CLARION, Pa. (EYT) If you’re looking for a college that tips on the conservative side of the scale, Stacker.com has a list of 50 such schools. Clarion University of Pennsylvania made the Top 10.
However, there is some question as to how Stacker.com interpreted the data it used.
Requests sent to the website for comment were not returned; however, Stacker cites the fact that the college had more students attending the 2016 Republican National Convention than any other university in the nation as justification for that ranking.
In all, six students attended the convention in Cleveland through the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars, a Washington D.C. based nonprofit organization. The two-week trip was part of a political science course at CUP. That’s according to a report published in July of 2016 on the website of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
On its website, Stacker describes itself as “a place that transforms expert analysis into digestible stories that entertain and inform.”
According to Stacker, “conservatives looking for a public college campus hospitable to their beliefs, have several options.”
It created a list of the top 50 such colleges. Not many of them are in Pennsylvania.
California University of Pennsylvania was also on the list, with a distant ranking of 32. Stacker says California made the list because more students identify as Republicans on campus than with any other ideology.
Lock Haven University ranks 45th. That ranking came, according to the Stacker website, thanks to a course started by a sociology professor called “Culture and society in the Age of Trump.” It was created in response to students who wanted a place to openly share their views on the president.
If you’re having trouble agreeing with Stacker.com’s list of conservative schools, you’re not alone. In fact, niche.com, the website that collected the information on which Stacker claims to have based its list, also disagrees.
Niche is a Pittsburgh-based company that runs a ranking and review site. It provides information on U.S. colleges as well as K-12 schools, cities, neighborhoods, and companies across the nation.
Niche spokeswoman Emma Gielata says Clarion doesn’t appear till number 56 on its list. That list includes many private institutions, several of them with a Christian affiliation which may be expected to be more conservative in nature.
The Niche rankings are based 80% on how students answered survey questions on their personal political leanings. The other 20% was based on how students perceived the political leanings on the campus as a whole.
Niche ranks Grove City College as 33 on its list of most conservative colleges. The University of Valley Forge in Phoenixville, Pa., is at 42. Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa., is 75. St. Francis University in Loretto, Pa., is 88.
As for the top ranking, Stacker gives the honor to Utah State University. On the Niche list, it’s Brigham Young University in Idaho.
Stacker.com’s list of most conservative U.S. public universities.
Niche.com’s list of most conservative U.S. universities.
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