The Most LGBTQ-Friendly Colleges in The Country

The Most LGBTQ-Friendly Colleges in The Country SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips In general, colleges are consistently becoming more LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer) friendly. Young people are more accepting of different sexual orientations and gender identities, and those attitudes are reflected at a growing number of US colleges. However, there are still many college campuses that have reputations for not being inclusive or safe for members of the LGBTQ community. If it's important to you to be at a school with a vibrant LGBTQ community, you should consider looking at specifically LGBTQ-friendly schools. In this article, I'll do the following: Define an LGBTQ-friendly school Explain why you should consider an LGBTQ-friendly college Provide lists of LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities Give advice for how to use those lists and do effective research to determine if a school is LGBTQ-friendly What Is an LGBT-Friendly College? An LGBT-friendly college makes its LGBTQ students feel safe, accepted, and comfortable on campus. It offers plentiful resources to provide support and counsel for LGBTQ students. Furthermore, the students at LGBTQ-friendly colleges are accepting and supportive of members of the LGBTQ community. LGBTQ students feel at ease expressing themselves around non-LGBTQ students, and the student body treats LGBTQ students with tolerance and respect. If you're looking for specific orientations like gay friendly colleges, generally colleges that I say are LGBTQ-friendly are gay friendly as well. Why Should You Consider an LGBTQ-Friendly College? If You're an LGBTQ Student If you go to an LGBTQ-friendly college as an LGBTQ student, you'll be in a more accepting, supportive environment. Being in an inclusive place can have a positive impact on your quality of life and academic performance while you're in college. Also, you'll be around more LGBTQ students who are out. LGBTQ students at LGBTQ-unfriendly colleges often don't feel comfortable coming out and expressing their sexual or gender identities. Perhaps most importantly, at an LGBTQ-friendly college you'll have more support services, organizations, and programs designed to help you as an LGBTQ student. You'll be able to befriend other LGBTQ students in LGBTQ student groups and get mentorship and counseling from an LGBTQ resource center. Many LGBTQ-friendly colleges even have orientation programs specifically for LGBTQ students to help them get acclimated to college life. If You're Not an LGBTQ Student If you support LGBTQ rights, you're more likely to be around like-minded people at an LGBTQ-friendly college. Generally, people tend to be happier if they're in a community with others who share their political and social views. For many college students, equality for and acceptance of LGBTQ people are important social issues. Even if you're not an active ally of the LGBTQ community, you can benefit from attending an LGBTQ-friendly college. Ideally, the college experience should broaden your horizons and expose you to diverse people and communities. At an LGBTQ-friendly college, you're more likely to learn about LGBTQ issues and befriend LGBTQ students. Lists of LGBTQ-Friendly Colleges I'm providing you with two lists of LGBTQ-friendly colleges from two different sources. Both have clearly defined criteria for their rankings, and they're reputable sources. The first list from Campus Prideis more reflective of the available resources for LGBTQ students. The second list from Princeton Review is more reflective of on-campus attitudes and treatment of members of the LGBTQ community. The only school that made both lists is Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Campus Pride Campus Pride is a non-profitdedicated to creating safer, more inclusive LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities. The top 25 LGBTQ-friendly colleges are based on scores from the Campus Pride Index. The Campus Pride Index includes more than 50 self-assessment questions sent to colleges that correspond to 8 different LGBTQ-friendly factors: LGBTQ Policy Inclusion LGBTQ Support and Institutional Commitment LGBTQ Academic Life LGBTQ Housing LGBTQ Campus Safety LGBTQ Counseling and Health LGBTQ Recruitment and Retention Efforts The List The top 25 LGBTQ-friendly colleges are listed in alphabetical order. Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) Elon University (Elon, NC) Indiana University-Bloomington (Bloomington, IN) Ithaca College (Ithaca, NY) Macalester College (St. Paul, MN) Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ) Penn State University (State College, PA) Princeton University (Princeton, NJ) Rutgers-New Brunswick (New Brunswick, NJ) San Diego State University (San Diego, CA) Southern Oregon University (Ashland, OR) The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) Tufts University (Medford, MA) University of Colorado at Boulder (Boulder, CO) University of Louisville (Louisville, KY) University of Maine at Machias (Machias, ME) University of Maryland-College Park (College Park, MD) University of Massachusetts-Amherst (Amherst, MA) University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (Minneapolis, MN) University of Oregon (Eugene, OR) University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) University of Vermont (Burlington, VT) University of Washington (Seattle, WA) University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (Green Bay, WI) Williams College (Williamstown, MA) Cornell is LGBTQ-friendly. Princeton Review The Princeton Review rankings of the most LGBTQ-friendly colleges are based on students' answers to the survey question "Do students, faculty, and administrators at your college treat all persons equally regardless of their sexual orientations and gender identity/expression?" The List Schools are ranked from 1-20 with #1 being the most LGBTQ-friendly school. However, there don't seem to be any major differences between the environments at #1 and #20. 1. Emerson College (Boston, MA) 2. Warren Wilson College (Asheville, NC) 3. Sarah Lawrence College (Bronxville, NY) 4. Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr, PA) 5. Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH) 6. Yale University (New Haven, CT) 7. Stanford University (Stanford, CA) 8. College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, ME) 9. Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA) 10. University of Wisconsin-Madison (Madison, WI) 11. Smith College (Northampton, MA) 12. New College of Florida (Sarasota, FL) 13. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (Needham, MA) 14. Macalester College (St. Paul, MN) 15. Pitzer College (Claremont, CA) 16. Brandeis University (Waltham, MA) 17. Prescott College (Prescott, AZ) 18. Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA) 19. Mills College (Oakland, CA) 20. Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY) How Should You Use These Lists? If you want to go to an LGBTQ-friendly college, you should research the schools that interest you on the Campus Pride or Princeton Review list to determine if you want to apply to them. Keep in mind that some of these colleges have a specific focus. Mills, Smith, Bryn Mawr, and Wellesley are women's colleges. Also, Emerson is devoted to the study of communication and performing arts. Besides the school being LGBTQ-friendly, think of other factors that are important to you in a college including cost, size, selectivity, location, and the majors offered. Look at the school's website, and use guidebooks, college finders, search websites, and other ranking lists to help you in the college selection process. If possible, consult with teachers, counselors, parents, current students, and alumni. Research colleges to find the right one for you! What Should You Do if a School You're Considering Didn't Make the Cut? Just because a school didn't make either list doesn't necessarily mean that it's LGBTQ-unfriendly. If there's a school you're interested in, you can look up its score on the Campus Pride Index. The Campus Pride Index scores schools from 1-5 stars. Schools that get a 5-star rating are the most LGBTQ-friendly. However, many schools don't take part in the Campus Pride Index, including Stanford, which ranks as the #7 most LGBTQ-friendly school in the Princeton Review rankings. Contact a representative from the LGBTQ resource center or student group to get more information about the atmosphere on campus. Usually, you can find those contacts on college websites. If there isn't an LGBTQ resource center or student group, it's probably not an LGBTQ-friendly school. Also, you can consult other sources that evaluate how LGBTQ-friendly a college is. On Niche, you can search for a specific college. Under "diversity" for each school's guide, there is a category called "gay pride" that describes the atmosphere for LGBTQ students on campus. Similarly, on the College View finder, you can search for schools that are LGBTQ-friendly. Additionally, if you look at a specific college's profile, you can see whether the school has gay and lesbian organizations. Finally, The Gay and Lesbian Guide to College Life is a good resource. This book from the Princeton Review doesn't identify LGBTQ-friendly colleges, but it does offer advice from students and administrators at more than 70 of the nation's top colleges about how to excel on campus as an LGBTQ student. What's Next? Because financial concerns often influence the college selection process, check out this list of colleges that meet 100% of students' financial need. Also, learn more about the 28 best liberal arts colleges in the country, many of which are LGBTQ-friendly. Finally, to make sure you get into the college of your dreams, read this post on the important college application deadlines you can't miss. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: