I am a high-achieving queer student from New England. Recently, I visited Washington & Lee University and I loved it. I found that it had the perfect blend of pre-professionalism while still being rooted in an abstract liberal arts education. My academic interests are history, social sciences, business (idk about this one that much), and music (the x factor in most of the colleges I look at). I am also seriously looking at Deep Springs College, Haverford, Williams, Duke, UPenn, and Pomona. Even though Washington & Lee is near the top of my list, do I have a reason to be scared because of it’s center-right politics? I consider myself to be relatively open-minded and one of my best friends is conservative.
Well, it’s not center-right, it’s one of the most conservative colleges in the country with TAMU and BYU. In addition its social life orbits around fraternities/sororities that are not really open to LGBTQ students.
As for politics, it’d really depend on you. It’d be like being Jewish at an evangelical school, or a massive SEC fan at UChicago or a teetotaller at ASU. Some would love the challenge, others would feel alienated very quickly or would hate having to defend themselves constantly.
The main issue is that you identify as Queer and the reports are 100% negative in that respect. You can try to look for positive reports but as of now it’d be one of the few colleges I would NOT recommend for a Queer student.
Perhaps McKenna would be a better fit (although it’d be the opposite to Deep Springs…)? Emory? URichmond? Colgate? Hamilton?
@MYOS1634 Do you have any specific examples as to why WL is " one of the most conservative schools in the country ". It’s non-residential Greek system does not prove anything.
The Greek system IS residential. About 75% men and 80% women enrolled at W&L live in Greek houses. Some more students are affiliated but do not live in the houses for various reasons.
This is the latest, official info:
http://www.wlu.edu/student-life/residential-life/upper-division-housing/greek-housing
It’s being conservative is just known when you know colleges. It’s like saying Oberlin or Hampshire are liberal.
Some examples would include normative dress code (this isn’t the college for you if you intend to go to class in shorts and flips flops, let alone pajamas, and even jeans and sneakers) that would rather follow the management -not TGIF- business attire code for both men and women; hair color and hair styles; it’s host to the 2016 Mock Republican Convention and College Republicans is the largest club on campus; acceptation and integration of gay students (or lack thereof), consideration (or lack thereof) for transgender students…
It’s their “brand”, what they’re known for: A superior, highly selective liberal arts college for conservative to extremely conservative students.
You could also read The Fiske Guide, Insider’s Guide to the Colleges, and Princeton Review’s Best Colleges.
The website does not say that. It says about 75% are affiliated. The amount living in Greek houses is not given.
It is conservative but comparing it to BYU is not accurate.
@MYOS1634 Are there any instances of students being harassed for any reason relating to their race, sexual preference, gender or political thoughts like what just happened at Dartmouth?
Sexual preference, definitely enough to make it uncomfortable and for proud alumni to NOT recommend going there if you’re LGBTQ. Reported in the news? No.
But the reality is that students who don’t want what W&L offers, just don’t attend. There’s very little diversity. The Johnson scholarship was partly supposed to remedy that but the students who come for the Johnson weekend experience the campus culture, and if they don’t like it, or don’t feel comfortable, they don’t choose to attend. It’s fairly simple. There are plenty of excellent sLACs for multicultural and gay students.
It’s not like that kid that went to Liberty as an atheist for a semester, as part of a project. Students who attend W&L WANT what W&L stands for.
McKenna has not been shining on the news this week for helping the diverse students in their population feel comfortable on campus, either. And Duke was in the news this week as well, specifically for an LGBTQ issue. How about Northwestern as an alternative?
Thank you for these responses. I guess I just assumed that all college campuses had a sort of an acceptance for LGBTQ students, and many conservatives are even shifting away from LGBTQ issues. Also, Washington & Lee does not send any information to The Princeton Review.
Finance is one of the most male-dominated majors out there and that means heterosexual males. Develop a strategy for dealing with microaggressions. This is good advice for whichever college you attend. Do you mind being the hairshirt who makes everyone aware of their shortcomings or are you more like the “grin and nod, grin and nod” type who always keeps their cool in public? Or, somewhere in between? Seems as if a lot of first-gen and other college kids are struggling with this issue (Mizzou, Yale, Amherst, Ithaca, CMC.) and it might pay to examine your own comfort level with being “not in our mold”.
W&L is definitely a work hard party hard sort of school. I would not go there if I were not going to be in a fraternity or sorority. Unlike BYU the faculty are actually relatively liberal or middle of the road, but the student body swings conservative for sure. Where they stand on social issues, I’m not sure. When my parents lived in Lexington there were always a Confederate flag hanging in the windows of at least one frat and the women wore their pearls to footballs games. That was a while ago now so maybe they’ve relaxed a bit.
There is a LGBTQ resource center on campus. Why not reach out to them? http://www.wlu.edu/lgbtq-resource-center
Remember that acceptance and support of “LGBTQ” may significantly differ for each letter category. In particular, acceptance and support of T people appears to lag behind that of LGB people in many situations.
There were plenty of guys wearing beach shorts to class when I visited W&L back in the day. Of course, the folks do dress up for the Fancy Dress Ball, if that event still occurs.
have you considered Middlebury? highly ranked LAC, very open to LGBTQ
beautiful campus
I have considered Middlebury as a possibility! Though I am currently not actively looking at many other possibilities for colleges because my list is so huge, and I want to able to visit every single college I apply to. W&L Is convenient because I have relatives that live in the area. Also, I like the idea of having the option of a preprofessional business program in a small, liberal arts college. Unfortunately, it looks like I will have to seriously consider the political affiliation of the college, though.
@jostri More politically moderate choices, relatively speaking, would be Bucknell, Villanova and Lehigh, although the latter two are small universities. All three have exceptional business programs.
I recently applied to W&L and I consider myself more liberal than not. I kinda feel that going to a very liberal school would be surrendering myself to public opinion and staying within (if not delving deeper into) my comfort zone. I want a college experience that’s gonna expose me to different perspectives, all the while allowing discussion in a respectful setting. Being from CA, I’m pretty much surrounded by ultra-left wing propagadists and for me, I’d appreciate going to college with a more healthy political climate (which is part of the reason why I’m applying here). That’s my take on it.
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Typical…
Liberals are only open-minded so long as other people believe what they believe.
^GMT, that’s not it. Oberlin is where liberals go to be surrounded by liberals, W&L is where conservatives go to be surrounded by conservatives. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s important these types of colleges exist in our college landscape.
There’s a difference between being surrounded by people who think exactly like you do (whether it’s Oberlin or W&L… and that isn’t likely to happen, because there’s a wide difference in various points of views, many flavors of “liberal” and “conservative”) and being in a tiny minority, feeling, not just challenged, but overwhelmed or ignored all the time. If a liberal student goes to W&L, or a conservative student goes to Oberlin, they know it will be extremely uncomfortable, simply because in a discussion where everyone’s arguing about three things, they’ll be arguing about another planet. If they don’t want their role to be the token (liberal, conservative, gay, etc), it’s the wrong place to be. Some students strive on that. Some see it as a sort of “mission”. But it’s usually more a hindrance to growth than a factor of growth.
I also don’t think @cable007’s approach is likely to be productive and is potentially unhealthy - this isn’t an athropological experiment - a better approach is to attend a politically moderate college, such as Dickinson, Davidson, Lafayette, Kenyon, Ohio Wesleyan, or a State Flagship’s Honors program… where students represent both sides of the spectrum and all shades in-between, and where discussions aren’t within shades of the same side of the argument up to the extremes (who often shout the loudest and ridicule the rest. And even for conservatives at a conservative college, or liberals at a liberal college, these vast differences in opinion and attitude are an eye-opener and are mind-broadening.)
For their sake as developing adults, I wouldn’t recommend a non-believer attend BYU, a conservative attend Smith, a feminist attend Hampden Sydney, or an evangelical attend Yeshiva. College isn’t an anthropological experiment. You don’t go there to see what it feels like to be marginalized.
However, once they’re adults, attending any graduate program, including where they think they’ll constantly be challenged or marginalized, is totally different. You make a choice, you pay for it, and you’ll be able to expand your horizons due to having solid foundations. But build your knowledge base first, in an environment where you can grow rather than hide or where the only alternative to invisibility is to become a “flaming” whatever.
Sorry to be pedantic, but “it’s” = “it is”. However, “its” is the possessive form. Additionally, “acceptation” is not a word, “acceptance” is.
Middlebury does an amazing job getting students into the business/finance fields. Another relatively small school that seems to do a great job getting students into the business world is Northeastern.