<p>I agree with fabrizo. I am very conservative and I don’t hate anyone because of their race or gender or preference. But I hate war and violence. I am conservative because I believe there is right and there is wrong. Many of my most liberal friends do not believe that there is right or wrong. Everything to them is relative. I just disagree with that view of life. </p>
<p>My sister was extremely liberal in high school and college but she is now much less so. A few years ago she told me that the older she got the more she realized that her liberal views were not based in reality. She was an idealist. She told me that a lot of young people are idealists but once they get into the real world they tend to change.</p>
<p>Re post #15: My great-grandmother apparently was certain that Harvard had “commie shacks” whatever those may be… Dorms for communists? Secret communist buildings? Don’t know. And my grandfather thinks the “Liberal” in “Liberal Arts” means the school is affiliated with the Democratic Party.</p>
<p>I haven’t read all the posts, but here’s a suggestion. When you write your essay, just explain your views and the reasoning behind your views. Don’t present it as being conservative or anti-liberal. Try to avoid sounding political.</p>
<p>If your essay ends up sounding like a republican’s speech, well, then I can’t help you there.</p>
<p>To the extent that the essay shows something about YOU, I don’t think being conservative will hurt at just about any school you apply to. The essay shouldn’t be a diatribe intended to convince the reader of a particular viewpoint, and I’d certainly avoid topics that make you sound closed-minded or prejudiced (because you are probably neither). Rather, I’d suggest focusing on how your intellectual curiousity was affected, how being a minority of one helped you identify with other minorities, how your rhetorical skills have had to become finely honed, or some other topic that shows personal growth and which you can weave into a compelling essay.</p>
<p>The simple answer here is that none of us really know. We do know most readers are going to be leftists, some beyond the mainstream. Certainly, some readers may have a knee-jerk reaction against you, but if you write an essay along the lines Roger suggested very kindly, some may like it. Luck of the draw. Crapshoot. Just make sure you don’t write an essay whining about how difficult it is to be a conservative in a leftist environment.</p>
<p>“You seriously need to read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. It’s an amazing book and it debunks many of the beliefs that eurocentrics tend to hold of the world.”</p>
<p>Um, it’s been criticized as a Eurocentric book. It simply paints environment (and thus luck) as the dominant reason for European superiority. It’s a thesis with which many ‘Eurocentrics’ can generally agree with, if not every detail of it.</p>
<p>Why don’t you figure out who the more prominent conservative professors are at the schools you’re interested in and write a sincere letter (or email) to them. That way you can air your views in a risk-free manner and ask their advice as to what you should do. I doubt it is an every day occurence for them and they’d probably be tickled. And in addition to advice you might manage to cultivate a few advocates on your behalf.</p>
<p>A lot of you seem to equate having strong conservative views with being close minded. I understand that many see a correlation between the two and usually create a nexus between conservative views and being a hick. Of course being a hick and hating gays, abortion doctors, etc… is assuredly being close minded. </p>
<p>However, I’ve noticed that whenever I announce and then strongly defend my more conservative viewpoints, such as being against affirmative action, diversity programs, pro-military, etc…, I’m often called “close-minded”. Yet those with the corresponding liberal perspectives are never hurled such an insult. This hypocrisy confuses and frustrates me. It’s not “being close-minded” to have strong viewpoints that you’ve spent time thinking about and subsequently defending.</p>
<p>Agreed dontno. It’s ironic the most close-minded and intolerant people I have encountered proudly wear the liberal label. Several posts on this thread prove that too.</p>
<p>I wrote my college essay on how a study abroad experience made me reevaluate my views on capitalism. I talked about how even though socialism seemed enticing, I came away from the experience favoring capitalism more than ever before. So even though I took a conservative stand, I was able to show colleges that I had carefully examined both sides of the issue and had come to a well reasoned conclusion. I’m a rising sophomore at Princeton.</p>
<p>Here’s a tip: if you decide to write an essay about being a conservative, show it to several adults, including some who are liberals, and listen carefully to what they say about it. If you find that they are arguing with you about your characterization of liberals, liberal philosophy, or particular political issues raised in the essay, you have more work to do.</p>
<p>um, hookem, you’re a high school student. Of course most “teenage liberals” you’ve met have been ignorant…they’re all 15. Until they’ve held a real job and met a more diverse group of people than they have in their hometowns, everyone will remain ignorant. I would hardly call my college professors ignorant, and most are liberal…many were involved in the civil rights movement, served in Vietnam or climbed their way out of poverty. </p>
<p>Your own quick dismissal of liberalism only serves to prove your own close-mindedness. Once you can espouse conservatism without baselessly bashing progressivism, I’ll listen. Believe me, it’s possible…I have many intelligent, conservative friends at Yale who respectfully disagree with me, and the other liberals here. Only they have come to their conclusions after carefully weighing both sides of a given issue, and are quite capable of arguing their points on, for example, Bush and the war, without resorting to ad hominem attacks against liberals (who, by the way, are not homogeneous…ever hear of classical liberals?)</p>
<p>P.S. To the various conservative posters: I’m a liberal and believe both in the value of community (ie strong family ties) and objective morality (ie right and wrong). Please refrain from ridiculous generalizations. It’s comments like that that will make an admissions officer think that you’re close-minded. </p>
<p>(Thank you to the OP for actually remaining objective about your conservatism. You’re clearly rational and reasonable, and your essay will be fine.)</p>
<p>And as for “greedy abortion clinics,” I suggest that you actually research the issue instead of relying on blind emotion or whatever a pro-life website told you. Many large abortion providers (such as Planned Parenthood) are non-profit, and therefore don’t make more money based on the number of abortions they perform. The cost of abortion merely covers the high cost of a sophisticated medical procedure and the extra hours doctors/nurses have to put in. As someone who works for a nonprofit, trust me, the wages suck…for the people who work at places like PP, it’s more about helping others than it is about wages. Any of the doctors could go work at a regular hospital and make 2x their current salary.</p>
<p>@ prankityclankity: Most people on this thread are doing exactly what you’re doing, just from the opposite viewpoint. Whether they consider conservatives to be closed-minded or whether you consider liberals to be closed-minded, it’s the same thing.</p>
<p>Both groups have a strong number of uninformed, intolerant adherents. Both groups also have informed, open-minded adherents. Unfortunately those who are more likely to start some controversy always get the most attention from either group, but don’t let that be representative of an entire ideology.</p>
<p>@ OP: Judging from this thread, I agree with mochamaven that it seems like you’d do a great job writing an essay on your conservatism without venturing into nasty territory. If I were an adcom I’d love to see a student who’s open-minded, articulate, and respectful while willing to come to his own conclusions–even (or especially?) if it’s a conclusion held by a minority (for what it’s worth, I’m a liberal). Be careful in writing it, of course, and definitely have several informed adults from the left and the right read this one.</p>
<p>To mochamaven:
<em>siiiiigh</em> You have obviously failed to even read my post carefully. I never said ALL liberals I’ve met are ignorant. Instead, I said TEENAGE liberals. I didn’t even say ALL teenage liberals; I said MOST. I have one very intelligent friend who is liberal. I also know many intelligent liberal adults.</p>
<p>On PP, how many total abortion clinics do you think there are in this country? Do you think the vast majority are free?</p>
<p>Also, just because it’s free, doesn’t mean that the procedure is ethical.</p>
<p>Your personal opinions can never hurt you in a college application unless they’re conspicuously bad (i.e., I have a strong affinity for large death metal singers who use sheep heads during their live performances). Having conservative views that favor smaller government is by no means a conspicuously bad opinion. You have different views than the people at your school, and if you feel like it’s a facet about yourself that you want to portray to colleges, then go ahead and write about it. It’s not going to hurt you at all.</p>
<p>There is no justification for social conservatism except possibly on the issue of abortion.
…
Open-mindedness at its finest.</p>
<p>By the way, from what it sounds like, the OP seems to be a classical liberal. When the distinction earlier in the post was made between liberals and classical liberals, I feel there is no difference (maybe in common terms, but not in the meaning of the word), but that what most people view as liberals are actually progressives.</p>
<p>Full disclosure:
I am a very right-leaning libertarian, so in the truest sense of the word, I am a liberal.</p>
<p>Salamander is completely right.
Don’t worry about it. If the school’s worth getting into they should appreciate your individuality.
I’m liberal but I definitely appreciate conservative peers and perspectives. Just show them the advantages of having a little “political diversity” and you should be okay.
And don’t listen to the bozo idiots here who are just using this thread as a soapbox. They have no idea what they’re talking about anyway.</p>
<p>“Your personal opinions can never hurt you in a college application unless they’re conspicuously bad (i.e., I have a strong affinity for large death metal singers who use sheep heads during their live performances).”</p>
<p>This is what we’d all like to think, of course, and it’s probably what most admissions staff think as well. However, my cynical experience of human nature suggests that it’s wise to be cautious, and to at least run the opinions by some other people to see whether your idea of what is conspicuously bad is generally shared.</p>
<p>Um, it’s been criticized as a Eurocentric book. It simply paints environment (and thus luck) as the dominant reason for European superiority. It’s a thesis with which many ‘Eurocentrics’ can generally agree with, if not every detail of it.</p>
<p>Um…Eurocentrics believe that Europeans are naturally superior to everyone else (due to intelligence, etc. NOT luck). I don’t think anyone can argue that Europeans haven’t dominated the world, but what Diamond proves is that they didn’t dominate because they were superior (thus debunking Eurocentrism) but because they just got lucky with their environment. Lucky does not equal superior.
Diamond’s thesis is set around the view that Europeans aren’t superior to everyone else, so how on earth could it be viewed as a Eurocentric book?</p>