<p>Which boarding schools would be/provide a welcoming atmosphere for Goths?</p>
<p>I don’t know about any schools being specifically welcoming to goths, but plenty of schools are very diverse places where you would find acceptance. I suggest looking at larger schools and schools with high diversity.</p>
<p>A goth would probably feel a bit conspicuous at Thacher - not sure that would be socially comfortable.</p>
<p>To be honest Horse4Ever, I don’t think it matters, and also instead of posting so many questions in different thread just do thread specifically for those questions. </p>
<p>This is coming for a girl who is known for dressing in black, and my opinion is I just think it depends on your personality. If you are the type of goth that cuts or acts very pessimistic then I do not recommend boarding school for you. If you just like dressing in darker clothing like a black hoodie and have a sparkling personality, then I wouldn’t worry at all. Most people do not care if you dress in black, black is cool. If you dress in fishnets and do the more extreme goth or emo style then you will have trouble getting into the school, unless it is one of the more smaller schools who do not care as much and just want the admissions.</p>
<p>Hope this helps :-)</p>
<p>I agree that the thousand different new threads with pretty basic questions is irritating, but this is actually an interesting thread. I think Izzy Busy Bee makes a good point for the really large schools, but maybe also look at the other end of the spectrum at the very small, very progressive schools. (they exist, they just don’t get much mention around this board.) At a really small school, you aren’t just “the goth” because everyone would actually know you as a person. A school that believes in progressive education is maybe less likely to worry about how you dress and what music you like also.</p>
<p>I don’t at all mind a bunch of different basic questions, but I just was suggesting for this user to pile her questions a little bit better for this user posted I believe exactly fifteen different threads at once, some of the questions pretty similar. The board looked like someone took it over, ha ha. </p>
<p>Anyways, I agree that most people will care depending on what you consider goth and where you are applying.</p>
<p>While I think it’d be relatively easy to find a school that would be accommodating to your dress style, I think that another important consideration would be just how and why you would define yourself as a goth. Is it just the way you dress? Do you take part in self-destructive activities? Are you a pessimist?</p>
<p>Even aside from the fact that a lot of goth qualities are just downright undesirable for a residential school, I think you’ll have a hard time finding a place that will admit a walking stereotype. I can really only speak for Andover, but I’d assume that our peer schools are similar in this. No one fits under one single label. There are nerds who are also varsity athletes. There are theater geeks who are also on the US national physics team. But there is no one who is just one thing, let alone a thing that provides absolutely no benefit to the school community.</p>
<p>So maybe you’d like to clarify. And stop posting so many threads.</p>
<p>Admittedly, I don’t understand much about goth culture. However, I recently read a well written college admission essay that was posted online entitled “Give Goth a Chance”. It was in response to a college Common Application question about how an applicant can contribute to campus diversity. I have pasted that essay below. </p>
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<p>Give Goth a Chance</p>
<p>When I sat down to write this essay, I tried, as my high school English teacher always instructed, to imagine the audience for my writing. The more I thought about it, the more I pitied the college admissions screeners who would be reading a thousand essays on diversity. Along with the expected takes on race and ethnicity, how many of those essays would present their authors as outcasts, loners, kids who didnt fit in at his or her school? How could I present myself as someone unique and interestingstrange, evenwithout falling prey to the cliché of the self-pitying social misfit?</p>
<p>Let me be direct: in some ways, I am the antithesis of what one might picture as a student who contributes to campus diversity. I am white, middle-class, and heterosexual; I have no physical handicaps or mental challenges apart from a tendency towards sarcasm. But when I receive college brochures picturing smiling, clean-cut teens dressed in the latest from Abercrombie & Fitch and lounging on a blanket in the sun, I think, those people are not like me.</p>
<p>Simply put, I am a Goth. I wear black, lots of it. I have piercings and ear gauges and tattoos. My hair, naturally the same sandy blonde that the rest of my family shares, is dyed jet, sometimes highlighted in streaks of purple or scarlet. I rarely smile, and I dont do sun. If I were inserted into those brochure photographs of typical college students, I would look like a vampire stalking her wholesome prey.</p>
<p>Again, I am imagining my reading audience, and I can almost see my readers eyes roll. So youre a little weird, kid. How does that contribute to campus diversity? Well, I think I contribute plenty. Diversity goes beyond the physical; race or ethnicity might be the first things one thinks of, but really, it is a question of what makes someone the person that he or she is. Diversity might be considered in terms of economic or geographical background, life experiences, religion, sexual orientation, and even personal interests and general outlook. In this respect, my Goth identity contributes a perspective that is far different from the mainstream. Being Goth isnt just about physical appearance; its a way of life that, like any other, includes not only individual tastes in music, literature, and popular culture, but also particular beliefs about philosophy, spirituality, and a range of other human issues.</p>
<p>To give just one specific example, I am planning to major in Environmental Studies, and while it might seem odd to picture a ghoulishly-dressed girl who adores the natural world, it was my Goth outlook that led me to this academic interest. I read voraciously, and am drawn to subject matter that is somewhat dark; the more I read about humanitys impact on the planet and the near-apocalyptic dangers posed by global climate change, pollution, overpopulation, the manipulation of the food supply and other environmental threats, the more interested I became, and the more determined that I should become involved. I, along with other members of my schools Environmental Club, started a campus recycling program, and lobbied our superintendent to install in all classrooms power strips that are used to easily shut down equipment such as printers and computers at the end of the day, thereby conserving energy and generating significant savings for our school. I was drawn to this dark subject matter of environmental crisis, not to wallow in it or savor the Schadenfreude, but to change it and make the world a better place.</p>
<p>I know Goths look a little funny, as we wear our ebony trenchcoats in seventy-degree weather. I know we seem a little odd as we gather in shady nooks to discuss the latest episode of True Blood. I know professors may sigh as we swell the enrollments of poetry and art classes. Yes, were different. And weIhave a lot to contribute.</p>