Does college make you a liberal?

I became a liberal by dropping out of school in the 8th grade and finding a bunch of guys that dress alike and following them around (they turned out to be (1) mormons on a mission (2) young republicans on a mission.) my mission was dinner so I was forced into liberalism by my appetite.(I found dinner in the dumpster behind the Liberal University Dining Hall)

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Ha! I didn't even notice the date. It was the first thing I clicked on - I scrolled down to the tables and voila!

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Much like my story, dys. I dropped out at age fifteen. Them college libruls never layed a hand on me.

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Morality and personal responsibility, but not a word about social responsibility, yeah, that's sounds like a conservative, but you're young, you have room to grow.

J

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rmrrose820 wrote:

ehBeth: I think I can handle the peer pressure but I am realistic and realize that surroundings have a large impact on you, particularly during the formative years of college. I'm just not sure to what extent the liberal agenda is present in universities.

Cycloptichorn: Awesome SN btw. I've always heard the opposite. But then, I am only 17 and I make no pretense at knowing much about life at this stage.

Joe Nation: I am a conservative because I believe in morality and personal responsibility.

You seem very young. Perhaps a few years working before you go to university would be a good idea.

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Don't worry about it. Most college students are liberal. Winston Churchill said it right: "Anyone who does not harbor liberal beliefs in his youth has no heart. Anyone who retains those beliefs as he gets older has no brain."

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JustWonders wrote:

Thanks for looking, boomerang.

I was only 3 when that study was made. I'll see if I can find something more recent.

Well there's the exit polls to the elections last November, JW. It doesnt show you liberal/conservative by education, but it shows you Bush supporter/Kerry supporter by education, that good enough?

VOTE BY EDUCATION
(% of respondents) BUSH - KERRY

No High School (4%) 49% - 50%

H.S. Graduate (22%) 52% - 47%

Some College (32%) 54% - 46%

College Graduate (26%) 52% - 46%

Postgrad Study (16%) 44% - 55%

Mind you rmrrose - obviously still enough conservatives with postgrad education left - one's ideology can easily survive, apparently.

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What social responsibility would you like for me to have Joe? Give all of my money to affirmative action plans? Ooh or support a woman's right to kill her baby? Or perhaps you would like for me to donate all of my money to the UN? I believe in social responsibility, just not what the democrats would try to convince me is my social responsibility. I am very young, and I do have a long way to grow, but waiting to go to college won't change the fact that the future is still there. Waiting won't change the fact that I'll have to face people who want to conform me to their image, whether it be politically, religiously, or otherwise.

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Rosie, sounds like you've already picked the form to which you propose to conform.

Perhaps it'll be a good fit.

Perhaps it's the greatest miscalculation you'll ever make in your entire life.

Who can say?

All we know is that you profess to already having made your choice... at a very tender age.
You wish, in your youthful exuberance, to stay True to that choice... even if it requires you to ignore any contradictory input.
?
!

Not a very auspicious beginning, if you ask me...

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In college, you will be exposed to all kinds of political thought. Yes, it IS true that many academics are of a liberal bent. The reason may simply be that academe attracts people of a liberal persuasion.

My advice to you is to keep your eyes and ears open, and listen to what is being said. Be open to ideas. Take new ideas and mentally check it against what you know already. Don't be closed minded.

I was raised as a liberal Democrat. Over the years, as I developed my own political compass, I became a libertarian, despite going to colllege and graduate school.

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Perhaps the biggest problems you will run into are in classes where opinion essays are required. It's not that the professors or the students will be intentionally trying to change your way of thinking, but that when your opinion differs, your grades could suffer. This is true of only very few professors, but can happen. That's just life - you'll have to decide at those times whether your grades or your ideology are more important.

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rmrrose820 wrote:

What social responsibility would you like for me to have Joe? Give all of my money to affirmative action plans? Ooh or support a woman's right to kill her baby? Or perhaps you would like for me to donate all of my money to the UN? I believe in social responsibility, just not what the democrats would try to convince me is my social responsibility. I am very young, and I do have a long way to grow, but waiting to go to college won't change the fact that the future is still there. Waiting won't change the fact that I'll have to face people who want to conform me to their image, whether it be politically, religiously, or otherwise.

rmrose

This post sounds a little less "golly, what ought I to expect to find?" and rather more like "I already know just what I'll find. Is there any defence against it?" Could you please tell us who or what has told you that university will present you with such issues and viewpoints as you mention above?

If you are going to college/university in order to get a good job, then you can just jump through hoops, get your grades, your diploma and finally, a job.

If you are going to increase your store of knowledge of the world, then you are going to bump into many new ideas that you'll have to wrestle with. Would you desire that sort of challenge? You may well end up tossing old ideas overboard.

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rmrrose820 wrote:

What social responsibility would you like for me to have Joe? Give all of my money to affirmative action plans? Ooh or support a woman's right to kill her baby? Or perhaps you would like for me to donate all of my money to the UN? I believe in social responsibility, just not what the democrats would try to convince me is my social responsibility. I am very young, and I do have a long way to grow, but waiting to go to college won't change the fact that the future is still there. Waiting won't change the fact that I'll have to face people who want to conform me to their image, whether it be politically, religiously, or otherwise.

Given this insight into her thinking, I'd wager that college won't change rmrrose one bit.

My advice: forget about Cornell and Rice. Go to some place where the majority of students are wealthy, conservative, white, Southern, drunk, and Greek. May I suggest Vanderbilt?

EDIT: corrected typo.

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Try U of Texas, where I went.

Liberal; but there are enough conservatives that you won't feel left out, as they are quite loud-spoken.

Plus what with the Texas state capital right in the same city, there are tons of opportunities to get started in gov't, and from what you listed earlier (pres. of political club in HS) that might be right up your alley; I know many of my friends got their start in gov't this way, and quite a few work in Washington or on the hill now.

Good luck to you wherever ya go!

Cycloptichorn

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Wait.

I'm confused.

Is social responsibility immoral? Is it defined by our politics?

You're worried that college might expand your idea of social responsibility and you find this problematic?

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"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't MAKE it think"...
There you have it, your fears re: Higher Education... minimized!

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I don't think there is nearly the kind of peer pressure in college as there was in high school. I thought people were more apt to be like, ok whatever, and leave you alone.

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Idaho wrote:

Perhaps the biggest problems you will run into are in classes where opinion essays are required. It's not that the professors or the students will be intentionally trying to change your way of thinking, but that when your opinion differs, your grades could suffer. This is true of only very few professors, but can happen. That's just life - you'll have to decide at those times whether your grades or your ideology are more important.

Essays are a common requirement for most types of courses. But if your mark suffers, it is far more likely going to be because you've written a lousy essay - poorly researched or composed.

Noting Idaho states that some difference of opinion might rarely influence one's mark, I'll add that that isn't likely to be on one's political or values positions in any case, but rather on an argument or opinion you might advance, for example, in your essay on Kent in King Lear. If you somehow gained the opinion that Kent was the cause of everything that goes wrong, your prof might reasonably consider the opinion a poor one.

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Rosie, your ability to stand up to the primarily liberal posters on this forum is a good indicator that you will be able to do so on campus. The situation isn't truly parallel, however, since on campus one has a greater incentive "to be liked" than one does on the internet.

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flyboy804 wrote:

Rosie, your ability to stand up to the primarily liberal posters on this forum is a good indicator that you will be able to do so on campus. The situation isn't truly parallel, however, since on campus one has a greater incentive "to be liked" than one does on the internet.

Oh, for goodness sakes. Flyboy...have you attended a university? Unless our poster goes about wearing a tshirt reading "I'm a conservative Republican" or "I'm An Atheist With Attitude - Wanna Argue?" she won't even have any idea what any other students' political or religious opinions are in most of her classes.

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Does college make you a liberal?

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