<p>What would the atmosphere for a gay student at UChicago be like? I am considering it for a last minute application. Other schools I'm applying to - UTexas-Austin, Boston University, Wash U, and Yale. Thanks!</p>
<p>i know chicago was renown for its libertarian economics department... if the rest of the campus carries similar beliefs then id say your good...</p>
<p>Is the school truly full of introverted nerds and ugly people? I am somewhat quirky/unique myself but I don't wanna go somewhere where people don't want to go out ever for fear of not studying or light exposure.</p>
<p>^I doubt it, probably just another stereotype.</p>
<p>kcirch, I can report (heresay but absolutely reliable) that you can be gay, quirky, and not a slave to your studies and still thrive at Chicago. Chicago is a great city; it would be stupid to confine yourself to the campus all the time.</p>
<p>user_name, Chicago, or more specifically the 'Chicago school' of economics isn't the 'most' libertarian - The 'Austrian' school of economics is far more libertarian (I refer to Carl Menger, Ludwig Von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Eugen Bohm-Bawerks, and their disciples, such as Murray Rothbard, George Reisman, Israel Kirchner, but not Milton Friedman). I hear Auburn State and NYU have/had quite Austrian departments.</p>
<p>chicago has a much more libertarian economics departments than most schools, though. i'd say the college with the most libertarian department would be hillsdale college, though.</p>
<p>I think that it would be fine. People there function as individuals. There are no mass social groups or cliques. People expect to encounter differences. It would be a good choice.</p>
<p>i'm sure it'd be better than dallas</p>
<p>Actually Dallas has one of the largest populations of gays in the US, along with Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta, and NYC.</p>
<p>brooke, you're probably right, but I doubt that Hillsdale is the most gay friendly college (although the Libertarian Party candidate beat Al Gore by 10 percentage points according to the ISI guide to colleges). I read somewhere that the college is conservative generally but the econ department more libertarian, though the college is and has been far more admirable than others in its actions (instead of papering over their past like the ivies, and Cornell specifically).</p>
<p>I've heard NYU has lots of gays (Justice Scalia spoke there, and an NYU student asked in a question and answer session straight out if he engaged in sodomy, to repulse the crowd while proving a point about the Texas anti-sodomy law).</p>
<p>yes, i suppose you're right. unfortunately libertartians are generally grouped in the same category as conservatives who don't believe in civil rights. odd how that works.</p>
<p>Conservatives believe in civil rights. You are mistaken.</p>
<p>Chicago has a lot of gay males. Their social life is probably better than the average straight student's. In the words of a guy I know who's been there for two years, "I'm too slutty to be straight on this campus."</p>
<p>Most intellectual schools tend to be pretty liberal. I am fairly sure Chicago is on the more liberal side.</p>
<p>It depends. Chicago is certainly more liberal than the bible belt, but less so than your average east-coast college. But irregardless, being a gay male is not a problem, believe me.</p>
<p>I meant U Chicago, not Chicago. Sorry if I wasn't clear.</p>
<p>I meant UChicago as well. Sometimes people just say "Chicago" instead of UChicago. Although for that matter, based on my experience the politics of UChicago seem similar to the politics of Chicago the city, as does the visibly present gay male community.</p>
<p>Libertarians actually do not advocate "civil rights" in the context that it is usually used in, as in the case of antidiscrimination law, which they oppose, except when applied to the government. (I don't know exactly what civil rights really are, so I can't say if libertarians oppose them or not.) They do strongly believe in civil liberties though, as in the case above, the freedom of association. With conservatives, it may be hard to dissect what they truly believe from what they do in politics (while libertarians have almost no political representation, so they need not muck up principle with politics). And conservatism, it seems, has moved leftwards with society in general, possibly because it is such a popular movement. (I'm not talking about conservative politicians but the views expressed by so-called conservatives. Example: Iraq war is not a conservative war, but more a liberal, Wilsonian war, in the way it is currently cast ie. "spreading democracy" -Bush v. "The world must be made safe for democracy" -Wilson. The few conservatives expressing a truly conservative foreign policy, an isolationist foreign policy, are labeled paleoconservatives, with paleo meaning "old.")</p>
<p>I think you're more than okay. I know a few gay guys who have flourished at UChicago.</p>
<p>You're going to meet intolerant people no matter where you go, but from my experience, UChicago has one of the best academic and social atmospheres that a university can offer.</p>