[yendu bwam]

I honestly want to know where I can send my children to college so that they can get good academic training, but not be exclusively barraged with an entirely liberal, anti-religious, sexually libertine, fascistic political correctness ideology for four long years. Any thoughts anyone?

[jjm2111]

All the service academies, VMI, the Citadel.

[Hobsonphile]

I believe there's a guide out there- sort of a US News and World Report for conservatives- but I can't remember who published it. Does anyone else?

[Lizard_King]

Unless you wish to send them to a school that actively promotes an opposite orthodoxy (like Hillsdale or a sectarian school, either of which no matter how "conservative" is still a thousand times more tolerant than any left wing equivalent), you really have no choices that I know of in this matter (and my job is researching freedom of speech at universities). However, I don't know if yielding the ground on this one is as wise as you might think...at ANY public school they have to enforce the 1st amendment no matter how much they may begrudge it to you, so at least you do not lose your rights as you do at many private schools. All it take is a few conservative dissenters, and advocacy from groups like the one I work for (http://www.thefire.org ) and we can take these places back.
I understand your desire to shelter your children from the reality of left wing academia, but if your children are strong and moral (which I do not doubt) they can withstand the petty assaults of the fascist bureaucrats that run these places with no problem. These people cannot do in public what they do to students in private, and so long as your kids are willing to speak up for themselves, there is not a whole lot that can be done to them.
On a personal level, I see how much my university has changed in the last decade because of a few courageous students and one remarkable professor, from a socialist fiesta run by Sheldon Hackney to a much more reasonable environment run by the exceedingly competent Judith Rodin. It is far from perfect, and many of my professors are left wing, but never has my freedom of conscience or speech been interfered with because of ideological difference(minus the occasional surly left wing student, like the folks who rejected me as a newspaper columnist), and only in nonsense sociology-style classes is ideology a litmus test for grades (which is practically to be expected, given the nature of the subject matter). I have still managed to obtain an exceedingly good education and surrounded myself with people of character and decency.

Good luck in your search...if you have any specific questions about a University or College you are considering we have quite an archive on most schools in the US and I would be happy to look it up for you.

[Puddleglum]

I honestly want to know where I can send my children to college so that they can get good academic training, but not be exclusively barraged with an entirely liberal, anti-religious, sexually libertine, fascistic political correctness ideology for four long years. Any thoughts anyone?

I think exposure to liberal academia actually helps toughen one's hide a little and teaches the verbal art of self defense. I was subjected to these academics for years and I think it helped me see past their soft language to the harsh ideas inside. From my perspective, a lot of the undergraduates can see through the rhetoric for the hooey it is, and a lot of the graduates can withstand it and come out all the stronger for it on the other side. Of course, I was never subjected to the harsher forms of "sensitization" - I just had a professor or two who seemed unable to hear my questions in class, though other got through fine!

From my experience, it's an innoculation that keeps the real disease from infecting the adult mind. Having to get a job in the "real world" after school just sort of completes the process.

[twntaipan]

Maybe you can homeschool them for university? Okay-=-at least enroll them in most classes via Internet.

[CatoRenasci]

As a VMI man, I suggest that VMI, the Citadel and the service academies are not for everyone. The Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College has a list of more or less conservative schools that includes Dartmouth and Washington & Lee among the very top rated schools, and Hampden-Sydney, Grove City, St. Olaf, Ohio Wesleyan and some others among the better liberal arts colleges. I'm sure I'm leaving several off the list.

[Lizard_King]

on second thought, washington and lee university is a superb small liberal arts school with a conservative core (without restraining freedom of conscience and speech), excellent financial aid, beautiful campus, and conservative student body (again, not meaning intellectually stagnant, just not a bunch of commies).

[jriemer]

Yednu,

I believe that your children should choose a college / university by its caliber of education first and by its political or religous affliation - second, if not last.

As a parent, you should have already prepared your child intellectually, emotionally and politically to deal with the real world prior to going off to college. After Freshman Orientation, they are completely on their own and they will have to fend for theirselves in the arena of ideas. To send them to a more "sheltered" environment in college just postpones the unfortunate jousting with liberal ideology later in life. College is a training ground for the mind and the same goes with politics. One can quickly disable a liberal's arguement if they have started practicing early and a liberal college is a target rich environmnent.

The more "condusive" the conservative and religous colleges for your children potentially may not be as intellectually stimualting compared to the liberal universities. Plus, there's a stigma in the working world for graduates from one of "those" colleges. It is unfortunate but there's just too many liberals in the hiring process and there is a unsaid disdain against graduates of conservative and religious colleges in certain industries.

Give your children the tools to better themselves and let them choose to fight intellectual and ideological battles one on one instead of potentially stacking the deck against them from the beginning of their adult lives. Once they are in the real world intellectually loaded for bear, then they can start doing some real damage against the liberal and wrek havok against their bastions of power from the inside out.

jriemer

[agarrett]

  I see you've gotten several responses already, but I figured I'd mention one thing extra. It makes a big difference what subjects your children intend to study. If they're studying math, any of the hard sciences, or engineering, send them anywhere, regardless of political views.

  I went to Cornell, which I was a little surprised to discover is a strongly liberal school. I double majored in math and physics. My professors may have had a political inclination, for all I knew, but it was far less interesting than the subject at hand, so it never made it into class. That attitude tends to be pretty widespread in the sciences. So if that's the field your kids are looking at, just look for a good school, content in the knowledge that they won't have any time to care about campus politics.

Drew Garrett