Lists and Rankings

The More Conservative

A conservative liberal education--not necessarily an oxymoron. These colleges were selected by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute for inclusion in the college guidebook Choosing the Right College. Among the criteria considered were "the presence or absence of a core curriculum, the nature of student living arrangements, the strength of distribution requirements, the prevalence of ideological bias, the protection of free inquiry, and the state of campus safety."

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• Agnes Scott College (Decatur, GA)
• Amherst College (Amherst, MA)
• Auburn University (Auburn, AL)
• Bard College (Annandale on Hudson, NY)
• Barnard College (New York, NY)
• Bates College (Lewiston, ME)
• Baylor University (Waco, TX)
• Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA)
• Boston University (Boston, MA)
• Bowdoin College (Brunswick, ME)
• Brandeis University (Waltham, MA)
• Brigham Young University — Provo (Provo, UT)
• Brown University (Providence, RI)
• Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr, PA)
• Bucknell University (Lewisburg, PA)
• California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA)
• Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI)
• Carleton College (Northfield, MN)
• Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH)
• Catholic University of America (Washington, DC)
• Centre College (Danville, KY)
• Christendom College (Front Royal, VA)
• Claremont McKenna College (Claremont, CA)
• Clemson University (Clemson, SC)
• Colby College (Waterville, ME)
• Colgate University (Hamilton, NY)
• College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA)
• College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA)
• Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO)
• Columbia University (New York, NY)
• Connecticut College (New London, CT)
• Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
• Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH)
• Davidson College (Davidson, NC)
• Duke University (Durham, NC)
• Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
• Fordham University (New York, NY)
• Franciscan University of Steubenville (Steubenville, OH)
• Furman University (Greenville, SC)
• George Mason University (Fairfax, VA)
• Georgetown University (Washington, DC)
• Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)
• Gettysburg College (Gettysburg, PA)
• Gonzaga University (Spokane, WA)
• Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA)
• Grove City College (Grove City, PA)
• Hamilton College (Clinton, NY)
• Hampden–Sydney College (Hampden-Sydney, VA)
• Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
• Harvey Mudd College (Claremont, CA)
• Haverford College (Haverford, PA)
• Hillsdale College (Hillsdale, MI)
• Indiana University Bloomington (Bloomington, IN)
• Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD)
• Kenyon College (Gambier, OH)
• Lafayette College (Easton, PA)
• Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA)
• Louisiana State University — Baton Rouge (Baton Rouge, LA)
• Macalester College (St. Paul, MN)
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)
• Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT)
• Morehouse College (Atlanta, GA)
• Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, MA)
• New York University (New York, NY)
• Northwestern University (Evanston, IL)
• Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH)
• Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA)
• Oglethorpe University (Atlanta, GA)
• Pennsylvania State University — University Park (University Park, PA)
• Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA)
• Pitzer College (Claremont, CA)
• Pomona College (Claremont, CA)
• Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
• Providence College (Providence, RI)
• Reed College (Portland, OR)
• Rhodes College (Memphis, TN)
• Rice University (Houston, TX)
• Scripps College (Claremont, CA)
• Seton Hall University (South Orange, NJ)
• Sewanee: The University of the South (Sewanee, TN)
• Smith College (Northampton, MA)
• Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX)
• Spelman College (Atlanta, GA)
• St. John's College (Annapolis, MD)
• St. John's College (Santa Fe, NM)
• St. Olaf College (Northfield, MN)
• Stanford University (Stanford, CA)
• Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA)
• Texas A&M University — College Station (College Station, TX)
• The Cooper Union (New York, NY)
• The George Washington University (Washington, DC)
• The University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX)
• The University of Tulsa (Tulsa, OK)
• Thomas Aquinas College (Santa Paula, CA)
• Thomas More College (Crestview Hills, KY)
• Trinity Western University (Langley, CAN)
• Tufts University (Medford, MA)
• Tulane University (New Orleans, LA)
• Tyndale University College & Seminary (Toronto, Ontario, CN)
• Union College (Schenectady, NY)
• United States Air Force Academy (USAF Academy, CO)
• United States Military Academy (West Point, NY)
• United States Naval Academy (Annapolis, MD)
• University of California — Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)
• University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA)
• University of California, San Diego (La Jolla, CA)
• University of California, Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA)
• University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
• University of Colorado, Boulder (Boulder, CO)
• University of Dallas (Irving, TX)
• University of Florida (Gainesville, FL)
• University of Georgia (Athens, GA)
• University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA)
• University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS)
• University of Michigan — Ann Arbor (Ann Arbor, MI)
• University of Minnesota — Twin Cities (Minneapolis, MN)
• University of Mississippi (University, MS)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC)
• University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN)
• University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
• University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)
• University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)
• University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)
• University of Wisconsin — Madison (Madison, WI)
• Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)
• Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY)
• Villanova University (Villanova, PA)
• Wabash College (Crawfordsville, IN)
• Wake Forest University (Winston Salem, NC)
• Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO)
• Washington and Lee University (Lexington, VA)
• Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA)
• Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT)
• Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL)
• Whitman College (Walla Walla, WA)
• Williams College (Williamstown, MA)
• Wofford College (Spartanburg, SC)
• Yale University (New Haven, CT)

Source: John Zmirak, Editor-in-Chief, Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth About America's 100 Top Schools. Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Wilmington, Delaware. www.isibooks.org. Reprinted with permission.