Princeton Review's annual "The Best 361 Colleges" was released Tuesday, and authors included lists of the colleges that are most accepting of LGBT students and those that are not.
According to a survey taken by 110,000 students at 361 top colleges, the 10 schools that ranked the best in being accepting toward gay students are: New College of Florida, Sarasota; Macalester College, St. Paul, Minn.; Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.; Eugene Lang College, New York City; Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass.; St. John's College, Annapolis, Md.; Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pa.; Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis.; Emerson College, Boston; and Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, Calif.
Robert Franek, the gay author of the ranking, told the PlanetOut Network the strength of the list comes from the fact that college students themselves are determining the ranking.
"I believe there is more validity with a qualitative survey than a quantitative survey," he said. "It's more important to see how students feel about their schools than how many resources a particular school provides."
Franek noted the schools that had the best reputation with LGBT students were ones that participated in LGBT college fairs, held in places such as New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.
He could not point out a common feature among the schools that demonstrated a low acceptance of the LGBT community. The 10 schools that ranked high on the list are: HAMPDEN-SYDNEY COLLEGE, Hampden-Sydney, Va.; University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind.; Baylor University, Waco, Texas; Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill.; Grove City College, Grove City, Pa.; University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Knoxville, Tenn.; Texas A & M University-College Station; College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass.; Samford University, Birmingham, Ala.; and Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
Shot down
