The Princeton Review put out their 2020 list of the most LGBTQ-friendly and unfriendly schools in the United States this week.
Released on August 6 in The Best 385 Colleges, the new edition of their college guide, The Princeton Review’s ranking lists are entirely based on the data they collected from 140,000 students who completed their 80-question survey about their campus experiences at their schools.
Their ranking lists are in categories from financial aid to career services to campus LGBTQ-Friendliness.
Both top 5’s for the most LGBTQ-friendly and unfriendly schools have one thing in common: they are scattered across The United States.
The LGBTQ-friendly ones stick to the east coast, with one Ivy league school making the cut at number four.
Top 5 “LGBTQ-Friendly” Colleges
1- Bryn Mawr College (PA)
2 – Mount Holyoke College (MA)
3 – Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (MA)
4 – Brown University (RI)
5 – Agnes Scott College (GA)
The LGBTQ-unfriendly ones are all over the place geographically as well, with a Christian liberal-arts college hitting number one.
Top 5 “LGBTQ-Unfriendly” Colleges
1- College of the Ozarks (MO)
2 – Wheaton College (IL)
3 – Univ. of Tennessee-Knoxville
4 – Grove City College (PA)
5 – Auburn University (AL)
Other notable LGBTQ-friendly colleges that made their top twenty include Rice University in Texas at number 10 and Sarah Lawrence College at number 16.
A somewhat surprising school, Providence College in Rhode Island, cracked the top 10 on the most LGBTQ-unfriendly list. The state’s capital city is known for its bustling LGBTQ scene that is strewn with gay bars throughout its downtown area.
Others, like Mormon-based Brigham Young University, weren’t much of a surprise. They landed just outside the top 5 at number 7. The school has a long history of being anti-LGBTQ but has seen a bit of a change in recent years.
At a graduation ceremony speech in 2019, the Political Science Department’s valedictorian Matt Easton came out as gay publicly for the first time, an event which received national media attention.
More information on The Princeton Review’s rankings can be found here.