How accurate is the campus pride index and how much weight should it hold?
Like does Bowdoin seem more LGBTQ friendly than Bates in real life?
Parents of LGBTQ students and/or LGBTQ parents, do you have a score cutoff that you used?
Also why do some schools not have scores? How would you rate: Colby, Middlebury, Mount Holyoke, and Pomona?
Thanks.
CPI does show specific factors used in its ratings, so you may want to look at the CPI report cards for each college. For example, here are its report cards for Bates and Bowdoin:
https://www.campusprideindex.org/campuses/details/227?campus=bowdoin-college
However, note that the CPI report cards are mostly about college policies and procedures, with much less or none about student attitudes, local community attitudes, and applicable government laws and policies.
The level of concern in terms of personal qualify of life may also differ for members of different subsets of LGBTQ. For example, T (especially women) are the scapegoat of the day in many state legislatures these days, and are therefore under greater threat than LGB. Among LGB, men have often faced more hostility than women.
My D went to Bates. She would say no one cares about anyone’s sexuality. So that’s one perspective.
I’ll toss my $0.02 in here. My S22 and D24 are both gay. S22 goes to Alabama. Many on here would question why would a LGBT student go to Alabama (NMF Scholarship, anyone?). I mean look at the Pride Index. Well…S22 has many friends on campus. All of them are gay. He will be rooming next year with trans-students. Except with one minor issue, he has had no problems on campus all year. One would assume that on a campus of 30K+ one minor issue would occur at some point. So, what’s my point. The Pride Index is great, but don’t let it necessarily drive your decision. Any large, public university will be welcoming to all groups. All students will find their people. As an aside, Alabama was one of the first public universities to sponsor LGBT organizations on campus. It became such an issue in the state that in the 1980’s the university had to offer special scholarships to entice in state students to attend…of course, you don’t hear that because…Alabama.
@Peruna1998 Bama has a 4.5, higher than Bowdoin (4.0) and Bates (3.5).
I think documents like this are very good and should be used directionally - meaning find out what’s behind it and why and talk to people.
But yes, Bama is not this horrid place people would think and like @Lindagaf says, Bates is likely very inclusive.
The scores are there for a reason and I wouldn’t use them as this one is better than that - but I’d use them directionally and look what is driving them to help guide a decision and fine tune questions to ask, etc.
The Campus Pride Index has a strong theoretical research foundation in LGBTQ current programs, practices and policies for safer, more inclusive campus learning environments. The index tool has been tested extensively since 2001 and recently updated with new, higher LGBTQ national benchmarks in 2015.
The Campus Pride Index is a vital tool for assisting campuses in learning ways to improve their LGBTQ campus life and ultimately shape the educational experience to be more inclusive, welcoming and respectful of LGBTQ and ally people. The index is owned and operated by Campus Pride, the leading national nonprofit organization for student leaders and campus groups working to create safer, more LGBTQ-Friendly learning environments at colleges and universities. Campus Pride commends the campuses participating in the index and their willingness to come out, be visible and actively advocate for improving higher education for LGBTQ people.
Somebody should update them.
Bates does have an LGBTQ Alumni group, Gender-inclusive housing, Students can self identify sexual orientation and gender, etc.
It has no graduate students and it has no Greek life, so how is it being dinged on lacking LGBTQ graduate student organization or an LGBTQ fraternity/sorority?
That’s just stuff I found in a 5 minute Google search.
In short, the Pride index is not accurate
All of those are fine for queer students, like most selective colleges. Be sure to consider not only how accepting a college is – again, most are relatively accepting these days – but also the size and vibrancy of the dating scene, something rarely accounted for in rankings of “gay-friendly colleges.”
Pomona stands out in this regard since it’s adjacent to the other Claremont colleges, with a combined undergrad population of ~6500 students.
The 5 Colleges are more spread out than the Claremonts, but the consortium is nonetheless nice for MoHo students for similar reasons.
I’ll add that there’s often a racial component as well, particularly at colleges with relatively low levels of diversity. To be blunt, it is much easier to be gay and white at many colleges (including my alma mater) than to be a gay person of color.
Parent of LGBTQ student here. I didn’t rely on the Pride Index much, and I don’t think my son checked it at all. I’m glad it exists because it provides a quick overview of a college’s official policies and resources, but a checklist of policies can’t give the inside scoop on the vibe. “Accepting” is not the same as “thriving” and my kid wanted thriving. The resource that helped the most was actually Niche reviews-- the school my son ultimately chose had multiple reviews by straight girls complaining that there was “nobody to date” because “every single guy is gay.”
My kid, who is LGBTQ, is graduating from Middlebury this spring. I can say that Middlebury is a very LGBTQ friendly college, from the students to the faculty to the college. Truth is that I have heard good things about MHC and Pomona, and would put them in the category of “very LGBTQ friendly”. I haven’t heard anything personally about Colby, but I would guess that it is almost certainly LGBTQ friendly, like the rest of the NESCACs
Yes, our close friend’s daughter didn’t want to know about pride index or tolerance or acceptance at a school…she wanted to know if there was a fun dating scene and lots of opportunities to be with others in her community.
Those are good if there are a decent number. Otherwise they can be skewed by students with Strong Opinions, positive or negative.
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