<p>I visited UCB yesterday for Cal day, I had an okay time, but all the posters said rubbish like: "Bush lied, our sons lied", which were pasted all over the walls, among other usual liberal stuff. On almost every corner of the fair there was some guy handing out "Impeach Bush" flyers, and a lot of the clubs there were liberal groups. I saw "Asian Democrats" "Muslim Democrats" "African American Democrats Club" and a bunch more, yet nothing to do with Republicans or any conservative clubs. It annoyed me that there were so many little booths dedicated to selling liberal pins and teeshirts ("I think, therefore I am a liberal"). I know that UCB was the center of hippie movement, and from what I just saw, the school must be as liberal as it ever was before. Could a guy like me, a conservative, handle such an environment, if I was accepted? </p>
<p>Well you know CA is largely liberal and yet there are active groups of Republicans making a point so I'm sure in a school as big as Cal, you'll be able to find a niche somehow.</p>
<p>Cal is no more liberal than most top 20 university. If you want a top university that is slightly more conservative, check out Notre Dame, Georgetown, Vanderbilt and Duke. But even those schools are pretty liberal, just not as liberal.</p>
<p>sure you can, depending on the major. If you plan on majoring in xx studies, then the profs are gonna be left of marx. If you major in econ, profs will be on both sides of the aisle. In the sciences, it doesn't much matter since many science students are apolitical (except for Enviro). Of course, the B-school is not very liberal.</p>
<p>The Young Republican club is good size, and worth checking out. You just have to ignore the prosteltyzers that don't suit you.</p>
<p>Ok, first of all. Notre Dame is not a liberal school. Its definitely moderate. And also, I chose ND over NYU/GWU because I felt that as a conservative, I did not want to have to deal with petty protests for four years. Alot of it is very immature and juvenile counter culturish stuff. I felt that I wanted an environment that I could be relaxed in and have decent fair discussions without having "Bush lied".... signs all around me constantly. Its a decision you have to make, but what other schools are you thinking about? If you are a conservative and think anything like me, you might want to consider other schools. While it is true that different departments tilt towards different sides of the aisle, UCB is just so immersed in liberalism that it affects every aspect of the school.</p>
<p>UCB isn't that liberal, actually. Their reputation from the 70s is what extends this stereotype more than anything else. Sure, liberal groups are more commonplace on campus. However, you have to realize: MOST colleges are liberal.</p>
<p>Cal is about as moderate as it is liberal, with a significant conservative minority. It's maybe 40-40-20. Half of the students are from southern California, which by and large is fairly conservative. The greek system has a lot of conservative students.</p>
<p>So basically, you will definitely find a conservative niche on campus, but you will be in the minority. Whether you can handle this is your choice.</p>
<p>You'd be surprised. At very liberal institutions the conservative voice is often louder and more influential in its activity because of its minority presence. Predominantly liberal institutions tend to suffer from preaching to the choir, leading to apathy and/or reduced enthusiasm.</p>
<p>i live 20 minutes away from uc berkeley and know alot of people attending that school and will go.. every single one is along the line of moderate and never really seem to be that outspoken about their political views. the city of berkeley however, great as it is, is the most liberal place i have been in my entire life. and there are still alot of hippies at berkeley- but there are so many people there that you dont really have to associate with them anyways. the sorority and frat thing is huge at their school too.</p>
<p>The Berkeley Democrats that I saw must have been the most disorganized collection of a club I've ever seen. I also didn't see all those variants of Democrats you were talking about.</p>
<p>True enough, the Berkeley Republicans didn't have a booth (at least none that I could find), but about 1/6 of the clubs I ran into were variants of various Christian clubs. </p>
<p>Berkeley is not very liberal, at least not compared to most of the other top 20 schools.</p>
<p>The most liberal groups I could find around were human rights groups, protesting genocide in Africa and whatnot, which I think few would take very much exception to.</p>