<p>weenie–I guess my question is, in what way does bringing up the economic issue relate to the question at hand? Presumably, Middlebury’s new directive would be economically neutral.</p>
<p>I think weenie makes some good points about economic diversity. There is an underrepresented segment of society missing at schools like Middlebury, and I imagine students there are poorer in experience for it. Having said that, they’re free to pick and choose the student body they desire. It’s a business and the name means something to several hundred people who sit down and write the full-freight check out each year. As a consumer, it’s something I do look at in terms of fit and low numbers on financial aid is a point of concern. If they want to send out the bat signal that they’re giving a tip to gay students, it’s fine by me. It’s no different than a tech school being open about seeking more female applicants. They get to shape the class they wish, and as consumers we have the choice to apply or not.</p>
<p>As a straight person I find this offensive - and a good reason not to apply to Midd.</p>
<p>Good! You may be just the kind of person Middlebury is trying to screen out. (I meant that seriously, not in jest - self-selection may be exactly what they intend.)</p>
<p>Great. They can fulfill their pointless quest to change their school in a meaningless manner. I’d be sick if I were an alumnus from the Midd my parents talk about.</p>
<p>I don’t plan on filling out a question about my sexual orientation when applying for a job, filling out the census, or anything else. Why should I have to when applying to a college? Why does anyone besides me need to know what gender I prefer? Will a college ask you your religious affiliation? I havnt seen it. Will a college ask you your political beliefs? I havn’t seen it. A homosexual applicant can express himself through his ECs and essays. If s/he talks about his/her sexuality in an essay, the adcom will know. If the applicant chooses not to, the adcom will not know, and really does not need to know. I am for Middlebury wanting to increase male students, but it may back fire by pushing away straight men. At my high school there are several homosexuals who are out of the colset and I have no problem with them. If I am applying to a college and I feel that it is a place catering to homosexual men, that is a different story, and I do not know how comfortable I would be at a school where half the males are gay. I also do not know how comfortable I would be at a school with 75%+ of one gender either (which is why im not looking at Vassar or RPI). I want diversity in a school, and personally think the first step is to search for economic diversity, not sexual orientation.</p>
<p>I presume then that you’ve written off Yale and NYU. That’s okay, there are plenty of other applicants who will be pleased to apply in your place.</p>
<p>Yale and NYU are fine schools that don’t ask discriminatory questions on their applications.</p>
<p>cavalier302–i’m sorry, but I fail to see where it says that Middlebury will ask this question on their application??? Can you enlighten us as to where you found this nugget? Either you are privy to info that the rest of us are not, or your reading comprehension skills are rusty.</p>
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<p>Some do, and give scholarship money based on the answer.</p>
<p>Cavalier:
The question Middlebury asks is not discriminatory.
But if you think it is - is it (more/less) discriminatory than, say, asking if your parents have a college education, which many colleges do ask?</p>
<p>“Yale and NYU are fine schools that don’t ask discriminatory questions on their applications.”</p>
<p>Both schools with very high percentages of gay (male) students, and (relative to other schools) low economic diversity. So why would you even consider them? Their applications will be the same as that of Middlebury.</p>
<p>arcadia - sorry, I’m posting in between calc problems - but I assumed that the college would ask if the applicant possesses such an “attribute”, the same way they ask if the applicant is black.</p>
<p>Old Campus, giving an applicant preference because he’s gay is quite discriminatory.</p>
<p>mini, I’ve never stated any opposition to gays, if that’s what you’re implying.</p>
<p>You have no opposition to gays, but will be happier in a school that has only five openly gay students and don’t think the educational experience at the school would be enhanced by increasing their number.</p>
<p>That’s fine. To each his own. There are plenty of wonderful schools out there.</p>
<p>No, Cavalier, you’re wrong. Running a college as if every student there were white, straight and middleclass - THAT’s discriminatory.</p>
<p>No, it’s not discriminatory, old campus. If that’s how things shake out, it’s how things shake out.</p>
<p>No, Cavalier, you’re wrong again. Things do not “shake out” that way.
But I bet you believe that every college admissions process has some built-in discrimination. You are just trying to match yours with theirs, and get a fit.
THEN, it will shake out your way.</p>
<p>'I presume then that you’ve written off Yale and NYU. That’s okay, there are plenty of other applicants who will be pleased to apply in your place."</p>
<p>I have never heard that Yale or NYU have a very high % of their male students that are gay. I do not mind a school having gay peers, but to have 50% of the males gay is a turn off. It makes sense that NYU and Yale would attract many gay men with amazing drama departments, like MIT and Caltech attract many asian men with amazing engineering departments. However, I doubt Yale and NYU activly try to see who is gay and who is straight before admitting applicants and instead would use grades, auditions, scores, and all that other stuff that makes an app.</p>
<p>Strangly, Yale (and Harvard) is the only ivy I have not considered applying to not because of a gay population, but because I did not feel that it would be a fit or a reasonable reach. I do not want to go to NYU not because a few homosexual men are there, but because it has no real campus and I want the campus experience in college. </p>
<p>I am not homophobic, I just do not want to a school where I am in a very very small minority.</p>
<p>“I am not homophobic, I just do not want to a school where I am in a very very small minority.”</p>
<p>Huh? 
</p>
<p>Venkater, you write - “I am not homophobic, I just do not want to a school where I am in a very very small minority”.
That won’t hapen to you at Yale or NYU. I know - I went to Yale, which is diverse enough for everyone. So is NYU. So is Columbia, where I teach.
BUT what you don’t want to happen yo yourself, you want to happen to mother people?
Your words - “I just do not want to a school where I am in a very very small minority” - are what gay students may be saying right now.
Having more of something won’t make others a minority, but definitely will help a college’s liveability for EVERYONE.</p>