Gay-Friendly Colleges

<p>I'm an openly gay senior, and as I'm working on (and finishing up) most of my college apps, I major question came into mind. I know the colleges I'm applying to aren't homophobic, but I wanted to see if any gay, current students that go to any of my schools would mind telling me how they are accepted by the students in general. I'm not very flamboyant, and not many people guess that I'm gay, so if that makes any difference, I'd appreciate hearing about that too. Also, if anyone knows of any social frats that give bids any to gay guys at my schools, let me know please. Rereading this, it sounds like a bad craigslist ad... hahaha my bad. Anyways, I know I'm applying to a lot of schools, but:</p>

<p>Reach:
UPenn
USC
UMich
Wisconsin-Madison</p>

<p>Likely:
Indiana-Bloomington
Ohio State-Columbus
Miami of Ohio
Illinois- Urbana
Michigan State
Minnesota- Twin Cities
Penn State
San Diego State
Northeastern
UMass-Amherst
UW-Seattle
ASU</p>

<p>Safety:
Cal State Fullerton
University of Kansas
Whittier College</p>

<p>Thanks for your help guys :)</p>

<p>This is anecdata from a straight woman, but have you looked at Boston University? For one, it is majority female–it hovers between 60-70% women. Mostly creative, nerdy, liberal women. The campus has a very open, progressive, accepting feel for all types of people. There’s no masculine/frat culture there (though there are frats). In my experience, being at BU from 2002-2006, of the remaining student body that was male, a good quarter was gay. Of my personal acquaintances, 2 were out while at BU… and 4 more came out within two years of graduation. (so more than half of my male friends were gay, basically) I had many gay professors, as well. Most of the frats/sororities on campus are service & social oriented–BU really doesn’t have a typical Greek culture–and I actually found an article on this frat from 2011: <a href=“http://www.bu.edu/today/2011/a-frat-comes-back-to-life/”>http://www.bu.edu/today/2011/a-frat-comes-back-to-life/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Yale. A few years ago the Yale Magazine (sent out to alums) had a cover titled “Yale – The Gay Ivy” and carried this article: <a href=“Yale Alumni Magazine: The Gay Ivy (July/Aug 09)”>http://archive.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2009_07/gayivy_033.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Case Western i’ve heard is very gay friendly, but it’s a more nerdy-technological school, if that’s your cup of tea.</p>

<p>You may want to check your schools on the website Campus Pride.</p>

<p>@proudterrier‌ I haven’t really looked into BU because I’ve heard it isn’t the best for business. That being said, I definitely will look at it. Thanks!
@gandalf78‌ There’s no way I could get into Yale…
@Ctesiphon‌ I was looking at going to a larger school, and I’m majoring in Finance, so it may not be the best fit, but thank you anwyays.
@vamominvabeach‌ I already have, but I was going for more of a “how does the student body feel about gays” rather than the “does the administration have policies to protect gays?” feel that campus pride seems to have.</p>

<p>Case Western has 10,000 students. I think that is pretty large. Once you reach that amount it’s hard for someone to walk on campus and notice any difference between 40,000 or 20,000 students.</p>

<p>You seem to be rejecting most suggestions. Is there any other criteria you are looking for? Rural/urban location, part of the country, etc.</p>

<p>

If there’s “no way” you could get into Yale, take Penn off the list as well. Any difference in selectivity between Yale and Wharton is not significant. USC is becoming extremely selective as well. </p>

<p>Most of the colleges on your list are queer-friendly, though frats are often markedly less so. The most likely problem you’ll run into is a limited dating pool at the rural schools with relatively small out populations – scope out Miami U, Penn State, etc. carefully before applying. </p>

<p>You have a lot of out-of-state public universities on your list, which are unlikely to give you much (if any) financial aid. Can you afford to pay the full cost of attendance at those universities? Depending on your state of residence, I would get rid of most if not all of the OOS publics. </p>

<p>If you’re into business, George Washington University has a great program and is also very gay-supportive. That’s my alma mater and there was talk all the time about how open it is to the gay population and and it seems there was quite a large group of gay students on campus. So much so that the women were always complaining that all the guys on campus were either in a long-distance relationship or gay, haha.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>I’ve heard great things about Vassar from my LGBT*Q friends. One of their FAQs on the official admissions site is actually about that.</p>

<p>EDIT: Oops, I just realised that you were looking for comments on the list you currently have - sorry. I’ll leave my comment here for anyone else looking through this thread in the future.</p>

<p>CSU Fullerton appears to be predominantly a commuter school, since only 31% of frosh live on campus.</p>

<p>A better safety may be Elmhurst College, near Chicago.</p>

<p>I know UMN is pretty dang liberal so I dont think you’ll have a problem there. </p>

<p>@lidandixon‌ BU is actually nationally ranked for their business school–SMG, for grad & undergrad. I knew SMG kids and they got a pretty rigorous education and lots of job connections. (they also have the second most successful Starbucks franchise in the U.S.–fun fact!) On the graduate side, one of my roommates got into an elite AT&T management program that guaranteed her employment (she did a three year management rotation in different business units and then got a permanent upper management placement this year)… SMG certainly has connections. And depending on the industry you want to get into, the BU alumni network might come in handy. We have a lot of alum at the top of the entertainment industry. Worth looking into as a potential match school.</p>

<p>@Ctesiphon‌ tbh, I was looking for something more along the lines of how the schools already on my list were stacking up for lgbt treatment, especially now that I’ve already submitted all my apps and am not really looking for more schools to add… but thank you for your suggestions.
@warblersrule‌ UPenn is supposedly recruiting LGBT members. That’s the only way I’d get it. Also, I’m leaving to visit Miami tomorrow.
@ucbalumnus‌ I know. I almost pulled my application, but it’s the local school used as a back up. My parents are making me apply…</p>

<p>If you are local to CSU Fullerton, why aren’t you applying to other CSUs and UCs (besides SDSU)?</p>

<p>Seems like much of your list consists of out-of-state publics that are likely to be significantly more expensive than CSUs and UCs.</p>

<p>@ucbalumnus‌ My parents are attempting to keep the amount in my college fund a secret, but I “accidentally” saw a bank statement in the mail saying it was around 250K. That combined with me wanting to leave SoCal, and few good business schools in the state that I could get into.</p>

<p>

You’re mistaken, though admittedly some of the news reports about it have been unclear. </p>

<p>What Penn (and several of its peers) has been doing is encouraging LGBT students to identify as such on the application so that they can reach out to relevant admitted students – letting them know about opportunities on campus, connecting them with current students, etc. My alma mater even has an admissions officer who handles LGBT student questions as part of her duties. </p>

<p>That does NOT mean that identifying as LGBT provides any sort of advantage whatsoever in the admissions process. Penn and the other Ivies have plenty of academically qualified LGB applicants, and Penn has long had a very thriving gay scene. </p>

<p>@warblersrule‌ my mistake then. well, i’ve already submitted the app, so there’s not much I can do now.</p>

<p>Have they actually told you how much they are willing to pay? Just because there is money there does not necessarily mean that they are willing to use all of it.</p>

<p>If you are a realistic applicant for UPenn, you can apply to Berkeley as well, although you would then have to apply again to the business major after taking the prerequisite courses.</p>