<p>I was accepted to many women's colleges, i.e. Smith, wellesley, Bryn Mawr, and Mount Holyoke, but was wondering how prevalent lesbianism is on campus. I read the account of two smithies raping another, and that straight girls just don't fit in at women's colleges. Anyone know how accurate this is?</p>
<p>The city where Smith is located #1 with lesbians.</p>
<p>Thanks! I am straight and just want to make sure I choose a college where I am comfortable!</p>
<p>I think I've heard (though I'm not positive) that the lesbian population at women's colleges is 20-30% as opposed to 10% in the general population.</p>
<p>There are a TON of lesbians at women's colleges, and many straight women also. Just know that there are a lot of both. A girl from my high school to smith and actually came out!</p>
<p>Percentage of lesbians at women's colleges is likely smaller than the number of gays/lesbians at, say, Yale, and for some very simple reasons. There are four times as many gay men in the populations as lesbians. Add that together with the best lesbian/gay studies program in the country, and...you have Yale.</p>
<p>But if you have a problem with it, I would suggest BYU (though you'll find both there as well.)</p>
<p>Not true. The women's colleges tend to be much more gay than coed ones for some reason. And its absolutely cool with me, I have a ton of gay friends. Just saying its a big part of the school.</p>
<p>My d. attends one. There are lots of lesbians, but the bigger thing is that they are comfortable about it (both the lesbians and the straights). But still, nowhere near the number of gay men at Yale.</p>
<p>Anyway, who counts? If it makes a student that uncomfortable, s/he shouldn't attend either.</p>
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<p>I don't think what she was asking about was gay men at Yale- she was asking about lesbians at womens colleges</p>
<p>My impression that is the period of early adulthood is when many students are finding out who they are sexually. For some- they lean toward the more radical side of feminism and tout that if you aren't gay or at least bisexual- then you are denying your femininity.
some of these women can be pretty in your face- think of vegetarians who think it is their duty to convert everyone.
A liberal arts college and to take it to the extreme a liberal arts college that only ( mostly) enrolls women is going to be a pretty safe place for radicals to push it as far as they think they need to.
It often seems to be freshmen- they feel a greater need to prove themselves, but with time they learn that you can be an individual and not have to be in someones face about it.
There are also ( see above) lots of women who are "gay until graduation" for whatever reason. Same with young men- although the only mens college I can think of off the bat is Deep Springs and I don't think it is large enough to have peer pressure deciding which way someone is going to lean.</p>
<p>You have some very good choices-but the feel of each school is very different, I would suggest that you visit if at all possible</p>
<p>Haha combining the "four times as many gays as lesbians" with "10% of women in the general population" means that 40% of men are gay. I'm never going in a public bathroom again.</p>
<p>Out of curiousity, why did you apply to women's colleges if you feel uncomfortable with lesbian women?</p>
<p>That said, lesbian women are just like straight women-- they aren't attracted to everyone they meet and aren't out to convert straight women or turn you into a sexual object.</p>
<p>I don't see why high numbers of lesbians would particularly be a problem. Even if you're straight and your friend is gay, you can still have a good time talking about things petty or philosophical. Their being gay won't preclude your being able to relate to them as people unless they're just the sort of person you wouldn't like in the first place. As for the rape thing, rape unfortunately happens at any college, and is terrible whether it is a man raping a woman, a man raping a man, or a woman raping a woman. But luckily, the majority of people are respectful of other's wishes, so if you made it clear you were straight, I'm sure very few lesbians would want to humiliate themselves by coming on to you.</p>
<p>To answer your question - politics and political correctness aside -- I have friends at all four schools. All have good size lesbian populations, but Wellesley and Bryn Mawr seem to have fewer.</p>
<p>You should not be worried about the lesbian presence at an all-woman's college. Lesbian's aren't going to hit on you or attack you. If you feel that an all-woman's college is ideal for you, go for it.</p>
<p>I'd be more worried about being raped by men than women...it happens way more often</p>
<p>Straight women fit in just fine at women's colleges--they are the dominant majority. And you should be much more worried about being raped or date raped by a man, regardless if you are at a women's college or not--the numbers are staggering.</p>
<p>btw, those are great colleges, congratulations!! I loved Bryn Mawr and wished dd had considered it. She's accepted to Wellesley too and hopes to get a visit. Smith sounds great and if you do a search of the forums, you will find many comments from happy parents of Smithies.</p>
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<p>It is an important factor to consider when thinking about going to a women's college.....The OP isn't being homophobic, but if the prevailing culture of a college is gay, it's going to affect the social aspects of someone who's not. She'd want to go somewhere where there would be lots of other women like her who want to party with men, go on road trips together, etc. I went to a womens college, but the gays were very much in the closet at that time in the mid-70's so it wasn't a factor. I wouldn't go to a womens college now.</p>
<p>For my daughter, the issue wasn't so much the presence of people with different sexual preferences. It was more that, from what she could see, the straight students at the two single-sex colleges she considered weren't really having much social life at all.</p>
<p>At one of them, the women actually had to take buses to attend frat parties at another college about 40 minutes away, in order to hope to meet a guy. This seemed kind of demeaning/ desperate looking to me. I'd rather see the guys coming to them, but apparently that's not how it worked there. They had an unflattering, but on-point, nickname for the bus that took them to these parties, but I forgot it now.</p>
<p>In the 30's and 40's when my parents were at Smith and Princeton, the sexes were segregated at the Ivies and LACs, so the womens college students were sought after.......now that almost all of the colleges are coed I would think it would be a distinct social disadvantage to be at a womens college as a straight woman.....the coeds at the colleges I visited (not on a bus, though!) used to call us "Imports"...YUK.</p>
<p>Are you sure you forgot the name Monydad?! LOL I remember it quite well and you are quite correct, it is rather unflattering...I would say downright offensive, and it was the women at the coed institutions who cam up with the name!</p>
<p>I agree that all-girl schools are not natural in this day and age. I would never recommend one uinless the student were set on applying.</p>
<p>However, the fact that there is a higher concentration of lesbians at all-girl schools than at coed institutions is not problematic.</p>