Advice on choosing a college

I heard Yale University and Princeton University have the It Gets Project ( ; however, I advice Yale more because it's awesome! lol

 

I chose my college because i felt it calling me! I am going to Gallaudet University in Washington DC, and I don't know how gay/trans friendly it will be, but I visited and it overall is very friendly! But you need to be either deaf/hoh or excellent at ASL to get in.

 

Keep in mind that the larger the college, the more likely that you will find other LGBT people as well as LGBT support groups. I'm going to Penn State, which is in central PA (and essentially as conservative as it gets, despite having Pittsburgh and Philadelphia), and it has a huge LGBT support group.

 

You should also choose a college that will have the major you want as well. You don't need to know exactly what you want to do right away, but you should have an idea and go to a college that has that major.

 

Here's a list of the most LGBT friendly colleges in the US. My caveat is that these are just rankings. You may want to do further research on organizations, fraternities/sororities, etc. that cater to the LGBT community.

Most LGBT-Friendly College Campuses: Campus Pride Index Top Rated Schools

In case you need it, here's a list of the least LGBT friendly colleges by Princeton Review:

The 12 Least LGBT-Friendly Colleges In The Country: Princeton Review List

 

Rice University seems fine - they have a "Queers and Allies" group that is officially recognized on campus and even given office space (next to the pub in the student union, I might add :lol, as well as a "Gay and Lesbian Alumni" group (GALA).

If you're concerned about atmosphere on campus as well as institutional support, you might look into crime and discrimination reports too - these should be available on the schools' websites, but are occasionally tactfully hidden. They're public info though, and if you email the admissions office, they should be able to direct you to that info.

Regarding other ways to choose universities, a search for the university name and "lgbt" or "gay" or something along those lines in Google will generally turn up at least a little bit of information. Many public universities include some sort of institutional support for lgbt students, as do private secular universities, but it's not completely universal in either case (it depends on the location and its political climate). Religious-affiliated schools are sometimes hostile towards lgbt students - very much so, in some cases - but on the other hand can also be very accepting, even active and socially conscious in their support (this is often a mixed bag requiring some research - though Jesuit schools are often a safe bet, I've found). Feel free to drop questions about other specific schools if you're not sure - I've spent some time looking into this in the past (I work at a university now) and can hopefully lend a hand.

 

At risk of offending everyone here, I'm gonna say that I think picking a college based primarily on LGBT-friendliness is stupid, to be honest. I mean, I know there are areas of the world that are not as LGBT-friendly, but as long as you're using common sense (i.e. potentially avoid the Deep South and religious colleges) you're probably fine. Post-secondary students, generally speaking, tend to be much more open-minded about other people and other things; that's what education does to you. And no matter where you go, you're bound to meet some idiots who won't like you for being gay, that's just how it is.

All that said, yeah, keep it into consideration, but I wouldn't rank it that highly.

Things I kept in mind when I was picking schools:

- choice of major/program, obviously. Being in engineering I wasn't too limited in my choice of schools.
- the feel of campus. If you can go visit in person, do it. Your college is going to be your new home for the next 4+ years of your life; you don't want to be somewhere you're miserable. And yeah, LGBT-friendliness probably falls under this category.
- location. If you're far from home, close to home... whatever suits you best. The city you're in might not hurt to look at either. Bigger cities/schools are probably better in terms of LGBT-friendliness
- cost. So that's not strictly tuition, but also residence costs, meal costs... general relative housing costs (if you're living off campus at any point). By that I mean places like Toronto or Ottawa (big capital cities) are way more expensive for real estate than say, Hamilton.

For me, the feel was most important. I visited the school I'm at now and I felt so comfortable just walking around campus; I fell in love with the place. Since my major and cost weren't really issues otherwise, that was the deciding factor for me. And really, if you like your new "home", everything else will fall into place.

Despite what we think sometimes, life extends beyond being LGBT.

EDIT: I want to add too that at post-secondary, beyond just there being more people than high school, there are a lot more people who are open about their sexuality. So technically, there will be just as many LGBT people as there are now, you'll just see more of them. And that's a relatively universal truth.

 

More important factors in choosing a college than "not being the only gay guy there." Focus on finding a college that has a good program for the degree you seek, nice facilities, great staff, within your price range, has a number of extracurricular activities to engage in, and, if you are in a research oriented field, a good research budget in your field.

Meet these criteria to, as your main goal, have a environment conducive to your learning and success, and an added bonus is that you stand almost no chance of being the only gay guy there.

 

I've heard Oxford Brookes has a quite diverse LGBT community and its Oxford so the degrees are of a very high standard. But then again its in England so maybe your not thinking of going that far?

 

Don't make the choice based on your perception of the "gay friendliness" of a school (unless its a small college with a homogenous student population that isn't gay friendly, like BYU or something), most standard public uni's have the same dynamic going in terms of how gay people fit in, you just do. The only exceptions might be some of the Southern schools that draw a lot of their student population from conservative southern areas.

Your criteria should pretty much be this:
1. Quality of the school (I am talking major differences in quality, not this school is "ranked" 6 spots higher than this one, don't focus on those stupid newsweek rankings.
2. Price.
3. After the first two, you can think about if you "fit" the school or not, but personally I think finding the "right fit" is a fairly bullshit notion that students cook up for themselves because they are trying to be independent and justify their arbitrary decisions.

There are going to be gay people at every single college and I would guess that there will be gay communities at nearly every single college (certainly at all public universities). But if you are really so concerned about making sure there a gay people at your school, go to NYU or an Art school.

---------- Post added 30th Jun 2012 at 12:11 AM ----------

Rice is a great university. Its expensive but if you can afford it, its great. I heard it described as an extremely "quirky" college, so if you like quirky people and are quirky yourself you will probably fit in.

Why not go visit and get a sense of the atmosphere?

---------- Post added 30th Jun 2012 at 12:13 AM ----------

Also, if you are into getting online advice and are looking at schools of the quality of Rice I recommend visiting the site "College Confidential" and sharing your questions there, they are a very informative community (made up of parents and students).

 

Ok, I don't know any specifics about those schools, though I know people that go to both. I would assume the urban factor of WUSTL might give it the edge in terms of LGBT life, being in St. Louis and all. Plus you will be right next to a few other schools like SLU which increases your chances of meeting similar people.

 

As someone who ended up at a school that was a really poor fit, socially, I think it is really important. I was really miserable. I stuck it out almost two years. By "almost," I mean "I didn't finish my second year."

I went back to a different school later, and finished, but I would have been much better off starting out at a different school.

It is very difficult to learn anything if you are lonely and miserable, or if the social environment is hostile. It doesn't matter how good the program is if you are so miserable that you drop out. Better to have a program that is not quite as prestigious and actually complete it. And succeed--you don't want to be failing classes either, which can also happen when you are miserable.

There are enough schools out there that you should be able to find one with the kind of program you want and a social environment that is suitable to you.

I would look for reasonably good programs in the area you want to study, and then narrow that down to four or five choices based on how gay-friendly they are and other social factors. Then, look at those schools comprehensively--considering all the different factors together.