<p>I am a prospective student looking at Swarthmore college. From the vibe I picked up while I was there, the student body is quirky and accepting of minorities. There are only about 1500 students, though. Can anyone tell me anything about being gay at Swarthmore? Is it hard? Is dating possible? </p>
<p>Apart from this potential drawback, of which I hope you will alleviate my fears, Swarthmore is probably my top choice at this point.</p>
<p>Indeed, some people date, though, as you might expect at an intense place like Swarthmore, people go to the “extremes”: some just hook up a few times and then become awkward acquaintances –– or –– people get Swat-married or “smarried”. </p>
<p>From what I understand from friends from other schools, gay scenes at the top schools (which tend to have 5000 students or fewer) tend to be pretty small, so if you like Swarthmore otherwise, I don’t think you should find that Swarthmore’s environment is “worse” than that of any other school. People at Swat are very welcoming and open; people don’t very much care about sexual orientation –– more important is what you’re thinking about, or what you find interesting or exciting. Among the Swat’s LAC peers, I imagine Swarthmore probably has one of the better environments for gay people (certainly better than those at Amherst, Williams). I imagine the “scenes” at places like Columbia, Yale, and Harvard are similarly welcoming. I know from friends at Princeton that Princeton is **absolutely toxic<a href=“I’ve%20heard%20%5Bb%5Dhorrible%5B/b%5D%20stories”>/b</a> and Penn seems to be pretty mixed, perhaps due to the intense Greek life. </p>
<p>Good luck with your applications.</p>
<p>The student body at Swarthmore and the institution as a whole are very accepting of gay people. It shouldn’t be a problem. I don’t think being gay affects the possibility of dating, nor does it affect the awkwardness that comes with dating in general at Swarthmore (please, please don’t worry about this aspect). To echo what the above person has written, nobody at Swat is going to make any fuss about your sexual orientation. There are plenty of gay people at Swat, and there are quite a few people who consider themselves transgender as well. Of course, Swatties aren’t perfect, so don’t expect that. Still, I don’t think you’ll feel singled out at all. Swatties aren’t that interested in other people’s sexual orientations – they’ll look beyond that. On the contrary, I agree with the person who responded above (he/she’s a great person, by the way) that Swat is probably one of the more accepting places among top colleges/universities. I hope this has alleviated your fears!</p>
<p>I am gay and go to Swarthmore and couldn’t be happier. My estimation (which is obviously horribly biased) is that probably 25%-35% of campus is queer. Now that means different things to different people. Some people will just hook up and other people will hardcore date (smarry). There is plenty of queer visiblity on campus and things are much less heteronormative imo. In addition, there are all sorts of little queer havens where you can meet people like SQU (Swarthmore Queer Union), Ultimate Frisbee (for girls), track (for guys), and lots of others. There are queer parties once a month as well. Sorry this is a little all over the place but please feel free to PM me if you have any more questions. I remember being really nervous about this when I was in the college process too!</p>
<p>I think that Swat is very gay-friendly, but highly doubt that gays comprise 1/3 of the student body (maybe 10%???). In any event, Swat is a very accepting campus (perhaps less accepting of the far right, but no big draw there).</p>
<p>I think 10% is a little low. I am including people who consider themselves “flexible” in my estimation which definitely accounts for a significant portion of the 25%-35%. Apparently (I have yet to see it) a survey put out by the school indicated that 22% of students identified themselves as queer or LGBT. Again, haven’t actually seen it so it may just be a rumor.</p>