How to Choose a College
Going to College
Official Rules and Policies
GLBT Organizations, Offices and Resource Centers
Students Speak for Themselves
Another way to find out what the climate of a school is like for GLBT students is to simply go out there and talk to the students themselves. There are many ways to do this. If you are already out and don’t mind getting your feet wet, ask a random student. Ask them if there are any GLBT students at that particular school and see how they respond to that question. If they go on and on about their best gay friend and all his or her good times together, then you’ve obviously found out that there is at least one GLBT person at the school. If they say ‘yes’, but are either offended or confused, don’t take this the wrong way. Almost every school has at least a select few students who haven’t been exposed to any GLBT people growing up, or come from conservative backgrounds, or are conservative themselves, and you may have just asked the wrong person. Go to the school’s website and see what information the website has on GLBT life at that school. Ask several different people at different places on campus. There might be areas on campus that are commonly frequented by GLBT students, and there might be areas on campus that are not frequented by GLBT students. These are all things you can possibly find out by putting a foot out there and asking people.
If asking random people questions isn’t your idea of a cool afternoon, then look for GLBT people in places you already know they might be, such as the weekly meeting of the student-run GLBT group. You might consider calling or e-mailing the GLBT resource center (if the school has one) and ask to talk to some people. Chances are the people in the resource center will be happy to help you find students to share some of their experiences with you. Once you do find a GLBT student to talk to, don’t be afraid to ask questions about GLBT life on campus, policies on harassment, what experiences they have had. Many GLBT students at some schools would be thrilled that you are truly interested in coming to their college (everyone loves to brag). Remember, the only dumb question is the one you didn’t ask. The more honestly you ask, the more honest your answers can be. You could end up going to this school for years, so you have a right to know what GLBT life at that school is like.
Lastly, another more anonymous way to find out about GLBT life at a particular college or university is to talk to people over the Internet. You can go into local gay chat rooms for a particular school. For example, if you wanted to find out more about GLBT life at George Mason University, you could go into Internet chat rooms that are for the Washington, DC area, Virginia, or even Fairfax County. There are large sets of GLBT chat rooms at various places on the Internet, such as the member-created rooms on America Online, Gay.com, PlanetOut.com, and more. As before, go ahead and tell people the truth; that you are interested in what GLBT life at their school might be like. You might get some people who are rude or busy, and who don’t want to talk to you, but you can also find people who are happy to candidly talk to you. Use your judgment, and since you will ultimately be the one going to that college, spend some time talking to people. The more people you talk to, the more accurate your findings may be. The drawback to this is that you could talk to a few people who have had a certain kind of experience, and miss out on the larger picture of GLBT life at a particular school. If it’s a very large university, then there could be many different GLBT communities on campus, each with it’s own perspective and people, but from just talking to some people over the Internet, you might not find this out.
