I’d be interested to hear about “other” factors not included above that LGBTQ students consider when they are making a college list.
I’d also be interested to hear any student perspectives on some of the less common factors, such as recruitment, counseling, and housing. To parents of LGBTQ students, what mattered to your kid and how did it play out once they were on campus?
I think I covered this, but I’ll reiterate.
For us (I’m the parent, obvs) my kid was concerned about many of the same things other students are concerned about – affordability, strength of her major, and vibe of the campus and surroundings which includes whether there are lots of other LGBTQ students around. She is not concerned with counseling beyond academic advising, not concerned with recruitment, or housing beyond regular issues of is the dorm decent.
Her main concern around LGBTQ issues, like the majority of the people who took the poll, was would she find her people at the school. Not that much different from someone who is interested in fraternities/sororities wanting to know if there’s a big Greek scene. So that’s why I think this list has a fatal flaw because it doesn’t address that at all.
Her assumption was that any school in this age would have non-discrimination policies. That is a low bar.
FWIW, colleges have to pay to be included in the Campus Pride Index.
There is a Campus Pride annual membership fee that began in 2020 for each college/university to take the assessment tool.
The Campus Pride Index gives East Carolina and Alabama 4.5 stars (out of 5) and Michigan State 4 stars, but they show up on the Princeton Review’s list of LGBTQ-UNfriendly schools as reported by students at those schools.
This probably suggests favorable policies by the college administrations (which is mostly what CPI measures) but unfavorable social environments based on the attitudes of other students, college employees other than those making the policies, people in the local community, and (possibly) state governments writing unfriendly laws that the college administrations do not have control over.
My L daughter said to put Mount Holyoke and other women’s colleges on your list.
Agree with the comments about queer community/student life being important - to this end, some of the schools we included on the college list in part because they strongly seemed to fit this criteria were
Brown, Oberlin, Macalester, Beloit, Grinnell, Vassar, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Barnard, Wellesley, and Bryn Mawr.
Piling on: how can either list omit Smith College? If Smith isn’t LGBTQ friendly, then nobody is.
I have seen Smith on some lists and I agree it should definitely be there.
Not sure why some of the University of California schools are not on the list.
I’ve been obsessing about this for the last year for my trans daughter. However, I don’t think that the list takes into account what is most important–that the school be in a state that doesn’t want to change my kid or take away her rights. There are some great schools on your list, but there is no way I would let her go to college in Texas, Florida, etc…right now. I’ve even been struggling with keeping or not keeping Oberlin on the list. I can’t think of a much MORE queer friendly school than Oberlin, but it’s in Ohio. This might not affect LBG students as much, but for trans people, half the country has basically become a dangerous place to live.
Also, I will agree that I have not found the campus pride website very helpful. I do not think it takes the general vibe of a school into account.