Bryn Mawr named country's most LGBTQ-friendly college by Princeton Review

And Lehigh was named the top science lab facility in the country, ahead of big names like Cal Tech and Stanford

Bryn Mawr College was voted the top LGBTQ-friendly college or university by a survey of roughly 140,000 college students.
Thom Carroll/PhillyVoice

According to a national Princeton Review survey of roughly 140,000 college students, the most LGBTQ-friendly college in the country is less than 11 miles outside of Philadelphia.

Bryn Mawr College was voted the top LGBTQ-friendly school in the Princeton Review's new college ranking book, "The Best 385 Colleges", published this month. Elsewhere in the survey's responses, Bethlehem's Lehigh University pulled a bit of an upset, landing the No. 1 spot in the "best science lab facilities" spot over big West Coast names like Cal Tech and Stanford.

The Princeton Review's book includes a series of rankings lists drawn from the national survey, in which students at the 385 colleges included in the book answered an 80-question survey.

The survey touched on topics from career services and financial aid, to best library and best college theater. When it came to ranking their respective schools on LGBTQ-friendliness, students were asked to rate "how strongly [they] felt their fellow students treat all persons equally, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity/expression", according to the list.

A relatively tiny liberal arts college in Lower Merion Township, Bryn Mawr's student body was just 1,360 in 2018-19, according to the Princeton Review. In a related vote, Bryn Mawr was also named the fourth-most liberal student body in the country.

Plenty of Eastern Pennsylvania colleges and universities showed up elsewhere in the Princeton Review's rankings. Here's a look at Top 3 finishes:

Most LGBTQ-friendly: Bryn Mawr, No. 1

Best science lab facilities: Lehigh University, No. 1

Everyone plays intramural sports: St. Joe's, No. 2

Nobody plays intramural sports: Drexel University, No. 2

Most active student government: Bryn Mawr, No. 1

Most beautiful campus: Bryn Mawr, No. 2

You can find the full breakdown of the Princeton Review's "The Best 385 Colleges" here.


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