<p>Hi My S is applying to these schools:
Umich
MSU
Lawrence
Kalamazoo
Guilford
Elon
Whitman
Macalester
Brown
I was wondering how accepting they are to gay students and how many gay kids are on campus etc... I am specifically interested in Elons level of acceptance</p>
<p>Are you posting on your son’a account?</p>
<p>Elon and Guilford are very small private schools with a lot of rich kids that are fairly well known for being very cliquey in this area(Davidson especially). If you’re aiming for ‘acceptance,’ I’d target a larger state school as the more diverse populations will guarantee there exists a social group that enjoys your son when being himself.</p>
<p>I don’t think any college campus has a material problem with gay tolerance or acceptance anymore outside of the religiously affiliated, and I went to a southern school. I would advise against southern schools though as there just aren’t that many gay people at them so his romantic population will be limited.</p>
<p>There have been several threads on this topic (including one right now in the “college search” forum). If you do a search, I’m sure you’ll find quite a bit of information.</p>
<p>I would expect MSU and UM to be very gay friendly as they are large state institutions. Brown is one of the most gay friendly colleges in the country. What does your son want to major in? Any restrictions by him on part of the country, urban vs. rural, etc.?</p>
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<p>Actually, a friend of mine just dropped off her freshman daughter at Elon this weekend and attended the convocation. Her Facebook status reported on a very inclusive message from the president that stated racism, homophobia, and sexism have no place in the university environment. So at least from the top dog, the message is strong.</p>
<p>I don’t think a sanitized message from a university official is really indicative of the culture on campus, but that doesn’t really speak to the point I made.</p>
<p>I said they were cliquey like many small schools are, not unaccepting. I even made the point that I don’t believe theres a meaningful anti gay sentiment on campus in any college in America. I don’t think you read my post.</p>
<p>College presidents have a plethora of topics they could address at convocations. But this one obviously went out of his way to make his opinions known on these particular issues. He didn’t have to address homophobia, sexism and racism, but he did. I wonder how many college presidents make these issues a part of their convocation address? No, it does not guarantee that there aren’t pockets of bigots on any campus. </p>
<p>You said these schools (and specifically named Elon and Guilford) were known for being very cliquey in these areas. That makes it sound as if these two schools in particular needed to be singled out of the list the OP was asking about. Of the schools listed in the by the OP, Elon also has the strongest theatre program. Show me a school that has a nationally competitive theatre and dance program, and I’ll show you a school that has a good sized gay population.</p>
<p>I echo Teriwtts sentiments. College presidents can talk about a lot of things. Why did he choose this topic? My concern would be often things get addressed when there have been problems in the past. If there was no homophobia, sexism, or racism they would be non-issues and not worthy of a convocation speech. It is great they are putting it out in the open and stating this is not tolerated, but my question was what made him want to bring it up?</p>
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<p>Couldn’t you replace “theatre and dance” with a lot of other subjects (e.g. computer science)?</p>
<p>^^^ I doubt it, but I could be wrong. If there are other majors that have disproportionate numbers of gay students studying them, then I’m not aware of them. Or perhaps the ones in theatre and dance feel more comfortable being out so it seems like more.</p>
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<p>Given that theatre and dance put the person in public view, someone in that field may generally have more things about him/her known publicly than someone in some other field. In some other field, you might only find out if someone is gay if a guy mentions his husband in some casual conversation or something like that. I.e. someone may be “out”, but not going out of his/her way to announce it to the world.</p>
<p>There are certain fields and majors in which it’s hard to deny that the vast majority of male students are likely to be gay. And they’re not limited to theatre and dance.</p>
<p>Which doesn’t mean, at all, that the majority of gay men (or anything close to it) go into those fields.</p>
<p>Which majors have such a high percentage of gay male students that most male students are gay?</p>
<p>A gay friend of one of my kids seemed to fit in fine at Michigan.</p>
<p>Regarding Elon: I know about 4 kids who went there at about the same time. (Class of '12) The middle class bro-ish white guys interested in business and sports had a great time. The adopted not-obviously-Latina D of a white Jewish family struggled with cliqueishness–especially post sorority rush–and remarks about Jews and Latinos and blacks that she was not accustomed to hearing, and ultimately left. It is a small sample, and of course her personal insecurities, if any, played into it. But I admit it has colored my view of the school.</p>
<p>Guilford is very gay friendly… Elon might be iffy, though.</p>
<p>On one hand, I would prefer gay students look at colleges in states where equal marriage rights exist. North Carolina passed amendment 1 May 2012, a bit of overkill since state law already made gay marriage illegal.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the more openly gay citizens move to NC, the quicker laws will change. imho</p>
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<p>Art History maybe? I don’t have personal experience with Art History, and I haven’t read any stats, but according to a family friend who was in a prestigious Art History PhD program, every single one of the male grad students in her department was gay.</p>
<p>Is it common for parents of gay kids to be that involved into the private lives of their kids?</p>