Does college make you a liberal?

No, they weren't all in the Corps LOL.

10 most liberal - holy cripes #8

LOL......I saw that.

I see you'll fit right in in the other thread, Husker. Folks arguing your side of the argument there have thus far also relied near-exclusively on impassioned columns and op-eds by ways of "evidence", barring the incidental personal anecdote (mostly recounted on hearsay).

Hey, I went to an extremely liberal (though not top 10, apparently) American university, and the discourse -- what there was of it; mostly it was bongs, kites, and frisbees -- was very one-sided, the intellectual climate arid. <shrug> So you've got to have a mind and pursue your own things. The liberal arts disciplines were prettty moribund, the fine and performing arts disciplines a little better, the natural sciences excellent.

At any rate, I don't think anyone got "turned," though not many people got challenged, either.

Whereas the other has presented nothing.

You can't believe that A&M isn't the most conservative Univ. in America? That cow college?

You really should go spend some time in College Station if you would like confirmation of that fact. I have lots of friends who go(went) there as well, and let me tell you, I wouldn't have believed the things I heard coming out of the mouths of some Aggies over the years.

Cycloptichorn

You're probably right, Cyclo. Still, I was surprised.

Now those are interesting lists. Especially cross-connected with the other lists they've got on that site. Well, with the "academics" lists, anyway - we were talking of academic quality after all. I think. They got top 10s both of least and best performing colleges on a couple of counts.

Here's how the top 10 liberal ones cross-compare:

- Bard College, the second most liberal college in the US, also ranks 7th on "Class Discussions Encouraged".

- Sarah Lawrence College, the country's third most liberal college, also ranks 5th on "Class Discussions Encouraged" and 9th on "Best Overall Academic Experience For Undergraduates".

- Hampshire College, the nation's fourth most liberal college, also ranks 6th on "Class Discussions Encouraged".

(I see a pattern emerging.)

- St. John's College (NM), America's sixth most liberal college, also ranks 1st, no less, on "Class Discussions Encouraged", as well as 1st on "Professors Make Themselves Accessible", 6th on "Professors Bring Material to Life" and 7th on "Best Overall Academic Experience For Undergraduates".

- Reed College, the ninth most liberal college around, also ranks 2nd on "Professors Bring Material to Life", 3rd on "Best Overall Academic Experience For Undergraduates", 3rd on "Their Students Never Stop Studying" and 8th on "Class Discussions Encouraged".

In short, five of the ten colleges where class discussions are encouraged most, are also among the ten most liberal colleges around.

Doesn't look like it's the liberal colleges where the professors forcefeed you their take on things, not allowing you to formulate any independent say of yourself ...

The other five most liberal colleges did not make any "academic" top 10 lists, neither good nor bad.

OK, now I'm curious, and besides, I wanna be fair. How do the top 10 conservative colleges do, in terms of academic credentials? What top 10s in the "academics" category of quality of teaching did they reach?

Well:

- The United States Air Force Academy, the 8th most conservative college in the US, also ranks 5th on "Professors Make Themselves Accessible".

That's it I'm afraid. No other positive top 10 positions to report. On the flip side, though,

- the United States Merchant Marine Academy, the country's 9th most conservative college, also ranks 8th on "Professors Get Low Marks"

- and the University of Mississippi's - "Ole Miss", which is the nation's 10th most conservative college, also ranks 5th on "Their Students (Almost) Never Study".

The other 7 most conservative colleges don't make any top 10 ranking on "academics", either good or bad.

On a final note of ranking mayhem, I was personally surprised (hey, I thought it was us lefties who knew how to party!) that all top five of the universities where "Their Students Never Stop Studying" are in blue states, while 4 out of the 5 colleges where "Their Students (Almost) Never Study" are in red states.

I respect midshipmen and did then...but i'll stick with my observation that they were way more conservative in ideology than was my class at UVA.

I won't argue with that. However I have noted that the UVA grads I know, once they got into their Law firm, bank, or financial firm tended to quickly shed their liberal views, or at least the overt expressions of them.

I did undergrad at Annapolis and grad school at Cal Tech; I have lived & worked in the Navy world and in that of the Engineering and construction business - energy production, transit systems, and environmental. I can tell you that the most cranky, individualistic group I have ever encountered, by a very large margin, were Naval Aviators. There was a sort of conformity, but it was a mile wide and hardly a milimeter deep. Engineers r& execs eally believe all that ****. I agree, that's not quite the same thing as conservative political views, but I have found the difference quite fascinating.

Good evening. I read through this entire thread this afternoon. Like many topics on A2K it wobbled and twisted a bit, which is I guess inevitable.
The original question came from a 17 year-old inquiring about whether her conservative beliefs could be kept intact as she headed off to college.
I am one of the most liberal, dyed-in-the-wool Democrats on A2K. I don't engage in many of the political forums precisely because I am so far to the left that I can't talk with McGentrix or Georgeob.

The young lady is gone now, I reckon, and I am a bit unhappy at how some of my fellow liberals seemed to be belittling her for her core beliefs.

I've written and rewritten this a couple of times. I'm sure I still haven't gotten it right. Read through some of the early pages and reflect on what was said.
UVA as a bastion of liberalism? That's funny.
-realjohboy-

Oh, Texas A&M is a very conservative school. The A and M stand for Agriculture and Muffler Repair and it's in the good ole Heart-O-Texas. They're not called Aggies for nothin.......sorry to all those liberal A&M graduates.......but for those of you Aggie liberals out there, I'll bet you're a minority.

A good friend of mine is an aggie liberal. Poor soul.

If you remember I said in comparison to the Naval Academy...and these were my impressions of '70-'77.

George, agreed with your entire post.

Well, I'm a graduate of the College Of Musical Knowledge...and I'm neither a conservative or a liberal...I favor anarchy...when do I get a web site?

...don't bait the nimh...

anarchists are somewhat close to libertarians. Bipolar will one day discover that he is really a Republican at heart.

That will be the day when Republicans begin demanding students be tested for alcohol, and yet don't evidence much concern about the stuff in their own parlors and stomachs - hashish.

WOW. Sorry I've been gone. Sr. Year and all . . .

So a few comments. First: How many actual women have posted here?! and how did a political discussion turn to pussy and its political leaning?

I have heard from my parents, numerous teachers, students currently enrolled in universities, and family that college makes you more liberal. I was not sure how true this statement was and thus posted here. So yes, most of it is from rumor and personal testimonies from people I know.

I seriously considered St. John's for some time before deciding on Rice and Cornell.

I'm afraid that I did not word my initial post very well. I am not afraid of new ideas as much as I was concerned how greatly professors expected students to conform to their political ideologies. I did not realize that the other post was out there, which JustWondering alerted me to. I have read the majority of that post-although in all honesty I'm not sure it helped me come to an understanding one way or the other considering there were so many contentious political opinions being hurtled that I was a little bowled over.

The town I live in is actually very liberal (for a town in TX that is) so any "conservative circles" I might be involved in would be composed primarily of high school students in my club who really don't know what they believe and my parents. I'm actually the most liberal member of my household-my father being as Republican as Rush and my mother being somewhere in between my dad and me.

Have I addressed everything? Oh just call me Rose or Rachel if you don't want to type rmrrose820. I don't think my input is required on the color of stains on posters' pants, whether conservatives are dickless or not, or the political preference of pussy. I'll leave that to the boys on here.