Heritage Foundation releases guide to colleges that teach instead of indoctrinate
Click for interactive map.
In an effort to find at least two universities in every state that are focused not on leftist and queer indoctrination but instead on free expression and open inquiry, the conservative Heritage Foundation has now put together an interactive map and guide that parents and high school students can use to choose a quality college to attend.
The image to the right is a screen capture of that map, located here. You can click on each dot to get more detailed information about why Heritage recommends or not recommends it. For example, for Thomas Aquinas College in California the guide says the following in explaining why it lists it as a “great option.”
The mission of Thomas Aquinas College (TAC) is to renew “what is best in the Western intellectual heritage and to [conduct] liberal education under the guiding light of the Catholic faith.” TAC has an impressive “A+” rating from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. It does not have a bias response team, nor does it require diversity statements for hiring. It has an impressive 80 percent four-year graduation rate. Thomas Aquinas College also accepts the Classical Learning Test for admission.
Meanwhile, the guide says the following in giving Cornell University, Duke, Brown, Harvard, and Tufts a “not recommended” status:
These universities exhibit a pervasive hostility toward diverse viewpoints and lack robust core curricular requirements, undermining a well-rounded education. These institutions are often heavily influenced by ideologically driven administration agendas and DEI bureaucracies, frequently resulting in limitations on freedom of expression. Moreover, these universities typically demonstrate weak returns on investment, evidenced by lower graduation rates and diminished post-graduation income, making them less favorable choices for students seeking both intellectual rigor and long-term success.
These recommendations were derived by reviewing numerous other guides, such as the free speech listing put out by Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) as well information from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. The guide also attempted to get as much local feedback as possible, and to increase that knowledge base users of this guide can add their own comments under every college heading.
This first guide covers only 280 universities. The foundation intends to make regular updates to expand the guide to hopefully one day cover the almost 3,000 colleges in the United States.
The sad thing about this first guide is that Heritage was unable to meet its goal of finding at least two “great options” in every state. Many states, such as Maryland, Colorado, and Texas, have only one such college. This result could either be a reflection of the truly bankrupt status of American academia, or merely because the guide so far covers only about 10% of the colleges in the U.S.
Unfortunately, I suspect the former, as this first guide seems to provide a very good sampling of the nation’s most important universities. What the guide however will hopefully do is direct students to the good colleges and away from the bad ones, which in the long run will help reform academia. The bad colleges will either have to fix themselves, or die.
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Click for interactive map.
In an effort to find at least two universities in every state that are focused not on leftist and queer indoctrination but instead on free expression and open inquiry, the conservative Heritage Foundation has now put together an interactive map and guide that parents and high school students can use to choose a quality college to attend.
The image to the right is a screen capture of that map, located here. You can click on each dot to get more detailed information about why Heritage recommends or not recommends it. For example, for Thomas Aquinas College in California the guide says the following in explaining why it lists it as a “great option.”
The mission of Thomas Aquinas College (TAC) is to renew “what is best in the Western intellectual heritage and to [conduct] liberal education under the guiding light of the Catholic faith.” TAC has an impressive “A+” rating from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. It does not have a bias response team, nor does it require diversity statements for hiring. It has an impressive 80 percent four-year graduation rate. Thomas Aquinas College also accepts the Classical Learning Test for admission.
Meanwhile, the guide says the following in giving Cornell University, Duke, Brown, Harvard, and Tufts a “not recommended” status:
These universities exhibit a pervasive hostility toward diverse viewpoints and lack robust core curricular requirements, undermining a well-rounded education. These institutions are often heavily influenced by ideologically driven administration agendas and DEI bureaucracies, frequently resulting in limitations on freedom of expression. Moreover, these universities typically demonstrate weak returns on investment, evidenced by lower graduation rates and diminished post-graduation income, making them less favorable choices for students seeking both intellectual rigor and long-term success.
These recommendations were derived by reviewing numerous other guides, such as the free speech listing put out by Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) as well information from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. The guide also attempted to get as much local feedback as possible, and to increase that knowledge base users of this guide can add their own comments under every college heading.
This first guide covers only 280 universities. The foundation intends to make regular updates to expand the guide to hopefully one day cover the almost 3,000 colleges in the United States.
The sad thing about this first guide is that Heritage was unable to meet its goal of finding at least two “great options” in every state. Many states, such as Maryland, Colorado, and Texas, have only one such college. This result could either be a reflection of the truly bankrupt status of American academia, or merely because the guide so far covers only about 10% of the colleges in the U.S.
Unfortunately, I suspect the former, as this first guide seems to provide a very good sampling of the nation’s most important universities. What the guide however will hopefully do is direct students to the good colleges and away from the bad ones, which in the long run will help reform academia. The bad colleges will either have to fix themselves, or die.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
I know a fair number of TAC graduates, and I can say, just judging by results, that I cannot praise this school highly enough.
It’s not for everyone, and it’s not cheap. But there is a role for it, and I am very, very glad it exists.
Absolutely beautiful campus, too. They weren’t afraid to stick to tradition in their architecture, too.
Related, its all related: its all a “Conspiracy”!
AFTER THE DEBATE: FACT CHECK
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/after-the-debate-fact-check
MUMBO JUMBO? OR DENIAL OF DUE PROCESS?
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/mumbojumbo-or-denial-of-due-process
I’d like to think my alma mater would be listed as a “Great Option” but, alas, they have chosen to go the route of DEI and indoctrination, as opposed to the more intellectual bent which was present back in my day (’82-’86). Rational inquiry is as dead as Caesar.
P.S. Now that I’ve looked at Heritage’s list, I am pleased (and not surprised) that I am the graduate of two of their “Great Schools” (both graduate degrees.)
That said….one of them (Catholic University of America in Washington DC) might give me hesitation if I had a child looking to go there for an *undergraduate* degree, because, solid as the school is, it is expensive as all heck, and limitations of scholarship opportunities means that you have to think hard about whether a degree is actually worth the money, especially if it must be debt-financed. College is just so, so, so much more expensive now than it was for us Gen X and Boomer peeps. You have to think hard about that.
I am curious to know why many schools seem not to have gotten any rating at all, and what criteria underlined those choices.
Richard M asked, “I am curious to know why many schools seem not to have gotten any rating at all, and what criteria underlined those choices.”
According to the Heritage site, this was there first pass at putting the guidelines together. More schools will be added as time passes, until they hope to include all U.S. colleges.
There are two on the list in Texas: UT Austin and University of Dallas. Frankly there are other fine, non lefty schools in Texas that are academically rigorous. The fact that Heritage listed UT makes me question the entire endeavor.
Robert Pratt: I must have missed one Texas dot in reviewing the page.
Heritage was very clear about the newness of this list, and was eager to have others with more “on the ground” experience add commentary and more information. Go to the UT listing and add you thoughts. It will influence them in the right direction.
You should also let them know about those “non-lefty” schools.
@Robert Pratt, University of Texas at Austin is a “not recommended” institution. The University of Austin (Great Option) was founded in 2021. I understand from somewhere else that it was founded specifically to counter the totalitarian drift in much of university education/indoctrination.
University of Colorado Boulder. Worth Considering? I guess it depends what subject one studies, but I refuse to even drive through Boulder, it’s an awful place.
I’m not surprised to see that the college that Mrs. Bucket and I went to, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, shows up as red. Back in the day, there were still some fair-minded, if not actually conservative professors there, but the reports that I get from my daughter, who’s a senior there now, curl my hair. Unfortunately, she eats that stuff up. So much for the conservative upbringing she received. They proselytized that right out of her.
SB – You can always disown her. I’ve met with one such case. I worked for an Army captain, whose Marine colonel father disowned him when he accepted a commission as an Army officer. They hadn’t seen or talked on the phone for something like a decade. He was obviously written out of the will., I would think.
Wow—that’s cold.