<p>Hi everyone! I'm the mother of three kids, and my oldest son (now a junior) is transgender. This essentially means that he's mentally male, but biologically female. He told me and my husband about this when he was 14, and he's been slowly transitioning ever since. While he's had no surgery or other medical work, he dresses and looks like the boy he is in his day-to-day life.
I'm a little concerned about finding a college where he'll be happy because of this. He's suffered a lot of bullying, and even the gay community can be exclusionary towards transgender individuals. He'll continue to go through the process of transitioning in college, and we want him to be in the most accepting environment possible. Does anyone know of any colleges that are particularly supportive of transgender students?
For reference, he's taken a few SAT practice tests and has scored around 2100. He got a 213 on the PSAT. His GPA is 3.85 unweighted, and he's in advanced classes. He's unsure of what he wants to major in, but he's definitely a humanities & social science type of person, and he's interested in indie music and film as well.</p>
<p>[The</a> Top 10 Trans-Friendly Colleges and Universities | Advocate.com](<a href=“http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2012/08/15/top-10-trans-friendly-colleges-and-universities]The”>The Top 10 Trans-Friendly Colleges and Universities)</p>
<p>Search is helpful to read past discussions on a topic --there are quite a few.</p>
<p>Maybe start here:
[Colleges</a> With Gender Neutral Housing – Dorm Rooms for Gay, lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Students](<a href=“http://gaylife.about.com/od/gayteens/a/genderneutral.htm]Colleges”>5 Bad Ways to Demonstrate Your Interest in a College)</p>
<p>And interesting:
[Student</a> health plan to cover sex reassignment ? Brown Daily Herald](<a href=“http://www.browndailyherald.com/2013/02/06/student-health-plan-to-cover-sex-reassignment/]Student”>Student health plan to cover sex reassignment - The Brown Daily Herald)
[Duke</a> Raises Student Fees to Pay for Sex Change Surgery](<a href=“Duke Raises Student Fees to Pay for Sex Change Surgery | The College Fix”>Duke Raises Student Fees to Pay for Sex Change Surgery | The College Fix)</p>
<p>My daughter goes to Oberlin College which appears on a couple of these lists. It is a highly selective school with gender neutral bathrooms which starts out many conversations with a discussion of which pronouns someone wants to use. It is very accepting of the LGBT community while providing an outstanding liberal arts education. It has a gorgeous campus and is located 35 miles SW of Cleveland. My hippie chick daughter loves it there.</p>
<p>Strongly second the recommendation to look at Oberlin. I’m a trans alum and had a very positive experience there; if you send me a PM I’d be happy to put you in touch with current students who are involved with the trans community there.</p>
<p>Oberlin, Wesleyan, Hampshire, UCSC, Grinnell…your son should be a great (and memorable!) applicant, and these are all very strong schools well known for tolerance and progressive politics.</p>
<p>What an awesome, supportive mom! The Advocate schools are great but they are all highly selective. You can search more on this forum on this topic using Google “Schools Transgender Student site:collegeconfidential.com” will get you good reading going back to 2004. This forum’s regular search site only takes you back a few months. There have been many threads so I’m sure a lot of schools have been discussed. I have no advice on west coast schools. I live in VA.</p>
<p>Send you kid to a large state university where there are thousands of students and a sizable transgender community. I know that his grades are good and stuff and he might get into a more exclusive and private college as well. But there are downsides to attending small schools like being classmates with snobs who’ll pick on him.
Also look into urban settings rather than rural settings and that too big cities like NYC, Chicago, LA, etc etc. The idea must be to have a support group around when he needs one.</p>