Best Colleges for LGBTQ+ Students in 2024

How Do We Rank LGBTQ+-Friendly Colleges?

Each year, we reach out to over 1,000 colleges so they can self-report the services and resources offered to LGBTQ+ students. In consultation with Dr. Genny Beemyn, a veteran expert in the field of LGBTQ+ higher education issues and student experiences, we specifically identify three key areas in our survey:

• Nondiscrimination Protection: LGBTQ+ students too often experience discrimination on college campuses and need institutional recourse and support. Colleges not only need to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes in their nondiscrimination and Title IX policies, but must also back it up by discussing the mistreatment of LGBTQ+ people in mandatory sexual harassment trainings and vigorously addressing acts of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination.
• Equal Access: Many trans and nonbinary students do not have equal access to higher education because they are denied the ability to attend college as themselves. They are misgendered and misnamed in administrative systems and do not have access to campus housing and restrooms in keeping with their gender identity.
• LGBTQ+ Center: The colleges that have been found to be the most inclusive of trans and nonbinary students are institutions that have an LGBTQ+ center that can provide programming, a community space, and a full-time center director who can push for LGBTQ+-supportive policies.

In addition to our survey, BestColleges also incorporates its own ranking methodology that emphasizes the following factors to produce this list:

• Academic Quality: To assess academic quality, we focus on what we believe are the most important distinguishing factors. We compare a school’s admission rate to its enrollment rate to gauge the rigor and competitiveness of a school. We use the full-time retention rate (or the rate at which students return after their freshman year) to rank a school’s effectiveness at keeping students enrolled. Similarly, graduation rate is crucial in weighing how many enrolled students successfully complete their degree program (note that graduation rate measures full-time, first-time students).
• Diversity & Inclusion: Our assessment of campus diversity and inclusion focuses on a student’s ability to navigate college regardless of socioeconomic status and accounts for the diversity of the student population across race and ethnicity. Additionally, we also consider whether a school has explicit anti-LGBTQ+ policies that target LGBTQ+ students.
• College Affordability: Our affordability score considers the cost of college (average net price) with the amount borrowed (percentage of students taking loans) and the ability to repay a loan after graduation (average loan default rate). Our goal is to reward schools not only offering competitive tuition but also those that provide students with the skills needed to graduate and successfully enter the workforce.

Using the campus survey and ranking methodology, we can produce a comprehensive list of schools that both support LGBTQ+ students and also offer a great value, high-quality education for college students.