Im looking for schools that have a THRIVING gay population. I love small towns but i don’t want a small town gay scene.
Currently I’m looking at schools like Bowdoin, Middleburg, Colby, Wesleyan, Oberlin, and Bard (to name a few), but I’ve been hearing some not great things about some of these schools (mainly Bowdoin an Middlebury) in their relationships with the LGBT community while others seem to be doing great.
Can anyone confirm or deny these accusation or possibly recommend schools?
Im looking for LAC mainly in the northeast.
Of the NESCAC schools, Tufts and Williams tend to be the most gay friendly.
https://www.campuspride.org/2015-top-25/
https://www.noodle.com/articles/lgtbq-friendly-colleges-2015
http://www.bestcolleges.com/features/best-colleges-for-lgbt-students/
Middlebury
Wesleyan, Oberlin, and Bard are very LGBTQ friendly, but they are in small towns.
What’s your budget?
Vassar.
Hampshire?
@Mastadon, @Screaming, I’d be careful about using the links provided in post #1. All three are based on the Campus Pride index, which unfortunately only looks at 226 of the many colleges in the US. I did searches for some of the most LGBTQ friendly schools I know-Oberlin, Hampshire, Wesleyan, and Bard, and none of them were rated by Campus Pride so none of them show up in these lists of the top schools for gay students.
MODERATOR’S NOTE;
As an FYI, the OP has another account, and created this account to ask the question. As this is a violation of ToS, account has been closed, but I am keeping this thread open in case it might help others.
@sue22 - Colleges interested in benchmarking and improving their LGBTQ life voluntarily participate in Campus Pride.
The fact that the schools you list don’t participate is an interesting piece of data in and of itself…
https://www.campusprideindex.org/menu/aboutus
https://www.campusprideindex.org/faqs/index
Interesting in that it tells you the list is practically useless.
For the sake of variety, I would recommend either a big university in a small/midsized liberal college town (Cornell, CU-Boulder, Michigan, UNC, Wisconsin etc…) or a small college in or near a big city (Haverford, Reed, Williams etc…). Some LACs are located close to several other schools which magnifies your dating pool, like Hampshire College and Amherst, or the Claremont schools. If you are female, women’s colleges are all great.
Reed gives you access to Portland’s gay scene which is thriving and diverse.
Are you female? Smith is in a terrific gay town (Northampton)
Sarah Lawrence.
NYU
Ithaca
Skidmore
Um, Williams is not in or near a big city.
Delaware State University or University of Delaware. I live near both of them and attend the former. Both are about an 1-2 hour drive from Philly, Baltimore, and DC, and there is plenty to offer!
**FYI, I’m a gay college freshman, and we have a gay-straight alliance (I thought there wasn’t, then i realize i contacted my new admissions counselor instead of student activities), so if that helps, there you go!
I don’t know why these schools are not included, but a list of LGBTQ-friendly schools that doesn’t include Vassar, Hampshire, Bard, Oberlin, Sarah Lawrence, or Wesleyan would be like having a ranking of top engineering colleges that doesn’t include Stanford, MIT, CIT, Olin or Harvey Mudd.
Williams may have good LGBTQ support, but it is also in a very small town and has an active jock culture. I could see the OP at Tufts but not Williams. If the OP identifies as female they may want to look at women’s colleges. Smith is right outside of Northampton. It’s a small city but very accepting, with a thriving queer scene.
Not really, I mean, yeah, there are good sports teams, but it’s hardly 80’s style jocks vs. nerds. I played rugby and there were two gay men on the team.
An unexpected suggestion may be Fordham - Lincoln Center. While not officially a LAC the campus only has about 2,000 undergraduate students and it is LGBT friendly. Plus you are in the heart of Manhattan.