Report: Students become more liberal throughout college

According to a study of over 14,000 college freshmen and seniors nationwide, students that go through college become more liberal on many key controversial issues.

Here is the study, although I am going to highlight two of its major findings.

Finding one. If two people otherwise share the same background characteristics, as well as equal civic knowledge, the one who graduates from college will be more likely than the one who does not to favor same same-sex marriage and favor abortion on demand, for example. Similarly, a college graduate will be less likely than the non-college graduate to believe anyone can succeed in America with hard work and perseverance or favor teacher-led prayer in public schools.

Why is this? Contrary to liberals smug beliefs that it is because they are smarter, the real finding is that when you surround impressionable young students for 4-5 years with solid liberal professors who make passing their class dependent on you buying into their worldview, you make kids more liberal.

Here is finding two. Being a college professor alters one’s worldview on propositions involving education, economics, religion, and America. If two people share the same basic characteristics, the one who has taught at the college level is more likely to agree that America corrupts otherwise good people, The Ten Commandments are irrelevant today, Raising the minimum wage decreases employment, Educators should instill more doubt in students and reject certainty; and Homeschooling families neglect their community obligations. So, professors are liberal, and they teach our children and shape their minds, thus these kids come out liberal.

Those were two of the main findings from the study The Shaping of the American Mind: The Diverging Influences of the College Degree & Civic Learning on American Beliefs by The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). The ISI is a non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt educational organization. The Institute receives no funding or any other aid from any level of government.

These findings fit with my own studies into this issue, of which I read dozens of books, did my Master's thesis on, conducted my own (although assuredly amateur) study on, and have observed through anecdotal evidence from former students.