Penn State has some of the best resources in the country for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, according to a new college guide.

The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students lists 100 American colleges and universities based on surveys and interviews administered online, Bruce Steele, editor-in-chief of The Advocate magazine, said.

Though the guide does not give each school a specific ranking, it does specify the 20 best schools -- and along with New York University, Princeton University and 17 others, Penn State made the cut.

In total, five Big Ten schools made the top 20, including Ohio State, Indiana University, University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota.

"It's quite an accomplishment for Penn State," Christian Matheis, assistant director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally (LGBTA) Student Resource Center, said.

Lizz Collins (junior-theatre and women's studies) said the resource center helped her when she came out last semester.

"There's always someone there to listen to your problems who's been through what you're going through," she said.

Collins works at the center now and said Penn State's top-20 status is justified.

"I think it's completely deserved," she said.

Steele said while there are many college guides in print, The Advocate's guide is the first to cater specifically to LGBT students.

"Nothing like this exists," he said. "Many of them specialize in different academic rounds and different parts of the country, anything but what it's like for gay and lesbian students throughout the country."

He said Penn State's top-20 ranking is a sign that the university is doing something correctly.

"As far as we can tell, Penn State is a progressive and welcoming school," Steele said.

The guide will be hitting bookshelves Aug. 15.

As of press time, Steele said Penn State had passed 19 out of 20 criteria on the list of points that the universities were evaluated on. He said the only thing missing was a line in Penn State's nondiscrimination policy concerning transgender students, but that the editors were going to double-check Penn State's policy.

Penn State policy AD-42 on "Nondiscrimination and Harassment" does include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" as two criteria on which recognized discrimination and harassment may be based.

However, Steele said the guide focused on objective criteria such as programs, resources and events available and did not attempt to measure the general atmosphere on the various campuses.

"The objective was to try to really put together some criteria that could assess what the schools are doing to make LGBT students more comfortable, more integrated," he said. "There's no way to really quantify the subjective experience of each LGBT student on campus."

SpeakOut president Ed Rowe said that while Penn State's resources are an asset, work needs to be done to improve the climate on campus.

"When we get into the issues of campus climate, we still face the reality that queer students, along with a number of other minority groups, receive harassment and face discrimination in various ways," Rowe said.

He said the fact that women's basketball coach Rene Portland hadn't been dismissed from the university after an investigation found that she had discriminated against a member of the basketball team based on sexual orientation was a prime example that Penn State has room to improve.

Matheis agreed that the atmosphere at Penn State is still a problem.

"We can't pretend like there are not climate issues at Penn State," he said.

However, Matheis said that the guide is a good first step toward attracting more LGBT students to Penn State and changing the overall atmosphere.

"The goal is to make this the number one choice for LGBT students to attend college, and it's a lofty goal," he said.