deprecatory term among some on the left. How it made the journey from there to a rather dismissive term used mainly by those on the right is actually a fascinating story in language change.)
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Just have to cheer at this, @dfbdfb – Finally, someone else who remembers how it all started! (It was an in joke. Really.)
I’d think that many mid-sized schools with strong science / techie / engineering programs would fit the bill. People who are going to school to be neuroscientists, doctors or engineers aren’t generally all that big on centering their college experience around organizing protests around gender-neutral bathroom issues. Northwestern? CWRU? Carnegie Mellon? Lots of choices, really, since mainly OP is keen on not being in a mega-liberal environment, and that’s more likely to be a defining characteristic at smaller liberal arts schools with a humanities focus anyway. At most mid-sized schools there are just more people to begin with, and I think you’d easily find a diversity of people and viewpoints.
@MomOnALaptop There are a lot of choices that are not liberal arts colleges, which is why I’m asking on this forum specifically about LACs. It’s a hard question lol, which is why I’m relying on you all!
@dfbdfb I apologize for using the word “always”. Most of the time I refrain from using words like always and never but I guess I just forgot to read over the comment before posting!
In addition to some already named, take a look at St. Olaf, Whitman, Denison, and Lawrence for excellent liberal arts programs that are a little more centrist than the Oberlins and Swarthmores of the world.
Earlham is a Quaker college. Although they will frown on intense partying, and may provide a comfortable setting for a social conservative, you can expect the prevailing outlooks to lean well to the left.