<p>I was recently accepted to Northwestern and am very strongly considering the school. I was wondering how active the LGBTQ population is. Is the student population pretty accepting? Also, is there much of a presence of the gay population (or is there any at all)? Any input from current students would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>forsteprpeep,</p>
<p>The large and strong performing arts programs likely translates to a decent LGBTQ population. I’d say NU students are pretty liberal but not the in-your-face type. Chicago has an officially designated/recognized neighborhood for LGBTQ and a very large “gay scene”. This fact should attract quite a few LGBTQ students also.</p>
<p>Yeah, the gays here are definitely not the in-your-face type as you would find in, say, NYU or Wesleyan. About half of the gays I’ve met I’ve been shocked to find out were gay.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input everyone.</p>
<p>“In your face” gays…? </p>
<p>What does that mean? That LGBT people on campus aren’t politically active or staging cool envelope-pushing events? </p>
<p>Or that the gay guys are more manly at NU than at other campuses? </p>
<p>Sorry, maybe I’m the only one who is confused…</p>
<p>^meaning the majority of NU students are pretty liberal but they are sensible enough to respect those with more conservative views.</p>
<p>“they are sensible enough to respect those with more conservative views.”</p>
<p>Conservative views on gay people?</p>
<p>Sorry it was just weird to see the “liberal but not in your face liberal” come up in response to a question about gay life, and then sure enough a post down taking that and translating it to “no in your face gays.” </p>
<p>Kinda a weird progression from the original post…like a messed up game of telephone.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.adminplan.northwestern.edu/ir/sspg/cirp/TFS_2009_PDF_PROFILE.pdf[/url]”>http://www.adminplan.northwestern.edu/ir/sspg/cirp/TFS_2009_PDF_PROFILE.pdf</a></p>
<p>Your Institutions = Northwestern
Comp 1 = Privates - Very High Selectivity
Comp 2 = Privates</p>
<p>UMCP, what that meant was that at NU, being gay is not a big deal anymore. Some choose to center their lives around being “LGBT” (and we have a very active club for those students), but I’d venture to say the vast majority of gays here don’t. Gays should be able to focus on other things besides their sexuality. Just because somebody is gay doesn’t mean they will automatically find more things in common with other gays.</p>
<p>NU students typically don’t flaunt anything, whether that’s their political views, money, or yes, sexuality.</p>
<p>Compare to the Peers’ average, NU students rate themselves higher in the following:
Ability to see the world from someone else’s perspective
Tolerance of others with different beliefs
Openness to having my own views challenged
Ability to discuss and negotiate controversial issues
Ability to work cooperatively with diverse people</p>
<p>At the same time, higher % (6 percentage point higher than Peers’ average) of students at NU “agree strongly” or “agree somewhat” in the following:
Same-sex couples should have the right to legal marital status</p>
<p>Far left
NU: 4.4%
Comp 1: 3.2%
Liberal
NU: 48.8%
Comp 1: 39%</p>
<p>Edit: original questions answered somewhat.</p>
<p>Edit again: Blah, having a hard time formulating this question.</p>
<p>What I mean to say is, how does this translate into attendence at “LGBT” events? Are events dealing with LGBT rights, LGBT media/theory/etc. still prolific and well-attended? </p>
<p>And I assume political activism for LGBT rights on campus then is minimal?</p>
<p>I say this because most gay people do not make being gay “their life” but are still interested in attending things like Pride Prom, a movie screening of Milk or a pro gay marriage protest…if only to score a date 
(I kid - of course there would various reasons for attending such events…haha).</p>
<p>It’s at the end of the document.</p>
<p>NU students are very opinionated and though political clubs during the most recent presidential election were very active, I rarely saw people walking around campus sporting a political t-shirt. A lot of students also abstain from politics altogether, believing it to be a futile exercise.</p>
<p>Comp1=
Boston College
Brandeis
CalTech
Cornell
Duke
Emory
Georgetown
JHU
Northwestern
Rice
Notre Dame
Penn
Vandy
Wake Forest</p>
<p>Oh, I see. Thank you. That is interesting. Just from hearsay, I was surprised that NU scored above their peers in so many categories, esp. the “far left” category. But seeing that a lot of the schools on this list are known for being relatively conservative, that makes more sense (Duke, Vandy, Wake Forest, Notre Dame, stand out particularly). Boston College, Georgetown being a bit more conservative but not to the extent I consider schools in the South or Notre Dame to be. There’s not a lot on that list I would consider very “crunchy/hippy”, for sure (with the exception of Rice and Penn…you could say they have an ultra liberal reputation I suppose).</p>
<p>I don’t know much about Brandeis or Emory.</p>
<p>Oops, confused Rice with Reed…LOL.</p>
<p>Don’t know much about Rice either.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone! I’m not looking for a very centralized/exclusive gay population, just confirmation that there is a gay presence on campus and that the student body is very accepting. It sounds like the gay population is fairly interspersed with the student body and clubs (opposed to being completely isolated). That’s good to know!</p>
<p>^^Oh and I find that somewhat ironic since right now I am trying to decide between just Northwestern and Rice!! I am about to visit both schools before I make my decision. :)</p>
<p>[The</a> Daily Northwestern - Northwestern to pilot gender-neutral housing program](<a href=“http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/northwestern-to-pilot-gender-neutral-housing-program-1.2211157]The”>http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/northwestern-to-pilot-gender-neutral-housing-program-1.2211157)</p>