<p>I've noticed topics that ask colleges' involvement in/with LGBT issues, but I'm more interested with how large the gay populations are at selective colleges, such as Amherst, Vassar, Bowdoin, Yale, and others. What colleges do you know have a large population of gays?</p>
<p>Wesleyan U</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, NYU.</p>
<p>Yale has a significant LGBT population. I’ve heard that Vassar does have a sizable gay population as well, but the gay population is mostly male though.</p>
<p>I second whoever said NYU. The advocate, a LGBT magazine, has an annual rank of the most gay friendly schools. There are some good ones on there (U of michigan, Duke, Upenn, NYU, Tufts, USC, Berkely, Princeton, Stanford, etc:</p>
<p>[College</a> made easy | \ | The Advocate](<a href=“Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer News & Politics”>Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer News & Politics)</p>
<p>Please go to University of Phoenix.</p>
<p>Not necessarily “highly” selective, but Hampshire has a very prominent gay community as well as an openly gay president.</p>
<p>Grinnell has a gay president too.</p>
1 Like
<p>You might find this of interest. Some most competitive schools along with the others.
An outfit called Campus Pride has issued their annual Campus Climate Index rating over 200 colleges for their friendliness to LGBT students. This year 19 schools received full five-star ratings. Note that only the schools that voluntarily returned their surveys were rated.</p>
<pre><code>In development since 2001, the Index has become a staple in student and faculty research, campus organizing efforts and benchmarking for LGBT student safety and inclusion on campus. Each summer, university officials are encouraged to fill out new questionnaires and update their Index profiles. This year, the Campus Climate Index is proud to announce five-star rankings for 19 colleges and universities – the most ever achieving the Index’s highest ranking since the its inception in 2007-08. The 19 five-star-ranked campuses include: Carleton College; Humboldt State University; Ithaca College; Oberlin College; Oregon State University; Princeton University; San Diego State University; Syracuse University; The Ohio State University; The Pennsylvania State University; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Riverside; University of Maine, Farmington; University of Oregon; University of Pennsylvania; University of Southern California; University of Vermont; and Washington University in St. Louis.
</code></pre>
<p>[Yale</a> Alumni Magazine: the “Gay Ivy” (July/Aug 09)](<a href=“http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2009_07/gayivy_033.html]Yale”>http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2009_07/gayivy_033.html)</p>
<p>ta da</p>
<p>most of the highly selective schools are LGBT-friendly; the ones that I’m pretty sure have high populations are, off the top of my head, oberlin and macalester (i don’t really know what you categorize as highly selective, but those are great schools with a lot of LGBT students). if you want more selective, i know that swarthmore is very tolerant, though i’m not sure how many students there are actually gay…</p>
<p>well Penn was rated most gay-friendly school…</p>
<p>[The</a> Best Gay-Friendly Schools - University of Pennsylvania - Newsweek - Education](<a href=“http://education.newsweek.com/2010/09/12/the-best-gay-friendly-schools/university-of-pennsylvania.html]The”>http://education.newsweek.com/2010/09/12/the-best-gay-friendly-schools/university-of-pennsylvania.html)</p>
<p>The OP specifically requested colleges with large LGBT populations, not LGBT-friendly schools. In many cases, they are not at all the same. Cornell and Hopkins are reasonably LGBT-friendly, for example, but the populations at both are proportionately smaller and more subdued than at, say, Smith or Oberlin. </p>
<p>Naming out college presidents is also not very helpful; while not numerous, they are not as rare as they used to be. Wisconsin has a lesbian chancellor, and UCD has a gay provost/vice chancellor, for example, but neither has a disproportionately large LGBT population.</p>
<p>Most of the schools with the highest proportion of LGB students (T is much trickier to find) are LACs – several of the 7 sisters, Sarah Lawrence, Hampshire, Vassar, Oberlin, Emerson, Bard, etc. Among universities, NYU, American, and several publics (Michigan, UNC, UT Austin) are particularly known for large/thriving LGB communities. </p>
<p>Yale is the only school I know of to publish statistics, courtesy of Yale Daily News. As with all self-reported surveys, it should be taken with a healthy helping of salt.
[ul][<em>]Men: 78% straight, 18% gay, 4% bi
[</em>]Women: 79% straight, 8% lesbian, 12% bi[/ul]</p>
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<p>I think the influence / signaling of a gay president is different at an LAC (such as Grinnell) where everybody knows your name, versus at a large school like Wisconsin.</p>