Metro Weekly

Princeton Review releases list of LGBT-friendly – and not – colleges

Who’s happier than a gay student at Grove City College in Pennsylvania? Just about everyone, apparently.

Princeton Review released its list of the top – and bottom – colleges for LGBT students. According to the list, Grove City College (pictured below), a Christian liberal arts institution of about 2,500 students, is the least-friendly campus for LGBT students.

Most of the findings aren’t too surprising: New York University and small liberal arts colleges in the Northeast tend to be more LGBT-friendly, while places like Brigham Young University and the University of Wyoming are not quite as accepting.

The Catholic University of America was the only college in the District to make the list, landing in the not-so-coveted 18th spot of campuses that are the least friendly to LGBT students.

According the to Princeton Review rankings, here are the Top 20 LGBT-friendly colleges in the country:

  1. Emerson College (Boston)
  2. Warren Wilson College (Asheville, N.C.)
  3. New College of Florida (Sarasota, Fla.)
  4. Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.)
  5. University of Wisconsin-Madison (Madison, Wis.)
  6. Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio)
  7. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (Needham, Mass.)
  8. Smith College (Northampton, Mass.)
  9. New York University (New York)
  10. Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr, Pa.)
  11. Wellesley College (Wellesley, Mass.)
  12. Bennington College (Bennington, Vt.)
  13. University of Chicago (Chicago)
  14. Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)
  15. Carleton College (Northfield, Minn.)
  16. Sarah Lawrence College (Bronxville, N.Y)
  17. Maccalester College (St. Paul, Minn.)
  18. Pitzer College (Claremont, Calif.)
  19. Marlboro College (Marlboro, Vt.)
  20. Grinnell College (Grinnell, Iowa)

Not surprisingly, most of these schools are located in the 13 states that currently allow same-sex marriage. (North Carolina, Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois being the exceptions.)

And for the not-so-good news, the 20 least-friendly colleges for LGBT students:

  1. Grove City College (Grove City, Pa.)
  2. Hampden-Sydney College (Hampden Sydney, Va.)
  3. College of the Ozarks (Point Lookout, Mo.)
  4. Wheaton College (Wheaton, Ill.)
  5. University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Ind.)
  6. Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah)
  7. Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
  8. Calvin College (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
  9. University of Rhode Island (Kingston, R.I.)
  10. University of Dallas (Irving, Texas)
  11. Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas)
  12. Baylor University(Waco, Texas)
  13. Trinity College (Hartford, Conn.)
  14. Auburn University (Auburn, Ala.)
  15. Colgate University (Hamilton, N.Y.)
  16. Wofford College (Spartanburg, S.C.)
  17. Hillsdale College (Hillsdale, Mich.)
  18. Catholic University of America (Washington)
  19. Pepperdine University (Malibu, Calif.)
  20. University of Wyoming (Laramie, Wyo.)

Again, it may not be too surprising that three-fourths of these institutions are in states that do not allow same-sex marriage.

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