Gay Friendly Campuses

As with the case of other "how comfortable will this community be for me" questions, the best tack to take might be to encourage students to do their own assessment of the relative "friendliness" of a given school.

One resource that might come in handy is the website of the National Consortium of Directors fo LGBT Resources in Higher Education... this will give you links directly to the offices on campuses that are responsible for supporting the LGBT community there.

There are some great framing questions here:  http://www.collegetoolkit.com/Articles/resLGBT.aspx

And an index of gay-friendly information here:  http://www.campusclimateindex.org/

Also recommended was Shane L. Windmeyer's The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students: A Comprehensive Guide to Colleges and Universities with the Best Programs, Services, and Student Organizations for LGBT Students. New York, Alyson Books, 2006. $21.95.

The top schools from that book are as follows:

• American University
• Duke University
• Indiana University
• New York University
• Oberlin College
• Ohio State University
• Pennsylvania State University
• Princeton University
• Stanford University
• Tufts University
• University of California-Berkeley
• University of California-Los Angeles
• University of California-Santa Cruz
• University of Massachusetts-Amherst
• University of Michigan
• University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• University of Oregon
• University of Pennsylvania (see also this article re: UPenn's efforts: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/02/26/gay)
• University of Puget Sound
• University of Southern California

Additionally, here are some schools that have committed to sending an admissions representative to a LGBT college fair:

Bard College at Simon's Rock

Bennington College

Boise State University

California Lutheran University

California State University, San Marcos

Columbia College Chicago

Eckerd College

Eugene Lang College

Emory University

Georgetown University

Green Mountain College

Humboldt State University

Illinois Institute of Technology

Ithaca College

Kalamazoo College

Lewis & Clark College

Mills College

Northeastern University

Pennsylvania State University

Pitzer College

Point Foundation

Princeton University

Roosevelt University

Sonoma State University

University of Arizona

University at Buffalo

University of California, Riverside

University of California, San Diego

University of Colorado at Boulder

University of Denver

University of Illinois at Springfield

University of the Pacific

University of Pennsylvania

University of Puget Sound

United States Naval Academy Out -- Alumni Organization

University of Southern California

University of Utah

University of Washington

Whitman College

Whittier College