Okay so, I’ve done a lot of research on this because one of my real fears for college is that I will go somewhere where it is advertised that the college is very LGBT+ friendly, and has many LGBT people, but those people end up being strictly gay men. This is something that’s come up a lot in my research and being a lesbian, it’s something that worries me a lot. I really want to find a community that suits me and has people like me (also, I don’t want to be single for the entirety of my college experience), and I’m applying to all girls schools but I’m not sure if I want to go to one. Thanks in advance!
Also, preferably schools on the east coast or near it! I live by NYC.
The overwhelming majority of colleges are very LGB-friendly these days. As you’ve realized, though, the size of the dating pool can vary a lot. You may want to avoid particularly small colleges, especially those in rural areas.
If you’re not sure about attending a single-sex college, consider those with cross-enrollment or are in a consortium, such as Bryn Mawr (Quaker consortium), Wellesley (cross-registration with Brandeis and MIT), Barnard (cross-registration with Columbia), and Mount Holyoke and Smith (5 Colleges).
I recommend starting with the most basic factors first:
(1) Cost and what you can afford – talk with your parents
(2) Selectivity – consider your grades, test scores, extracurriculars, awards, etc.
(3) Size – Do you want a college with 500 students? 4000? 30,000?
(4) Setting – Big city? Suburb of a city? Out in nature? College town?
(5) Geographic region – By “east coast,” are you referring only to the northeast?
(6) Academic areas of interest
Once you have a better handle on the types of colleges that are suitable for you, you’ll get more accurate suggestions, and you can narrow down your list based on other factors such as the size of the LGB dating pool.
The good news for you is that many colleges these days have many more women than men on campus – a 60/40 ratio is not uncommon, and some are even approaching a 70/30 ratio. There are many great options for queer women.
Thank you so much for the reply! It definitely calmed some fears
- Cost is definitely an issue, but since my mom makes less than 55k a year and I have two siblings, we're hoping for need aid.
- I have a 33 on my ACT and my GPA is a 4.3 weighted so I'm not too worried about not getting in certain places, it's not like I'm interested in going to an ivy haha.
- Size I'm looking for about 2.5k and up, geographic region just not rural, at least a big town, and yeah mostly the north east. I just can't picture myself going too far south, I've never been on a plane or anything before.
- I'm not sure yet, I like human rights, politics and history but also mathematics.
Use net price calculators on college Web sites to see financial aid estimates. Many colleges do not give good financial aid. Also, if your father is alive, many colleges will use his income and assets as well.
Yeah I use those religiously, and I’ve heard that about using my father’s income, but if they do we’re pretty much screwed because he refuses to give our family any money and he makes a lot more than my mom does (like 70k a year). Thanks anyway haha
A lot of the top women’s colleges are very LGBT-friendly in a way that is of course inclusive to lesbian women, not just gay men as mentioned before. In addition, they generally have decent financial aid policies. Some have full meet your need policies, including: Mount Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, Scripps, Smith, and Wellesley.
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2015/09/14/colleges-that-report-meeting-full-financial-need
Your father might make the meeting full financial aid bit get a bit screwed over, but as these are small colleges, you could quite easily schedule a one-on-one meeting with a financial aid adviser (when I had a problem with my initial financial aid packet, I got such a meeting with someone from Scripps very easily) whether in person, over phone, or whatever,and explain your situation. They won’t be guaranteed to accommodate you, but there’s a much better chance of getting help that way than you would at a place that’s too big to give you personal consideration.
The University of Michigan, and Ann Arbor, have a very active, welcoming and sizeable lesbian community.
You need to focus on schools that do not use your father’s finances, or where you can get big merit scholarships. Most good financial aid schools will use his information, so putting only your mother’s income of $55k in the net price calculators will give unrealistically optimistic results.
Look into Virginia Commonwealth University! They would probably give you merit aid, and the Richmond location makes it very liberal and diverse. (I’m also lesbian and I’ve grown up in the area).
Merit scholarship lists:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
Barnard, NYU, Smith
Honestly, the best thing you can do is try to reach out to the LGBTQ student unions on campus to see if there are any students you can talk to about the scene. A lot of schools will brag about being “welcoming,” but as you indicated in your original post, that can mean a lot of things (I’m at a school that’s supposed to be very queer friendly, but as a lesbian, it isn’t somewhere I’d recommend to others). Talking to students to get their candid feelings is the best way to know what things are really like.
Surprisingly, the U of Tulsa. A very fine midsize university that has a LAC feel. As I recall a LGBT poster here on CC gave a positive description of LGBT life in Tulsa.
Also investigate Clark University in Wooster, MA. Clark is nearly 60% women. Plus, Worcester is a college town with three other senior colleges in the city.
If your parents’ total income is ~$125K, you can still qualify for need-based aid at selective, private, queer-friendly schools like Smith College. However, I’m afraid you’re unlikely to get enough n-b aid to make them affordable on your mom’s salary alone. Try running the NPCs with your father’s income included.
You can’t count on persuading schools like Smith to ignore his income.
You may need to broaden your search to include “big merit” schools cited in post #9.
Or consider commuting from home to a college in your area.
Oberlin should be on your list although they are expensive and only give out an average level of merit.
University of Vermont
^That’s from 2011, though, and shouldn’t be taken as up-to-date (a lot of the stuff written about my school is no longer applicable).
@SpringAwake15 fair enough, just thought it might be helpful because there aren’t that many of those types of guides specifically geared toward lesbians.
Mount Holyoke and Smith. I think the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts (where they are both located) must be the lesbian capital of the country 