Auburn is ranked, conservatively, as the most conservative student body in the country according to a survey published in the newest edition of the Princeton Review “Best Colleges” guidebook.
The book ranks schools across 67 categories based on survey data taken from some 126,000 students at participating schools. The methodology is not without its critics, but you can read more about how they came to their conclusions.
The conservative ranking is based off answers to the question “Politically, are you: left-wing, Democrat, middle, Republican, right-wing?”
Auburn also finds itself ranked at 11 in the “jock schools” category (concerning the popularity on campus of varsity and intramural sports and Greek life) and 13th in school spirit packing the stadium. “How popular are intercollegiate sports at your school?” (Told you their methodology has critics.)
The Tigers were also ranked fourth for student-community relations. (“How well do students at your college get along with members of the local community?”) Auburn ranked No. 14 in unfriendliness to LGBT students, which is a community acceptance measure based on the question “Do students, faculty, and administrators at your college treat all persons equally regardless of their sexual orientations and gender identity/expression?”
Princeton Review says the average incoming freshman’s GPA at Auburn is a 3.8. The average on campus is 3.78.
And there is some good news for our friends from across the state. The “University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa” was, in last year’s book, sitting at the top of the “Students Least Likely to Study” category. They’ve been bumped to ninth this year. The incoming GPA at Alabama is a respectable 3.6 with an average on campus GPA of 3.57.
Related: An Auburn student political opinion poll from 1972.
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Does anyone care what the snobbish Princeton Review thinks or publishes?
You do know you read an article from the War Eagle Reader right? An Auburn publication? If something negative about Bama hurts your feelings, why would you be reading any kind of Auburn news? War Eagle!!
AUGrad, To be sure, I most assuredly know what I read and where I read it. Just what did I say “something negative about Bama”?
Just WHAT “hurts my feelings”?
Why would I “be reading any kind of Auburn news”?
Auburn “Golden Eagle” (Graduation + 50 years), Athletic Scholarship Donor (31 years), Samford Society, Engineering Eagle Donor, Alumni Ass’n Life Member here.
Do you have some kind of an identity problem?
Go join a blog where you can complain and criticize.
War Eagle!
The average GPA is nowhere near a 3.78. It hovers down below a 3.0, which show how inaccurate this survey obviously is.
The average incoming GPA is pretty accurate. I’m not so sure about the average “on campus” GPA, but that is fairly meaningless since it’s totally based on “on campus” classes and grading. (If “on campus” GPA is high, there is no simple foolproof way to attribute it to the students being smart, or — conversely — to the classes and/or grading being easy.)
Walker: Fine point.
Here’s another: All that data was self-reported, and things like GPAs are sometimes erroneous. You want to look smart and so on.
This is essentially the gist of much of the criticisms leveled annually at these rankings.
I’m liberal, not a football fan, and accept people for who they are regardless of who they love (because it’s a civil right and shouldn’t be a political issue)… and I go to Auburn.