<p>My brother goes to one of the most opened, gay-friendly liberal arts college. I also prefer liberal arts college because of their size, ratio, and atmosphere. (from academic to politic) Also I personally am gay.</p>
<p>I'm a sophomore so I don't have to choose a school now at all, but I started to explore. I asked some people who graduated really liberal colleges or universities and their recommendation were these: Wesleyan, Williams, Swarthmore, Oberlin, Colby, Reed, Bates, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Vassar, Dartmouth, Sarah Lawrence, Bard, Tufts, Hampshire. I already heard and saw these colleges on internet and people around. I know they all are good schools but I don't find any distinguishable trait from them. They ARE unique compare to other regular schools, but within the Liberal Arts colleges, I don't really find one. </p>
<p>I know Hampshire and Sarah Lawrence gives evaluations instead of ABCD. But except that, I don't really find difference. Of course there are many, but I'm talking about general atmosphere or size--and it really confuses me. </p>
<p>So these are my questions
1. Are there big differences? (comparing liberal arts colleges each other)
2. Are there any schools like Sarah Lawrence or Hampshire? (grading system)</p>
<p>Size, location, type of student body, academic strengths, selectivity–these differ among the schools you listed (btw, Tufts is not an LAC). When you visit the campuses, you’ll perceive the differences more clearly. But since you’ll be applying to multiple colleges and can’t predict which will accept you, it’s really not a negative that they share many of the same qualities.</p>
<p>You have to visit them for yourself, but believe me, many have some strikingly different traits. I can only speak for some that I’ve stayed overnight at and/or have friends there. Williams is the Harvard of the LACs. That comes with a slight feeling of pride that some could interpret as elitism. They’re generally at the top of NESCAC in a ton of sports and have a fairly athletic student body and generally have more jocks than other LACs. A lot of students seemed to be active and outdoorsy, they were very liberal, but not so suffocatingly liberal that your visit was unbearable (Vassar). They seem to be accepting, my tour guide was gay. Middleburys very white, although it’s gotten better and has a mix of stereotypical maple syrup loving tree hugging environmentalists and your typical summerhouse on the cape preppy rich New England kid. Lots smoke pot, tons ski, you’d be surprised by how many do both at the same time. But overall they’re all extremely nice and friendly in my experience. Very well known for languages, all things international and economics.</p>
<p>Oberlin stood out as the most friendly to LGBT on our college search, although I think you are right that all of those schools are accepting. Check out the Campus Climate Index at Campus Pride (I think) for some more ratings of school climates.</p>
<p>One thing to think about is whether you most value acceptance or an active dating pool. Some of these schools are accepting but very small. You might find more potential partners in a large school or a large city. Just a thought.</p>
<p>One caution: the schools on your list are almost uniformly reaches for anyone. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with these schools – and you have plenty of time – and cut down the list, you will want to find some schools with a similar profile that are less selective. There are many such schools out there!</p>
<p>I’m not just saying LAC but not really huge schools with liberal atmosphere. And what I wrote might look like very ignorant but please understand–I just started to explore. I don’t know much about colleges. And thanks everybody, I think I should plan for college tours so I can visit them during the junior year.</p>
<p>Grades are deemphasized at Reed to the point where students don’t actually see them unless they request to see their transcripts, which almost nobody does. Instead of letter grades, students receive personal feedback from their professors at the end of each semester. Also, Reed has several partnership programs with Sarah Lawrence and the two institutions seem to be close.</p>
<p>There are many differences between the schools you listed, but they are ones of campus culture rather than fundamental purpose.</p>
<p>By the way, of the colleges you listed, Bowdoin, Vassar, Williams, Wesleyan, and Darthmouth are all members of the 12-College exchange program, which allows students at these colleges to spend a year at one of the other affiliated institutions.</p>
<p>Don’t overlook the midwestern LACs - they are equally (or in some cases, more) liberal, gay-friendly and, being in the midwest, very understated, unpretentious and low on preppiness. Check out Carleton, Grinnell, and Macalester (you have Oberlin on the list already). </p>
<p>Grinnell is one of the few that offers merit aid and the college president is openly gay (lives with his partner and their two kids). Grinnell is particularly strong in the sciences and has an enormous endowment. That results in class sizes smaller than most other LACs (intro chem and bio are only 24 students per class for example), state-of-the-art facilities, excellent food, and tons of money for student research, internships and activities. Also no distribution requirements (I believe Amherst is the same in that respect.) I also think the observatory on campus is especially cool-no light pollution in rural Iowa (although the college is two blocks from the downtown of a small college town and you are only an hour from Des Moines and Iowa City).</p>
<p>While that’s true from a technical, Carnegie Foundation designation viewpoint, Dartmouth students regularly refer to it as a liberal arts college – which makes it unique as far as Ivy League universities are concerned.</p>
<p>Amherst college is pretty cool in that its part of the 5 college consortium. Amherst Mass and the surrounding area is pretty cool for college kids, especially with 4 other college campuses to go to parties and various events at. Its definitely better, IMO, than being stuck in the middle of nowhere like many of the elite LACs. Sort of like the best of both worlds: Elite LAC with around 2000 undergrads. Access to immense resources of 4 other colleges/universities, ability to cross-register at UMass, Smith, Hampshire, Holyoke, 25,000 students to socialize with when you get bored of the Amherst College scene, and those notoriously insane ZooMass parties (a few of which this year actually ended with the 'po in riot gear!).</p>
<p>It’s true, many of the “national” LACs in the USNWR top 50 (or more) do look very similar (at least on the surface). Here are a few LACs that look a little different:</p>
<p>Work Colleges<a href=“where%20you%20combine%20farming,%20ranching,%20or%20other%20work%20with%20classes”>/u</a>
Deep Springs College (CA) (probably the most unusual college of all)
Warren Wilson College (NC)</p>
<p>Block Plan Colleges<a href=“where%20you%20take%20just%20one%20course%20at%20a%20time”>/u</a>
Cornell College (Iowa)
Colorado College</p>
<p>Great Books Colleges<a href=“where%20there%20are%20no%20separate%20majors;%20all%20students%20read%20the%20same%20classic%20books”>/u</a>
St. John’s College (MD)
St. John’s College (NM)
Thomas Aquinas College (CA)</p>
<p>Single Gender Colleges
Agnes Scott
Barnard
Bryn Mawr
Deep Springs College (men only)
Mt. Holyoke
Smith
Wellesley</p>
<p>(It’s worth mentioning that the president of Deep Springs is a former member of the Shimer faculty, and will be speaking at the Shimer commencement this year. Us nonconformists gotta stick together…)</p>
<p>Re the OP, as an alum I would mention that Shimer, its extremely small size notwithstanding, is a very LGBT-tolerant place (and a very tolerant place in general).</p>