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So, you think a student could be just as happy at either Bob Jones University or Reed College? Personally, I don’t think there’s an overlap in those Venn diagrams.</p>
<p>I think a lot of it has to do with what the Democratic/liberal/progressive student is used to.</p>
<p>There’s no question that TAMU would be gigantic culture shock for a liberal kid from Chicago. But most liberals in Texas grow up with plenty of exposure to TAMU-type culture. They have a better idea of what they would be getting into. So even if there are happy liberals at TAMU (and there must be at a school that large), a prospective needs to ask whether SHE would be among them. Maybe some of those happy TAMU liberals grew up in Midland or Waco and had years to learn how to be happy swimming upstream.</p>
<p>I will be the first to admit that when filtering schools for D to look at, politics did come into play, but in the sense of I knew she would be unhappy in any school that had activist politics as a feature of the campus. She hates politics, but especially hates being told what to think by either side, so having a toned down atmosphere on campus is what she really wanted.</p>
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<p>No, and I think you are missing the point. </p>
<p>We’re simply pointing out the fundamental flaw in liberal logic. If you proclaim to be a modern day ‘liberal’, you are implying that you are open to new ideas, and possess a ‘live-and-let-live’ type of attitude. However, by selectively choosing your environment to live in, and restricting your exposure to certain types of people, you are not living up to your beliefs - you are not open to new ideas, and clearly you prefer surrounding yourself with people who think and act the same way you do. This does not reflect tolerance, diversity, or open-mindedness.</p>
<p>“Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”
― William F. Buckley Jr.</p>
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The technical term for the argument you are advancing is “baloney.” It relies on the false assumption that other people think the same way you do. Believe it or not, there are people who prefer to go to colleges that have a lot of free discussion of ideas of all sorts. Whether such people go to TAMU, I don’t know.</p>
<p>Who says liberals can’t be ardent about their views and preferences? 44 is just a conservative argument.</p>
<p>fractalmstr, I take issue with your straw man. Everyone enjoys trapping people on the other end of spectrum in contradictions. Liberals find it amusing to see conservatives caught up in publicly aired sexual shenanigans, for example. I get that. </p>
<p>But the topic here is not a student looking for a nirvana totally populated by like-minded folks. He’s just looking for a place where there are enough similar people for him to feel comfortable. What’s the magic number? 25-30%? I don’t know. But it IS pretty wearing to be hemmed in on all sides for 4 years by people with views diametrically opposed to yours. Might use up so much mental capital dealing with it that studies could suffer. That’s one thing that students look for in ‘fit’ when they check out universities. It is easier to contemplate opposing views and their justifications when you have people who think somewhat like you with whom to toss these ideas around.</p>
<p>Not implying that A&M IS such uniformly conservative place. As I said before, I have no direct knowledge. Just defending the kid’s right to search for a university that feels comfortable without being derided for being hypocritical.</p>
<p>I’m still wondering, why Hofstra? How’d that get in there?</p>
<p>Did OP abandon his thread?</p>
<p>Reading between the lines of the OP, I think maybe we are evaluating “liberal” by too narrow a political definition. I gather that the OP has been unhappy with the culture in his Texas High School, would prefer perhaps more emphasis on the arts or academics and less dominance of football culture. I didn’t get the impression that the OP was worried about what percentage of students register to vote for a particular political party, more that they wanted more diversity and culture than Greek Life and Football. It’s hard to use terms like “liberal” and “conservative” in evaluating most college atmospheres, generally speaking they are all pretty mixed with the exception of very conservative religious schools or very radical “hippie-ish” leftist ones. </p>
<p>The culture and social life of a college is a huge factor in student happiness, though, and if a student is not a fan of football/greek life/rah rah, TAMU and many other schools will not be a good fit. Likewise, if all you want is a good D1 team to follow and lots of partying and Greek life? You will want to avoid NESCAC like the plague. Not really a political thing so much as a cultural one.</p>