<p>Is the mix of kids at UF mostly conservative, liberal or is there a fairly even mix?</p>
<p>I would say it is a fairly even mix. Alachua county is a conservative county, but in and around the University is like another world. The level of diversity that UF brings really evens it up.</p>
<p>Sent from my Droid.</p>
<p>It’s college…most young people are more liberal.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Fixed that for ya :D</p>
<p>@watwat - oh boy, let’s not even go down that road…we like each other on here and I’d like to keep it that way. ;)</p>
<p>@watwat I beg to differ.</p>
<p>“Liberals are far better educated than other groups (48% college graduates, compared with an overall average of 27%).”
- [In</a> Search of Ideologues in America - Pew Research Center](<a href=“In Search of Ideologues in America | Pew Research Center”>In Search of Ideologues in America | Pew Research Center)</p>
<p>“Young adults who subjectively identify themselves as “very liberal” have an average IQ of 106 during adolescence while those who identify themselves as “very conservative” have an average IQ of 95 during adolescence.”
-<a href=“Liberals and atheists smarter? Intelligent people have values novel in human evolutionary history, study finds -- ScienceDaily”>http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100224132655.htm</a></p>
<p>Anyways, with republicans like Rick Santorum dominating the public sphere, it’s hard to even argue otherwise.</p>
<p>Edit: I was speaking statistically, if anyone feels like arguing go ahead, but it’d probably be better to do through PM’s than by posting in this thread. T.T sorry</p>
<p>@watwat</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s kind of unnecessary. I identify with with conservatives, and I don’t consider myself less educated. And my IQ is quite high, thank you.</p>
<p>@watwat - From what I understand UF is not a particularly liberal school, it’s pretty down the middle. In fact, from what I hear the law school even tends to lean a little right. Why would you write such an insulting, inflammatory and quite frankly ignorant post? This is not the place for it, save it for your PoliSci class. Jeez.</p>
<p>I would say it depends on the college. For example business, agriculture and to some extent engineering I would say tend to be more conservative.</p>
<p>on the other hand law, english, humanities, poli sci, art, journalism tend to be more liberal.</p>
<p>Of course this is only my opinion from many years of experience. I am sure you will find both liberals and conservatives in all schools across UF.</p>
<p>I would say with certainty that the Ag school is the most conservative. I am not sure what school to peg the most liberal tag on?</p>
<p>I did not find watwat’s post to be “insulting”. </p>
<p>This poster was simply stating that (according to some statistic this person has) the MAJORITY of the youth is Liberal. This obviously isn’t to say “EVERY young person is liberal” or “only people of low IQ’s are conservative”. There are always exceptions to every single thing in this world.</p>
<p>There is even a popular saying that goes “If you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at forty you have no brain.” This may suggest that it’s to be expected for the younger generations to be into the liberal/left movement.</p>
<p>Also UF may not represent the views of the majority of American youth, since the UF student body is a small sample and it was not drawn at random. General Statistics may not accurately answer the OP’s question concerning UF.</p>
<p>P.s- this post or the above quote (which I didn’t make up, personally) is not meant to insult liberals, or conservatives for that matter.
Just a little disclaimer</p>
<p>@PrettyPeridot - I did not find your post to be insulting at all, I thought it was well thought out and stated. However, I have to disagree with you on watwat’s post. If you read a little above you’ll see he/she “fixed” heybails post and then when she disagreed watwat posted proof by stating that “Liberals are far better educated than other groups” and that they have higher IQ’s in adolescence than their conservative counterparts. Not sure how that’s not meant to be insulting. lol. I’m all for a great political debate but I just don’t think this is the forum for it. :)</p>
<p>I’d say UF leans more liberal, which is basically shown by the fact that Democrats sweep Gainesville every year, but it’s not as liberal as most colleges. You definitely see a lot more conservative viewpoints than you would, at say, FAU.</p>
<p>@FL
wow, I skimmed that part thinking it was a quote. Ok now I see the rudeness factor lol tsk tsk
Well then I agree with you, that biased statement was uncalled for.</p>
<p>Seems pretty liberal. College Democrats have a huge campus presence. There are a lot of international students, minorities, and passionate groups for Democrats. Especially being at a public university, there are a lot of shenanigans and protests etc. relating to the state government and education.</p>
<p>However, you still get a good number of Republicans. They just don’t seem to be as publicized.</p>
<p>Yeah, definitely… Just the fact that the school is in the south, and a generally conservative state speaks to the fact that there’s probably a lot of republicans compared to other colleges at least.</p>
<p>By the way what did I say that was biased? Everything was number based ;_;</p>
<p>@watwat
Do you honestly think you weren’t insinuating anything? At all? You weren’t out suggest even for a moment that liberals are not more “educated” in the “college” sense but rather liberals are more educated in the “smart” sense, and smart in the everyday terms we see smart as? </p>
<p>And the science daily quote and comment had no bearing on this conversation. It was tangentially related, at best. I can’t imagine what an unbiased person would use it for.</p>
<p>And lets say you weren’t out to suggest even the slightest bit of bias, you can’t see even the slight possibility of how anyone on this forum could see that sort of bias?</p>
<p>I’m obviously showing at least a slight amount of bias, which is why I wouldn’t be shocked if someone came back and tried countering anything I said. If I were on a different forum and said, in a relevant conversation, “I have 5 fingers, and according a Gallup poll 99.99% of people also have 5 fingers” </p>
<p>I would be truly shocked, if the forum started telling me I was biased, because of the previous statement, because I don’t see any traces of bias in it. Are you saying you feel this same shock? </p>
<p>There were ways to use the exact sources you mentioned with little to no bias in them.
here’s how I would’ve done it with minimal bias(maybe not the best way, but just an example):</p>
<p>“Liberals are far better educated than other groups (48% college graduates, compared with an overall average of 27%).”</p>
<p>Since liberals seem to have a larger proportion of college graduates, its not unreasonable to assume that in college, liberals would make up also larger proportion of the student body. Since it’s quite possible that when those liberals were in college, they were also liberals. It’s highly possible that UF does follow this same pattern.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I can’t see how the the science daily quote could ever enter if I were trying to maintain a neutral stance while trying to help the OP.</p>
<p>and this would be impossible, I think, for anyone:
No bias? Not one bit of bias is present in this statement? You can’t imagine how anyone would see any bias? And that’s completely statistical based statement? Where are the statistics? Just placing a random quote above it, doesn’t support it. When you said that Liberals have higher IQs according to THIS study, you meant intelligence quotient? Not being sensible or smart?</p>
<p>
Please, don’t say that you don’t see even a milligram of bias. </p>
<p>You’re so fazed by the responses, that you cannot control your curiosity, and have decided to come out and ask the people themselves? </p>
<p>
Do you really mean that? I’m shocked right now, seriously.</p>
<p>If you were really out to be “unbiased”, as you have suggested, (since apparently you are at least slightly shocked by the response) I don’t think you would’ve said that statement, at all.</p>
<p>And I’m not saying, I’m against voicing your opinions, but I do think that (1) it should be done in a relevant forum, and (2)at least don’t hide the fact that what you’ve said it biased.</p>
<p>Ah yes, my mistake, I didn’t think people were complaining about the Santorum opinion part and honestly forgot I had said it. </p>
<p>I have to say though–
“You’re so fazed by the responses, that you cannot control your curiosity, and have decided to come out and ask the people themselves?”</p>
<p>You come off with an extreme dramatic heir… All I did was post on a forum I check frequently, I didn’t walk ten miles, I didn’t even spend more than 2 minutes writing a post. It’s the internet ;)</p>
<p>Also I meant IQ… Because I said IQ… And although I definitely do think that liberals have more sense than conservatives, that was not the point of that statistic.</p>
<p>
Ahaha, yes that was my inherent… you know what.</p>
<p>
I must confess, I am curious about the point of the statistic.</p>
<p>@Watwat, </p>
<p>Your argument makes no sense. Just because you didn’t walk ten miles (has nothing to do with posting something?) or only took two minutes to post it, doesn’t mean that the post was any less biased or any more relevant.</p>
<p>And, once again, you’re bringing personal opinion into the matter. The topic’s question was not: “What’s your opinion of conservatives versus liberals?” The OP just wanted to know if the school leans politically in either direction. </p>
<p>As for your belief that liberals have more sense than conservatives, that’s utter nonsense. Some of the most brilliant minds the world has ever seen have been conservative, and vice versa. Some of the most sensible, intelligent people I know are conservative. And some of the most sensible, intelligent people I know are liberal too.</p>
<p>And I am curious about the point of the statistic as well. Or the point of either of the statistics. Now if you cited whether UF was more liberal or more conservative, that would be fine. But once again, this was not an opinion question.</p>