As troubled as our elite universities are becoming, there are still upsides for right-of-center students to attend them.
As troubled as our elite universities are becoming, there are still upsides for right-of-center students to attend them.
‘S tay quiet, regurgitate their ideology, get good grades, and get out.” So I was warned upon deciding to attend the University of Pennsylvania. Although my parents cheered when I was accepted, this new chapter of my life had a caveat: It meant four years of sacrificing my intellectual integrity and hiding my conservative politics, my Catholic faith, and my critique of liberal ideas from my new community.
The warnings I received were certainly well founded. In my tenure alone, Penn has made headlines for abysmal Covid policies, the discovery of classified Biden-administration documents, anonymous donations from Chinese adversaries. And that isn’t even to mention the virulent antisemitism and a viral congressional hearing that led to the resignation of its president. So it’s not surprising that Republicans are already publicly disavowing America’s top institutions, Penn among them. Its public shaming will likely result in a new message to young conservatives: “Take your high SAT score and good grades to a school that shares your values.” But this message is mistaken.
I know from personal experience. While many aspects of my life would have been different, and arguably better, if I had enrolled in a conservative institution, I don’t regret my decision to attend the university ranked second-to-last for its on-campus free speech. Every young, bright conservative student who gets the opportunity to attend an Ivy League school should do so. By attempting to protect conservative students from being ostracized at progressive universities, we lose the chance to affect life at some of our nation’s most powerful institutions.
For better or for worse, the Ivy League still runs the country. Only 0.8 percent of the country’s college attendees are Ivy League graduates, but they are overrepresented in America’s commanding heights of wealth and power. They make up 12 percent of America’s highest earners. Harvard has more alumni in Congress than any other school; Yale is third on the same ranking. Seventeen U.S. presidents have attended an Ivy. Even powerful people who did not attend these schools — like Joe Biden, who has close ties with Penn — rely heavily on them.
Although the quality of an Ivy League education may not be as unrivaled as many of those affiliated with them would like the public to believe, the cachet and network such schools afford remains unmatched. By attending a college with some of the most competitive, ambitious, and wealthy students in the nation, one benefits not only from connecting to its alumni and from affiliation with its prestige but also from friendships with other soon-to-be successful people.
For conservative students, these relationships and institutional access could be even more valuable. Support from those who do not share one’s views can attest to one’s character and can be earned through simple friendship. For the past four years, countless classmates — and even a few professors — have told me that I was the “first intelligent conservative” they’ve met.
Their slight condescension aside, I know my engagement in the classroom and on-campus extracurricular political activism has opened the minds of at least a few of my peers. The constant challenge I face in my academic environment has sharpened my views on any number of political issues.
Most important, the Ivies and their peer institutions teach conservatives the language of liberalism. American society favors progress and innovation. To command the cultural attention of the mainstream, up-and-coming leaders on the right must learn to speak in a way one’s opposition will understand. My own defenses of conservative views in language familiar to progressives have made my peers sympathetic to everything from my opposition to affirmative action to my calls against hookup culture.
There is a rational fear, amid all this, of becoming the token conservative in any room. Or worse yet in the eyes of parents, that the Ivies may turn kids away from their family’s values. Yes, speaking up in class can feel isolating. And the idea that my degree represents four years of defending my principles can be demoralizing. But my college experience has provided me the opportunity to make a difference by attempting to bring together the polarized sides of every debate. The reduction of civil discourse by geographic and social polarization makes our being exposed to those who think differently, and shaping their institutions, invaluable. Rather than turn me away from my upbringing, my engagement with liberal ideas at Penn showed me the importance of further committing to my faith and political leanings, an experience that has been echoed by the vast majority of my peers from similar backgrounds.
Conservatives are right to condemn Ivy League schools for their ivory-tower academic views and for those views’ negative consequences. But we should not keep our children from attending them. Infiltrating the Ivy League has been, and should remain, a foundation of the conservative mission.