<p>Hi guys, this is my first post in the forums so please be gentle :D. I'm an 18 year old guy born and raised in Madrid, Spain and interested in going to college in the states. I applied to a long list of universities and, even though I'm sure that they are academically excellent, I would appreciate some advice as to what they gay life is like at some of those. I realize that there have been previous posts regarding both the general aspect of gay life in US colleges and specific examples of people's experiences, and after reading all those posts I'd like to see if people could tell me more. I've been in an american school since I was three so I imagine that the cultural shock shouldn't be that brutal, but I've heard contradicting opinions of what it's like living and studying in a US college as a gay student. Again, I'm fully aware that circumstances and experiences may vary extremely depending on the person and the university, but I'd like to see if anyone here has had that experience in one of the universities I list below. I bought both "The Advocate College Guide" and "The Gay Lesbian and Bisexual Students' Guide to Colleges, Universities and Graduate Schools" but both books were frankly disappointing (especially the latter) since they didn't really give me an insight or didn't list a specific university I was interested in, but then again it's pretty hard to cover everything in a national college guide. </p>
<p>Madrid is a great "gay city" so to speak, and I've been living here all my life so I know that it's possible that I might not find that much of an accepting atmosphere in the US...frankly I don't know what to expect. Any pointers?</p>
<p>Colleges I'm interested in:</p>
<ul>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Upenn</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Chicago</li>
<li>BC</li>
<li>BU</li>
<li>U Miami</li>
<li>Northeastern</li>
<li>GW</li>
<li>American</li>
<li>Brandeis</li>
<li>Lake Forest</li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks,
Millitsky</p>
<p>I don't really know that many gay people at Penn, and I'm not gay myself, so I can't really comment much on the atmosphere. I do remember reading an article about gay groups and students on campus in the university paper. I think this was the one A</a> Quarter Century In The Queer - feature
In any case you can just search on the paper for articles that mention LGBT (the lesbian,gay,bi sexual, and transgender group at penn) for more info. Hope that helps.</p>
<p>you should actually be fine at any of those schools, except BC. some are better than others, but all will be overall accepting.</p>
<p>I go to UChicago. Generally, people won't even care what your sexual orientation is. The school is very gay-friendly and there are even openly gay members in some of the fraternities. I can't speak for everybody, but I would guess that the majority of students are very tolerant. </p>
<p>There's a lot of LGBT support, activism, etc. if that's your thing. There's also a significant gay community in Chicago (see Boystown) and plenty of gay nightclubs and bars.</p>
<p>But like somebody said above, you should have a pretty similar experience at all those schools. </p>
<p>One other piece of advice: to quote my (gay, southern) friend, "Stay out of the south."</p>
<p>Thanks for posting guys. As you said, it should be ok in any of those schools but one of the books I got (not the Advocate Guide, the other one) was pretty alarming about how in virtually every university "students unanimously feel homophobia is a serious problem". Not that I haven´t had my share of stupidity in Spain but I just wanted to make sure I wasn´t applying to renown homophobic universities. </p>
<p>As for the geo, yeah, I´m steering clear of the South (no offense, just not my scene) and going preferable East Coast although I did apply to Stanford and a couple of more inland universities.</p>
<p>Again, thanks for the replies and if anyone could share more personal experiences or just add to what has been said that would be great.</p>
<p>Thanks,
Millitsky</p>
<p>I'm also a gay student, so I looked into a lot of the schools that you looked into. :) </p>
<p>I applied to Brandeis, but I found that generally speaking, the LGBT life there is kind of.... blah. When I looked at their LGBT organizations, I found that the one organization the school had only had maybe... 7 members? I was almost appalled until I realized how much they collaborate with Tufts, which has AWESOME LGBT resources (I applied there too.) In terms of LGBT life, I would definitely take Tufts over Brandeis. </p>
<p>If there's one college you might want to look to as a safety in the States, it's probably UDub (University of Washington- Seattle.) It has a pretty large Q-Center and was kind enough to list it as a major resource when applying (I don't know how many times I saw a page on it.) It's also a pretty good university as a whole for being a state school and accepting >50% of applicants. If you're worried about not being challenged enough, you could always go into the Honors program, which has fostered some Marshall scholars. </p>
<p>I applied to Yale and Cornell. I hear both are pretty accepting and both universities offer at least a program in LGBT studies (Cornell definitely has a major; I'm not sure about Yale.) I'm actually reading a book called The Gay and Lesbian Guide to College Life, which is written in part by a Yale University faculty member, so you can't go wrong there. Yale also has a pretty good alumni organization dealing with LGBT, so they're pretty accepting. </p>
<p>From The Princeton Review: </p>
<p>Gay Community Accepted
School Name
1 Macalester College<br>
2 New College of Florida<br>
3 New York University<br>
4 Simon's Rock College of Bard<br>
5 College of the Atlantic<br>
6 Stanford University<br>
7 Wellesley College<br>
8 Mount Holyoke College<br>
9 Bennington College<br>
10 Emerson College<br>
11 Sarah Lawrence College<br>
12 Bryn Mawr College<br>
13 Eugene Lang College--The New School for Liberal Arts<br>
14 Beloit College<br>
15 Hampshire College<br>
16 Harvey Mudd College<br>
17 Lawrence University<br>
18 Grinnell College<br>
19 Swarthmore College<br>
20 Cornell College</p>
<p>Alternative Lifestyles Not an Alternative
1 Hampden-Sydney College<br>
2 Baylor University<br>
3 Wheaton College (IL)<br>
4 University of Notre Dame<br>
5 University of Tennessee--Knoxville<br>
6 Grove City College<br>
7 Trinity College (CT)<br>
8 Samford University<br>
9 Washington and Lee University<br>
10 Seton Hall University<br>
11 Brigham Young University (UT)<br>
12 Pepperdine University<br>
13 Valparaiso University<br>
14 Hanover College<br>
15 Texas A&M University-College Station<br>
16 University of Utah<br>
17 William Jewell College<br>
18 Calvin College<br>
19 Miami University<br>
20 Purdue University--West Lafayette</p>
<p>If you need any more resources, feel free to ask me for anything. I know what it's like to apply to big name universities as an LGBT student. :)</p>
<p>
[quote]
One other piece of advice: to quote my (gay, southern) friend, "Stay out of the south."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Generally, yes, but not necessarily. Grinnell, though not in the South, is in Iowa, which isn't exactly known for being the most accepting of places. However, it made PR's "Gay Community Accepted" list, so the school itself is pretty accepting. I'm sure, for example, that Duke, Vanderbilt, and John Hopkins would be more accepting of the gay community than say... Liberty University. Lol. </p>
<p>Also (I just noticed this), you applied to BC. BC was actually known to be pretty homophobic a couple of years ago. It was ranked second or so on PR's list of homophobic schools. However, the school has gotten better and actually went off the list- I think BC didn't want the label, even as a Catholic school and decided to improve things for LGBT students. I'm not sure about the present situation, or if it's really any better than Texas A&M (which you should definitely avoid according to a gay friend of mine), but it's better than what it used to be.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if this is true everywhere but for Northwestern (which, I know, is not one of the schools you listed but might have a similar environment to many other top colleges), guys (can't speak for girls) seem to be comfortable with their sexualities. From a third person perspective, I've observed that they joke a lot about being together, they do their bathroom business right next to each other in stalls and urinals even when they could've gone farther away, they almost brush next to each other when walking past each other, they're not afraid to look at other good-looking guys. As a result, gay guys don't feel they have to do anything special to be accepted. Being gay here is normal, and that's the way I like it.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley? There is a new gay (only in the nation) fraternity on campus.</p>
<p>"One other piece of advice: to quote my (gay, southern) friend, "Stay out of the south."</p>
<p>Not true. I know a transgender student who is happy at New College in Sarasota, Fla. (which also is on that list of gay-friendly colleges).</p>
<p>While I haven't heard about how gay-welcoming the colleges are in Atlanta, I have a lesbian friend who lived there for several years and said that there was a large lesbian and gay community there, and she had a blast. I also have an adult lesbian cousin who has lived there for decades and is happy.</p>
<p>Re: Colleges on your list: Harvard had even back in my day a thriving gay community, which continues now. Harvard has a well deserved reputation for being liberal. The campus chaplain is a gay man. A former mayor of Cambridge, Mass., is a gay alum who has long been out. </p>
<p>Harvard is the type of place in which most students would look down on a student who was homophobic. Admissions also would do their best to avoid admitting such a student. Being gay won't hurt your admissions prospects. In fact, it may help them as you'd add to admissions desire to create a diverse, well rounded campus.</p>
<p>millitsky,</p>
<p>the schools you apply to seem to be all over the map in terms of character; i think you may want to do more for your college search.</p>
<p>that said, i'd suggest you to look at northwestern. survey results show that on average, its student body is more liberal and supportive of gays/lesbians than those at most other highly selective peer schools. Student</a> Surveys Planning Group, Institutional Research, Administration and Planning, Northwestern University<br>
it has great performing arts/film/theater programs which likely have high concentration of gay/lesbian students.
chicago has a large and the nicest/most vibrant gay neighborhood in the US. </p>
<p>if you want to go to US colleges because you want to stay here afterward, i'd think twice before doing so. as a whole, the US is still strangely conservative compared to western/northern european countries.</p>