Hello,
I am a committed LSA 2020 student. I have accepted a spot in the Residential College as well. I researched around and found the language intensive, smaller classes, and super nice dorm to be good reasons to join.
I have a friend from high school doing Res college as well. She is excited about the fact that it is “really gay”. I go to an arts high school so I don’t mind gay people, but since I am a heterosexual, fairly masculine male I want to make sure I would fair well in Res College. I understand the type of artsy people who would do Res college I just want to know if everyone is, well, super artsy and gay.
Was it the wrong choice to choose Res college purely for academic reasons? Is there a prevailing social stigma that will blight an otherwise good, liberal arts experience?
Thank you CC community.
Absolutely NOT wrong if you chose the RC for the academics! In fact, if your reasoning is not academic, I’d strongly advise against it.
For the question about whether or not it’s gay: yes and no. If “gay” you mean there are gay people or it’s LGBTQA+ friendly, then yes it is gay, and so is most of Ann Arbor. If you mean is the environment going to be strange for a straight man, then no. I’m also going to be in the RC, and based on the visits I’ve had, I never felt there a “gay vibe,” but rather that it was VERY accepting.
The stigma is mostly that RC students are hippies. As long as you leave East Quad and make friends outside of it, you’re gonna be fine and avoid the stigma. However, the stigma is there, but never let a stigma keep you from getting a great educational experience (at least for you).
If you don’t like the social vibe, there are always ways to make friends outside of where you live: many student grou;s facilitate close friendships, especially some performance groups and fraternities/sororities.
East Quad has a definite vide and its very open and diverse. By being 'very gay" I’d take that to mean that it is a very open and accepting community.
RC is definitely a rigorous academic environment. Their language classes are excellent but very challenging. And you must pass “proficiency” in a language to graduate. That requires that you take a very challenging written examination and an even more challenging oral examination. It’s definitely not for the faint hearted!