Sarah Lawrence College Top Questions

We're predominantly middle/upper class, white, liberal, and most importantly, tolerant. I've never been one to play into identity politics, but I hear that those who are sometimes feel uncomfortable here. Which is generally a surprise to me, but then I tend to assume the best in people, so I guess it's a wash.

I often have to remind myself that SLC is set up to accept everybody. I think it would be impossible to be homophobic and attend SLC but other than that, as long as you have an open mind, you'll fit in well enough. One thing that's really interesting about SLC is the wide variety of financial backgrounds. You may eat dinner with a student who is an apparent millionaire and a student on full financial aid.

Someone once asked me if there were any republicans at Sarah Lawrence. Although the question was ridiculous to some degree, Sarah Lawrence does ride on the hippy liberal persona. Yes the school can be perceived as radical but it also carries a lot of diversity, which include 'conservative' folks. it may not be the most racially diverse school out there but what small liberal arts school is? We make the best with what we got, and in addition the school is doing everything it can to make it a safe and comfortable space for students of color and the LGBT community. We embrace all and more.

Anyone who shops at American Apparel and can drop $40 on sushi in the city will fit in at SLC. The students here are RICH. Its not uncommon for an SLC student to go to Africa or Fiji for spring break, or to spend their summers in Europe. It's very frustrating coming from a lower middle class family and trying to fit in with students who have been traveling their entire lives, who drive minicoopers, and who have never worked a real job a day in their life. This is obviously a generalization, but I would say it is prevalent enough that it stands out.

cool peeps.

The Sarah Lawrence student body is open to anything and everything. We have an active LGBT community on campus that is constantly fighting for rights on everyone's behalf. No matter how radical or insane your opinions are, people here love to talk, so most likely someone will listen.

Student Body: Someone once accurately described Sarah Lawerence as " a lot of rare birds in a small cage". The student population has kids with a lot of pretty radical ideals but they are usually exceptionally bright. Although there are many small social circles at SLC, they overlap a lot and aren't exclusive in nature. Generally, since the school is so self-selective by nature, the quality of people is very high, made up of intelligent, funny and pretty attractive people.

Unfortunately, I feel like people don't care about clubs or community as much at SLC. We have a huge LGBT community on campus, but other than that there is a small nook of other diversity. I am part of Hillel which does not get a lot of participation or excitement. Religion is a difficult thing at SLC because not many people here are religious at all, therefore those who are are marginalized. There is a diversity among socio-economic backgrounds, which is important. The most prevalent financial background is upper-middle class, but i believe that is because of the tuition and not the kind of school we are. Students are very politically aware, and I feel like they are active off campus but not so much on campus. students are definitely mostly left wing, politically, socially, religiously...etc.

I am an active member of Sarah Lawrence's Hillel organization, the Jewish Organization on campus. For the most part people on campus are nonreligious, but people are generally respective of other peoples religious views. The most successful Hillel events are usually ones that discuss how religion fits in with sexual identity. The SLC campus is a place that is very accpeting of people with comlex Sexual identities, and the LGBT group has many events on campus.

I'm pretty preppy, and I'm usually the only person in the room with a collar. No one would feel out of place at this school unless they mind being the only person like them at the entire school. Pretty much everyone here is the only person like them at the entire school, so you have to be okay with that, because everyone else is.

Sarah Lawrence has both a very varied and somewhat constricted student body. We have a wide range of sexual identity groups. We also have a somewhat varied religious population, although religion isn't often a big topic. Racially we are not very diverse, most of the campus is white, the same can be said about socio-economic identity. Most students come from middle-class to upper class backgrounds. There are a decent number of people from less wealthy homes, but most of us are pretty privileged. We tend to be very left wing politically. None of us talk about how much we'll earn post graduation because most of us don't know and many of us are doomed to be "starving artists"

Its difficult to find groups of people to spend time with, but I've met people in classes and in clubs and have made friends who are in the same department as me, and who have completly differnt interests. In the last four years I've started thinking of Sarah Lawrence as a place fully of overlapping interests, and it can be a pain in the ass to find people with similar interests its worth the effort.

Any kind of person can go to Sarah Lawrence, the majority of people who go here are off beat artist, intellectuals who are somewhat anti social. But there are preppy people who go to school here they just do not make up the entire student body. Everybody is extremely liberal and politically aware.

There is a LOT of student activism on campus, but it seems to result in people being overly PC and scared to say anything that might make them seem racist/sexist/classist/anything-else-ist rather than an increase in acceptance. I've heard stories of people here getting in trouble for a racist joke told to friends who understood that there was no real racist sentiment behind it. You can't really talk about race if you're white, or people will give you shit for it. There is even an "ethnic-only" space on campus, where students who identify as "white" are not allowed except at specific times. It's not that big of a deal, but it does beg the question, are we really going fore equality, here, or are we just trying to punish the historical opressors?

I've heard people criticize Sarah Lawrence for being "just a bunch of rich white kids who will never have to deal with the problems they protest about." But this isn't what I see here at all. There are people of all different backgrounds interacting. I've met people with such different experiences and origins, but it seems like we all share a lot of the same interests and ideas. It's not split into camps as clearly as many other institutions. There are varying degrees of people involved in every aspect of the school, but there's so much overlap. The artists are also political activists who like to play sports. That's why they're all here-to explore.

Everyone here is white and rich. That's not entirely true, but almost. There are fewer than 50 black students. Total people of color is likely less than 10{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the population. There are many LGBTQ students. Most students are rich, from one of the coasts, and white. There are 3 women for every man. Many students are politically active, in a Sarah Lawrence way, meaning they subvert the dominant paidigm through hedonistic self-expression and likely don't vote.

Sarah Lawrence is very LGBT, religious, racial and soci-economic friendly. There are a trillion different types of people that go here. Most of them are intellecutual and quite liberal. But other than those two things.. everyone varies. Actually, most everyone is caucasion. Which is unfortunate... I'd like to have a more racially diverse student body. But that doesn't mean we aren't racially tolerant... because we all are. There are probably like... under 20 republicans on campus. Maybe not even that many. Poeple are from ALL over.

Students here are very socially active, but if that isn't your thing your not going to feel left out in anyway. The campus is, however, very liberal. I can't think of many republicans or "conservatives."

Girls identify as boys and boys identify as girls. Boys get with boys, girls get with girls. Many people come here, with the motive, just to make intelligent conversation, particularly when they are not even very intelligent. If you like to force intelligent conversation over a hot dog at the dining hall. This is probably the place for you.

We are from everywhere in the country but there are a lot of people from California especially. Politically we are crazy left and proud of it--it would be very difficult to be the lone moderate on the campus. For the most part, we are very racially and sexually tolerant; however, those who are religious meet with a lot of derision for believing in something non-academic. The average student is 'too intelligent' to believe in anything. Most of us were the odd ones in high school so our campus is very interestingly flavored: literally anything goes. there are a lot of really rich kids whose parents can actually pay for the schooling and there are a bunch of lower-ish middle class people. The upper middle class is not very well represented because their parents make too much money to get aid from the school but not enough to pay for it themselves.

Primarly female straight frustrated girls who wil lower their standards or consider bisexuality after a year at sarah lawrence. The men on campus can get any one they want and usually sleep around, despite the fact that they are usually skinny hipster emo boys that are not that attractive. Most students tend to be fairly wealthy considering it is on the most expensive colleges in the country, and tend to wear designer labels and vintage clothes to class, you will rarely see someone come to class in pj's or sweats.

I think the best term to describe the student body is "intense". Sarah Lawrence students care about what they're doing, and want others to care about it too. Politically, the campus leans left. I would place myself just left of center, and I would never say that I've felt too out of place politically here. Sometimes, the lack of variety of opinion is obvious, but that can be true almost anywhere, and I think most students here are open to a lot of conversations.

Sarah Lawrence is mostly straight, rich Jewish girls from California, Brooklyn and New York City. It seems like almost everyone here has had some sort of mental issue and has been to countless years of therapy and taken lots of drugs. People here are very liberal, which is not a bad things, but it often leads to self-absorption and much of the discussions and work here is rather self-masturbatory and irrelevant. Many of the students are anti-social or moody and selfish, so it is not a great place to be a lot of the time.

People's attitudes are almost a direct result of the weather: when the sun is shining people are happy and friendly. on cold winter days even your friends won't say hi to you.

It is not a very diverse campus. Mostly rich white kids, a lot of whom live fabulous rich lives in LA or New York. Most of the student body is very trendy and hipster, so even though our slogan is "you are different, so are we" the reality is that EVERYONE looks the same most of the time. People hang out in groups and it can be hard to make friends at the beginning. There really isn't much diversity at all.

The student body is sometimes irritatingly self-righteous and sometimes merely wonderfuly idealistic. We like to think of ourselves as kind of a liberal hippy enclave, where we all lie around on the grass and talk about how we aren't really sure monogamy is natural. Remarkably, however, there is still a fair amount of diversity; there are nerds, geeks, partiers, and activists. None of those groups ever seems to be considered as better than any other, however. We are all quite happy not to have any Greek life, in the traditional college sense, that is--we're quite happy to spend our time talking about early democracy or dreaming of trips to Delos.

For such a small school, there are a lot of clubs and communities. The students are what make this campus, not the faculty and administration. Since we are given so much freedom, everything is pretty much student run, which is great. People who have never had leadership positions can thrive here. There's someplace for everyone. Sarah Lawrence draws a lot of students from the coasts. California and New York are the answers you hear most when asked where you're from. There's a myriad of different financial backgrounds, not much in the racial/ethnic department. But everyone's open and generally curious about a number of different things, people, and places.

Everyone is welcomed here, everyone is mixed nicely around the lunch tables, people from all walks of life, but lets get down to the real student body im talking girls ehh not much to speak of you can find some hiding in the library or in the art building thats about it.

kind of lame. most of the time. super trendy kids who think they're the shit. and some chillers. some very cool kids for sure. not too many though. you really have to wait it out freshman year in order to find your group. its like that everywhere, but especially at SLC.

I think the community is so small and it's hard to get people involved in events and functions, which is something the school is always trying to work on.

Largely because of its tuition and geographic location, SLC is not the most diverse in terms of race/economic class or ability. It is not very handicap accessible, and their have been a number of complaints and some incidents regarding racial relations on campus. It is not the ideal school for jocks, or students heavily into math and science, unless they are open to examining these fields in more unique ways. Republicans are few and far between, and the socially conservative or right-wing have no place there.

Again, this is a collection of people who for some reason or another felt more comfortable in an off the wall environment than in a normally formatted college. The student body reflects that. It also reflects the almost obscene tuition. The students are likely to be either from families rich enough to afford it or are brilliant enough to get scholarships or are determined enough to find that much money through loans.

The running joke at SLC is that we will all be living in cardboard boxes in Yonkers after graduation. In one sense, it's true; a disproportionate number of students end up in Starbucks or Borders for years after graduation. But what they're doing at the same time is acting off-off Broadway, writing musicals or screenplays, composing operas, volunteering for political organizations or arts enrichment groups or charities, writing poetry, or one of hundreds of other things. They feel strongly enough about their passions and works that being a book wench or a coffee slave is perfectly acceptable, to pay the bills and allow them to pursue their loves and interests. And I think Sarah Lawrence conveys the message that that's all right, that's a perfectly acceptable way to live your life, and you shouldn't let conventionality or 'norms' challenge what you want to do.

Really conservative students would have a hard time here.

Sarah Lawrence students on the whole claim to be open minded. This is true for almost all subjects. Most students here are left and as a result will be displeased when they encounter someone who is from the right. There are also a number of students on either side of the religious spectrum - being either very into faith or thinking it's the greatest social evil - who are very vocal about the subject. People here are very opinionated and will get into long discussions about those opinions which can either be very enlightening or just infuriating. SLC definitely teaches you how to articulate your opinions. That is not to say that there is huge tension on this campus for either of those subjects, it just flares up every now and again.

Racial: UNIDAD (Latinos) Religous: Christian Union and Hillel. As well as some Muslium friends. I think that, like any college campus, students need to feel identified with a group and/or are still exploring. People find their niche here, even if there doesn't fully embrace every aspect of their self-expression. Afterall, the school slogan is "you're different, so are we" SCARVES! LEFT!

sarah lawrence is known for being liberal and accepting of all. that being said, if you are not liberal or your views do not include accepting of all differences, you will probably not feel welcome. case in point: we have one declared republican on staff.

some what closed, spends lots of time in the city, interested in the arts, esp. contemporary arts, likes to party, loves to talk about academics, passive aggressive.

Sarah Lawrence is not very diverse, unfortunately, like many liberal arts colleges. there is a definite new york-hipster vibe from most of the students, but there is also a sizable population of normal-looking joes and jills. The students here are mostly the "wierd" kids from high school, the outcasts banding together as a wonderfully eccentric and queer (in all senses of the word) community.

Not very diverse but the people are really nice, they align politcally to the left. Who cares what students wear to class?

The student body is very accepting, different, and unusual. However, that is not meant to be a blanket statement. there are people who dont fit into that description. everyone has their own sense of self.

I saw the social climate of SLC as really challenging from minute one. It was hard to find people that I felt comfortable with, but I did. The vast majority of the population leaned a certain way and maybe I leant the other? I'm not sure. But there are some good minds there and true, unique people. There is a niche there, maybe for anybody, if they're willing to look for it. But it might take time if you're not a hipster.

Groups on campus can be loud, but mostly productive and successful. Not much else to say, I'm not terribly involved. And socially, we're either tight-knit or not. Can't make generalizations without wearing out stereotypes perpetuated by first years.

Sarah Lawrence is not very diverse. We have two active religious groups on campus; Hillel and the Christian Union. I am involved in Hillel but there is very few participation. Jocks would feel very out of place at Sarah Lawrence. A lot of the female students dress up for class.

Students at SLC have a number of backgrounds, preferences, interests, and creeds. 99{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the time, these personal traits are valued by other students and there is a strong collective force to push for open acceptance (as opposed to simply tolerance) in the air. Since SLC is so expensive, there has at times been the notion that the majority of SLC students belong to higher income families and thus take less advantage of the education provided. This is generally untrue on two levels: 1. It turns out to be the case that SLC invites students from all income levels and provides a good deal of gift aid for those in more need, 2. Those more wealthy SLC students I am familiar with have proven themselves to take the education they receive at SLC very seriously, and sometimes more seriously than others due to self-consciousness.

I do not think there is truly a typical SLC student--for as many students who wear $1000 boots to class, there are some who wear pajamas or sweatpants. Perhaps the only area where MOST people align is politically--by far students at SLC are left of center (though there is a lot of variance on how far left). Members of the LGBT community are wholeheartedly accepted and are visible on campus. Coming out month and other LGBT-themed events occur through out the year. The campus has made strides over the last 4 years to become more inclusive and accessible to students who are transgendered.

We're open to everything. As long as it's not religion. We tout the fact that we are open-minded; how many other schools have Gender-Fuck-Week? But if you bring up a subject on religion, there's a mental block from most people. People refuse to learn, listen or consider faith--it's just too pro-Bush for them, I suppose. Republicans and Conservatives don't live here. They're eaten for breakfast by the nazi-feminists.

Students are very politically involved here. The identity groups, religious groups, and activism groups are quite dynamic. I have felt pressure from time to time to become involved with these groups (Hillel) or treated somewhat as an outsider as a white person helping out (Harambe and Unidad), but for the most part I think the intentions are good, and the passion is there.

Monied and unaware of it. Beginning to be more preppy. Wish we had more scholarship funds to diversify the campus.

The biggest thing I have problem with on campus, besides the homogeneity of the student body, is the lack of student action. We might be aware as anything, but the lack of DOING anything about it is really bothersome. I'm trying to fix this on a personal level and have started to DO and not just discuss/talk about issues, but this is the vast minority of people of campus. Most of the students are 'liberal', but what does that mean anymore? So they're against George Bush, but are they resolved to do anything about it? Are they against what Bush represents, or even aware that HE's not the problem, but rather the entire system? No, Not really...