I am a gay male senior in high school. I was wondering how prominent the gay population is at these schools, according yo your best estimate (preferably from someone who goes or has gone there). I’m not really interest in how “gay friendly” a school is, rather how likely it is I will find other gays there/how many gays there are. Here is the list:
The Claremont Colleges
Bard
Macalester
Lewis and Clark
Reed
Whitman
Vassar
Occidental
Skidmore
If you have any opinion on any of these schools, feel free to share! Even if it’s only about one of them. Thanks everyone!
You should have Grinnell on this list. The President, Raynard Kingston, is gay, living with his partner on campus, and they are raising two kids together. It’s not ‘gay friendly.’ It’s ‘gay is a fact of life’, like blue or brown eyes. As my D at another school says, ‘coming out’ is so old-fashioned. No one cares. Live your life. I think the same is true on many of these LAC campuses these day.
The relevance of the president (educated at two universities with large LGB populations) to Grinnell’s dating opportunities for queer students eludes me. Grinnell has a small population of male students (~750) and is located in a rural area, both of which are significant disadvantages for a gay guy looking to date or socialize. Acceptance is not the issue at stake here; a critical mass of out G/B students on campus is. Grinnell may be a good option (the number of LGB-related groups suggests it’s at least decent), but any rural LAC requires closer examination than larger or more urban colleges, particularly if you’re a gay person of color.
Urban colleges like Macalester, Lewis & Clark, and Reed are some of the best choices among LACs, and Minneapolis and Portland are awesome cities for gay people. Due to the consortium, the Claremonts have a good-sized queer community as well. Vassar and Bard have some of the largest gay populations among LACs (I have friends who’ve graduated from both and can verify).
The best source of information is current students on campus. Get in touch through the LGBT centers and/or gay-straight alliances on campus.
You might want to look into Swat or Haverford if you have the stats. Neither has a huge gay population, but Philly is very gay-friendly, and there’s plenty of college students around. Wesleyan is a good bet as well.
Any of these would be fine. Your dating pool is likely more related to the size of the student body than anything else. As you are counting Claremont schools, though, remember that Scripps is all women, and CMC has a conservative bent – I am sure there are gay students there, but possibly fewer (or more closeted).
I know Skidmore has a pretty large LGBT population, but I think it’s dominated by women. However, that would make sense given that Skidmore is almost 60% women.
Like Juliet, I assumed OP looking for a community that wasn’t merely offering tolerance or acceptance, but something more - inclusiveness that comes when sexual orientation is a non-issue. A gay president living with his partner is relevant to whether gays men and women would find this an inclusive community. Now that OP has clarified that he is asking specifically about dating opportunities, that would be addressed differently. Yes, the possible pool of available gay men is always greater in an urban area. That would seem to be self-evident.
Yes, there are gay students at Claremont McKenna - most students there are socially liberal, even the students and faculty who identify as Republicans or Libertarians.
Macalester seems like a good place for LBGT students. Not the most scientific of observations, but when we visited, there was a big LGBT event coming up and many many students, including many non LGBT students, were wearing shirts and buttons supporting it. I was impressed.
Whitman is very LBGT accepting/friendly, but as others have pointed out, at such a small school (1500 students) any pool you’re looking for is pretty small. The new president of the college is lesbian, that shows the level of commitment to LBGT rights that the trustees, faculty and students have, but I don’t know how many gay men attend.