Opinion of private liberal arts colleges

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Garbage cesspools of stupidity, but rather irrelevant in regards to how much attention from right wingers. Less than 1% of college students probably go to places like that.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Having spent a year in one, I have to go FC.

[vanguard96]

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges

At the top end they are generally excellent in terms of academics and compete with the top national universities for students despite a lower international rep, smaller infrastructure, small or no grad schools, and only limited exposure for athletics to the general public.

Further down the scale they are a bit narrower in scope and in the long run are probably a bad decision career wise for some of people that go there vs a cheaper school - particularly if they want to be employable outside that region for a not so stellar student - for instance how far can many people take a sociology or poli sci degree with a 3.0 GPA from Hope College outside of Michigan or the nearby states?

Some of them have had episodes of campus protest or some egregious examples of campus left-influenced policies w.r.t safe spaces, micro-aggressions, checking of privileges, forced sensitivity training (Middlebury, Pomona, Oberlin, etc) as have the national private universities like Yale and Brown and some state universities like Cal-Berkeley, Mizzou, U of Michigan, etc. These are overstated by conservatives and libertarians as being indicative of the overall student & faculty mindset rather than maybe a select few extremists.

I applied to Bowdoin and Hamilton which would be considered in this category but decided they were too isolated for me and too similar to my own high school experience. I also visited Bates, Middlebury, Colby, Wesleyan, and Williams in that same category of schools. I was immediately put off by the overtly progressive appearance of things at Wesleyan. The other places I really did not mind - and with it being 1992 it was before the internet was huge so we sort of found out by going rather than through social media, etc.

I did not get into Bowdoin and decided not to attend Hamilton in the end due to location and size factors. They were the best of this bunch but the other 4 schools I applied to were in the national private university category. I did not apply to any state schools.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Do you think every one is brimming to the top with left-wing activists? Why? If I had to guess, the student body of University of Detroit Mercy is far more conservative than that of Evergreen State. Despite the urban setting, we're saturated with the sons and daughters of Macomb County.

[Santander]

Do you think every one is brimming to the top with left-wing activists? Why? If I had to guess, the student body of University of Detroit Mercy is far more conservative than that of Evergreen State. Despite the urban setting, we're saturated with the sons and daughters of Macomb County.

I don't think people generally refer to Jesuit colleges as LACs.

BRTD is talking about schools like Sarah Lawrence, Middlebury, Grinnell, Occidental, etc.

[vanguard96]

Do you think every one is brimming to the top with left-wing activists? Why? If I had to guess, the student body of University of Detroit Mercy is far more conservative than that of Evergreen State. Despite the urban setting, we're saturated with the sons and daughters of Macomb County.

UDM is Catholic, though so it is a little different than a lot of the others, is it not? And with it being in a city it attracts a different crowd than say Amherst or Claremont-McKenna.

How about say Kalamazoo college or Albion?

Not exactly elite are they but you see a lot of kids here going there - say a football or soccer player from Walled Lake Western or what have you.

[vanguard96]

Do you think every one is brimming to the top with left-wing activists? Why? If I had to guess, the student body of University of Detroit Mercy is far more conservative than that of Evergreen State. Despite the urban setting, we're saturated with the sons and daughters of Macomb County.

I don't think people generally refer to Jesuit colleges as LACs.

BRTD is talking about schools like Sarah Lawrence, Middlebury, Grinnell, Occidental, etc.

Exactly. Same goes for the protestant or baptist colleges you see a lot of in the south not the same category.

[Lechasseur]

Horrible Colleges

[RINO Tom]

My mom teaches at one.  FCs.

[TDAS04]

I graduated from one.  FCs. 

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Do you think every one is brimming to the top with left-wing activists? Why? If I had to guess, the student body of University of Detroit Mercy is far more conservative than that of Evergreen State. Despite the urban setting, we're saturated with the sons and daughters of Macomb County.

I don't think people generally refer to Jesuit colleges as LACs.

BRTD is talking about schools like Sarah Lawrence, Middlebury, Grinnell, Occidental, etc.

Jesuit Colleges have been based around the liberal arts since before those places existed.

[GoTfan]

Without Liberal Arts, it's possible the Enlightenment might not have happened

[Santander]

Do you think every one is brimming to the top with left-wing activists? Why? If I had to guess, the student body of University of Detroit Mercy is far more conservative than that of Evergreen State. Despite the urban setting, we're saturated with the sons and daughters of Macomb County.

I don't think people generally refer to Jesuit colleges as LACs.

BRTD is talking about schools like Sarah Lawrence, Middlebury, Grinnell, Occidental, etc.

Jesuit Colleges have been based around the liberal arts since before those places existed.

Sure, but most state flagships are centered around the liberal arts too. I don't make the colloquialisms, I just use them. Many small Jesuit colleges also have professional programs in business and sometimes law, which disqualifies them from LAC status imo. Plus, they don't really share the humanist ethos or the Protestant roots (God, doesn't that sound awful when you put it together...) that are typically associated with LACs as most people use the term.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Without Liberal Arts, it's possible the Enlightenment might not have happened

I don't think the Enlightenment was due to ranting about white people having dreadlocks or wearing hoop earrings or dressing up in steroetypically non-white Halloween costumes.

[RINO Tom]

Without Liberal Arts, it's possible the Enlightenment might not have happened

I don't think the Enlightenment was due to ranting about white people having dreadlocks or wearing hoop earrings or dressing up in steroetypically non-white Halloween costumes.

Paint with a broad brush much?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

"Oh, someone got an econ degree from Alma! That means they must be a raging, anti-white social revolutionary!"

[BuckeyeNut]

I'm a faculty brat and a proud alumnus. FCs.

It's also deeply ironic that BTRD hates them -- he'd fit it in with the stereotypical students.

[Mr. Reactionary]

I liked the public college I went to a lot more than the private university, but then again I went to the private university for law school and had no relationship with the main campus.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm a faculty brat and a proud alumnus. FCs.

It's also deeply ironic that BTRD hates them -- he'd fit it in with the stereotypical students.

But I don't care about "cultural appropriation" and don't specify pronouns upon meeting people.

[Kingpoleon]

I always use ze/zim/zer/zis/zer/zers pronoun for Zr. BRTD. I'm glad to know know I don't have to do that for zer anymore.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I'm a faculty brat and a proud alumnus. FCs.

It's also deeply ironic that BTRD hates them -- he'd fit it in with the stereotypical students.

But I don't care about "cultural appropriation" and don't specify pronouns upon meeting people.

If you were ten years younger, you would. Your absolute environmental conformity, your insularity, and your crude obedience to your subculture dictate this.

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

FC - Earlier in the 20th century, they and small public colleges were often the only post secondary ed available to rural/working class populations (source: my grandfather's degree from DePauw in the 20s got our part of the family out of the South Side of Chicago). Nowadays they're a bulwark for free inquiry against STEM/job market obsessed policy makers.* One of the reasons America has by far the best higher-education system (now if we can only make it available to everyone in the country!).

I get the stereotypes now, but tbh that's on the students rather than on the colleges.

*This is of course ironic, since STEM degrees are some of the most one track higher-educational paths I can think of.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm a faculty brat and a proud alumnus. FCs.

It's also deeply ironic that BTRD hates them -- he'd fit it in with the stereotypical students.

But I don't care about "cultural appropriation" and don't specify pronouns upon meeting people.

If you were ten years younger, you would. Your absolute environmental conformity, your insularity, and your crude obedience to your subculture dictate this.

Most people in "the scene" went to/go to public universities.