What about University of Denver? Not small (about 5000 students) but not big either. Very LBGTQ friendly and a big sports culture. And lots of outdoor opportunities.
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Yes, I don’t know how trans-friendly the school is. D graduated in 2021 - time flies!
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Clark/WPI are both in Worcester but don’t think WPI would hit the price target. Clark I think would hit the price target and is very trans friendly.
My suggestion is Mount Holyoke my D attends. Very trans friendly school and very trans friendly area. I think with the cross registration and big sports environment with UMASS could work. Mount Holyoke is certainly not the biggest sports school but I know they have a good club Ultimate team and and outdoor club. Any club sport they don’t have I believe you can join the UMASS club but you would need to verify. Price point could hit the mark as well.
Based on coversation in the sibling’s thread, I wanted to highlight this information for this particular kid:
And Hawaii
I’ve heard wonderful things about Mount Holyoke. I probably should have mentioned that he’s a boy in my OP, because I know that women’s colleges are great options for many trans students.
I didn’t know much about Clark before this thread, but it looks really promising!
Thank you! Yes, those are the states he wants. Luckily some of them are states with lots of LAC’s.
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It’s a bit larger than a liberal arts college, but not huge. He may want to consider U. of Hartford in Connecticut which has about 4200 undergrads, so near the size of Ithaca College. Below is something I wrote in May 2024 about U. of Hartford that is relevant for your son, with emphasis added to the last two sentences:
Also, this thread might be interesting reading since you’ve already mentioned two of them, and third has about 2k undergrads: Syracuse vs Ithaca vs St. Bonaventure for Sports Media and Communications
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Another under the radar school that’s strong in Communication and Media Studies is Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland. They literally recruit for their academic programs in this major area, which includes a Sports Media concentration and partnership with ESPN for broadcasting and live event production.
Maryland is trans friendly, I’m less sure about the school, but something to look into.
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Okay, getting a bit further away geographically from some of the other options I mentioned earlier, these are all in Illinois:
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Augustana College (IL): About 2500 undergrads. One of the faculty in Communication Studies is a photojournalist who’s covered the Olympics and the NFL. The page on the major in Multimedia Journalism touts students who have covered the Stanley Cup for WGN radio during internships and at least one recent alum is a news writer for Sports Illustrated. It offers other majors of interest such as computer science, data analytics, film (with a hands-on focus), and finance.
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Illinois Wesleyan: About 1600 undergrads at this school. Its Communication major includes production skills in traditional and new media, and a minor in film that has a hands-on focus for creating films, commercials, and documentaries. But the school also offers majors in data science, computer science, finance, and quantitative finance, among others.
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Knox (IL): About 1100 undergrads at this Colleges That Change Lives school: https://ctcl.org/knox-college/. It may not be too far away from the “driftless region” which @Quadlogic described as:
I’m not sure what the LGBTQ population is like at Knox, but it has various cultural centers including a Gender and Sexuality Center and a Queer and Ally Cultural House (source). Additionally, members of their Board of Trustees are required to have a commitment to building and supporting a broadly diverse and inclusive community (and the school seeks to have a diverse set of trustees as well…source). It’s a small school but offers majors in business, computer science, data science, and journalism, among others.
- North Central (IL): About 2500 undergrads. It offers various majors that could be of interest such as Interactive Media Studies which includes photography and video production, as well as a Journalism and Media Communication major which includes coursework in photo journalism and tv studio production. Additionally,it’s a 1h15m drive (or 1h28m via public transportation) to Illinois Institute of Technology.
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Here to endorse Ithaca College as well. Not to beat a dead horse, but their School of Communications is one of the top in the country in terms of sports communications and journalism. One of their students won an Emmy for Outstanding Graphic Design for her work on NBC’s broadcast of the 2024 Paris Olympics while an undergrad.
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My kiddo is trans, as well. We had good luck with a number of schools in the PacNW. Namely both University of Puget Sound and Lewis and Clark College, with the sense that both the schools and the places were top notch for trans kids. These are my kid’s current top choices. I also felt Willamette was good at the school level, although I didn’t get the exact same vibe from Salem, OR where it’s located. It didn’t seem overly problematic, just not as “red-carpet welcome” as Tacoma or Portland. Pacific University Oregon also fit the bill, but my kiddo was a little less excited about the area (tiny town, maybe 45-50 minutes from Portland). I also got a good vibe from University of Redlands, but perhaps less so from the town and surrounding area in CA (much more purple-to-red area of CA). All of these have 2000 or fewer students, are residential, and have good diversity of major choices.
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Somewhat randomly, RIT (in upstate NY) has a fairly large trans population from what I gather and big LGBTQIA+ population…there was a Reddit thread about trans-student life not long ago.
I will say the school itself is kind of bureaucratic (I have a kid there) administratively, but I do think it seems like it would be welcoming. My kid is cisgender, so I can’t say from personal experience. I will say my kid wouldn’t have attended a school that wasn’t welcoming to your kid!
Edit seeing “He isn’t sure what he wants to study, maybe computer science, or data analytics, or finance, but also maybe photography or film.”
Those are actually highlight and flagship programs of RIT - they have a tip top photo program, solid film one, and their CS degree is really excellent. That said, switching between them is un-LAC-like….
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Thank you everyone! Lots of schools on this thread I either didn’t really know about, or might not have thought of.
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I really appreciate this list, both because it comes with lived experience and because I don’t know the West Coast options at all. We will absolutely check those out. Thank you!
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Can you clarify in-LAC like?
Lots of paperwork to switch majors (and not possible all the time) preferences to certain majors to get into classes so not really freedom of choice there in same way
Classes are not big though (for most part) and profs seem quite Accessible - there are not many grad students at all which is nice in that regard
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I think this is a good example of why I need input from people in other states! Because I live in MD, I know Mount Saint Mary’s and Emmittsburg well enough to know it’s not a fit. It’s a pretty conservative Catholic school, that appeals to conservative kids.
But in another state, I wouldn’t know that.
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Does anyone know anything about Macalester or St Olaf? My other kid really liked the UMN suggestion from the other thread.
I have friends who had kids both at Mac and St. Olaf. The Mac student was very sporty. The Ole was more nerdy and musical. Both would describe the schools as accepting and open and both loved their schools! St Olaf is pretty generous with merit $.
Based on the limited amount you shared, I think St. Olaf might be a better match vibe wise.
Are there sporty kids at St Olaf?