My high schooler is nonbinary/gender queer (AFAB). We are looking for colleges in the New England area only (their preferred area) and wondering if they would/could feel like they belong at a school like Smith College.
It’s seems like such a wonderful campus, in a prefect college town (Northampton), great academics with a strong LGB community, but it’s hard to tell if there is an underlying assumption that everyone check the box of being a “woman” even if they identify as nonbinary? How is the Smith community experience for the TQ+community?
Any Smith students or parents of Smithies have insight to share?
Other schools on the list:
Wesleyan, Mt Holyoke, Wheaton, Conn College
I can hardly think of schools that would be more comfortable than Smith or Mt. Holyoke for your child. I’m less familiar with Wheaton and Conn, so can’t speak to them. Wesleyan would be a good match too, but I maintain that historically women’s colleges are really fabulous choices for this type of student. I went to MHC, and know a few people at both MHC and Smith now. Feel free to message me.
They make it very clear they are generally inclusive of nonbinary students, although they do also say people who identify as women, including nonbinary women, are eligible to apply.
There is also a Trans/Nonbinary Working Group, with its own email. I am sure you could contact them with any specific questions you might have about what that means to them, or any other questions on this subject you might have.
I know Mount Holyoke is already on your list, and so you might already know that they have a very inclusive gender policy for admissions eligibility. It’s a wonderful school, and a great option if Smith’s policy does not work for your child.
I was just at Smith today and Mount Holyoke yesterday and am about to write my thoughts in the thread about college visits. But feel free to PM me with questions as we have a very recent impression of both communities.
I have an AFAB friend in their first year at Smith right now and he seems to really love it (I believe identifies somewhere around butch and/or transmasc, uses they/he pronouns, has had top surgery, etc).
Smith’s use of the term “nonbinary women” is what feels less inclusive as compared to MoHo’s language usage which simply says “nonbinary” students are welcome.
The reality seems to be that nonbinary students are indeed at Smith. I just wish they didn’t caveat the term in this way.
I guess that’s up to each prospective student to wrestle with.
I don’t want to speak for Smith, but I see in that page a real tension between their valuing their history and present as a womens’ college, but also wanting to be as inclusive as possible of nonbinary applicants.
And I only have a passing acquaintance with this issue, but my understanding is this is an ongoing discussion at these schools. Are they just excluding men? In that case nonbinary needs no qualification. Or is there something more affirmative that they are doing, and if so how do you describe that?
Anyway, as you point out, people have to be comfortable with how their college is approaching these issues (indeed, I would say that is true for anyone, not just those who identify as nonbinary). I do think if Smith is otherwise a desirable college for a nonbinary person, they might want to reach out to Smith for a direct conversation about this issue, including a pointed discussion of what Smith means by terms like that.
But obviously then whatever Smith says to them is something they have to evaluate for themselves.
I’d read that statement by Smith about identifying as a woman when my daughter was thinking about transferring there. I saw it as Smith trying to stay true to its mission as a Women’s college while recognizing that times have changed.