<p>I'm a lesbian considering attending MHC. I'm really worried about the fact that it's an all-girls school, because lots of my close friends in HS have been gay and straight guys. Lesbians: What is your opinion on this? Were any of you in the same situation?</p>
<p>I’m not gay, but a lot of prospective students who had close male friends in high school, whether the students are straight or gay, express fears about women’s colleges. They’ve maybe never had close female friends or at least they really enjoy their guy friends and aren’t sure what life will be like in an all female environment. </p>
<p>What I usually say is that they should look on it not so much as “OMG, I won’t have any male friends”, but instead look at it as a chance to have a really unique experience where they’ll be living in a tight knit community of women. It’s very difficult to explain how freeing, how fascinating, how loving and supportive that is until you’re there. It’s not that women are better than guy friends, but this is a chance for a whole new life experience that will go way beyond what you’ve had before. Think about it, as a gay woman, have you ever found yourself in a situation where your largely in a community of your gender peers, whether they are straight OR gay? Have you ever had a chance to really forge strong connections with other women and have you ever been in a community where the women are by and large the calibre of people you WANT to form close relationships with (as opposed to experiencing a sort of “Mean Girls” esque hierarchy where sex appeal has the greatest value in the social hierarchy)? </p>
<p>So instead of being so focused on there not being as many guys around, think about if you’re interested in being with a community of women. Some of whom will be gay women, and all of whom, straight or gay, will be exposed to and empathetic to (for the most part) issues and challenges pertaining to gay women. </p>
<p>Also, you can still have guy friends. That’s what UMASS and Hampshire and Amherst and parties and hockey games are for.</p>
<p>This was a really helpful response, thank you. ^.^</p>
<p>Well, I am bisexual and recently opted for going to a community college prior to going to Smith. However, I just have 2 female friends who haven’t gone to women’s colleges. Everybody else is either at Smith, MHC, Simmons, Wellesley and one is in Bryn Mawr. We did, however, have a lot of male friends. What I have to say from what some of my friends talk about is that it is not hard to have male friends, but you do have to make effort for it. The other portion of my friends (for some reason, most of the straight ones) say they ended up not even missing boys. One of my best friends, who goes to MHC, says she has some male friends she made going to clubs at MHC (and she’s also a lesbian)! So all I have to say is that, from what I have seen, I don’t think you should worry much about it because things really change when you go to college (that’s in general) and that if you really think MHC is the right choice, go for it, it is an experience you will never regret having!</p>