<p>I was admitted to Villanova and love the campus, but am concerned with the atmosphere for gay students. Are gays ever treated poorly due to the religious affiliation of the school? I would hate to go to a school where I will not be accepted.</p>
<p>Within the Division of Student Life there is a support group ,Gay Straight Coalition , please look on Villanova web site and contact student life and GSC with question and concerns.</p>
<p>While Villanova may not be the most gay friendly school , Any "unfriendly " treatment will be due to ignorance/immaturity of some students, not Religious affiliation. The religious experience at Nova can be as overt ,subtle or nonexistent as you please. There is no peer pressure from students to attend mass or pray. And aside from theology class requirement , administration religious pressure does not exist , unless the sight of crosses on buildings and A few priests or nuns freak you out.
The only Mass that all students participate is on the first day of orientation , right before parents leave the kids ( very moving for all regardless of Your religion ) and there may be a mass at graduation.
I know of gay students (men&women) that have great social and academic experiences Nova.</p>
<p>Good luck</p>
<p>I hope you don’t make your choice for that reason. There are ignorant jerks everywhere you go. I don’t think Villanova discriminates based on sexuality, besides I’m always looking for a gay best friend! (;</p>
<p>I think the way I worded my question was kind of misleading. I was referring more to students not accepting their peers rather than the administration.</p>
<p>During Freshman Escape (pretty much a religious retreat), we played a game where you step forward if you believe in something. When we were asked the question if anyone knows a Gay person. Everyone stepped forward. When we were asked the question if Gays had the right to equality and marriage, everyone stepped forward. And most people at this retreat were indeed catholic. It’s a pretty open university.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go to Nova if I was LGBT. The students are a mixed group, some support gays others don’t accept them at all and the administration has pretty much made their stance on gays clear.</p>
<p>Plus there are tons of schools out there that are academically on-par with Nova with much better gay support services. Why not try BU or GWU?</p>
<p>I just joined so I could answer this question. I am a gay guy at Villanova, and I didn’t come out until the week before going to school so it had no impact on my decision. If I could make the decision again, the gay atmosphere as a bigger deal, but not because people aren’t gay-friendly - I’ve gotten nothing but support, or even better, normalcy. The worst part about it is that there are so few gay guys (more lesbians from what I’ve noticed actually) that it is difficult to have the full college experience in that sense. You learn to import guys from UPenn or other places lol. But I have great friends (you’d be surprised how cool straight guys are here about the whole situation) who are always there for me, its sometimes just difficult given that the pool of guys who like guys (or girls who like girls for that matter) is much smaller than average (or guys are closeted, but those are the worst type - lots of baggage) I know you already made your decision, but I figured if anyone reads this for next year, hopefully this can be informative!</p>