I Always Knew Stanford was #1

When all else fails, and your teen is trying to pick a college, how about checking its Sexual Health Report Card? Each year the Trojan company commissions an independent research firm to rank 139 colleges and universities on the quality of their sexual health resources and services available to students.

The categories used to evaluate the programs include:

• Sexual health awareness programs
• Condom & contraception availability
• HIV testing
• Other Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) testing
• Student health center hours of operation
• Drop-in vs. appointment-based service
• Navigability and usability of Web-based sexual health information
• Anonymous advice / newspaper columns
• Lecture outreach programs
• Student peer groups
• Sexual assault programs

This year, a combination of high student rankings, comprehensive sexually transmitted disease- and HIV-testing services, as well as condom and contraception availability elevated Stanford from 41st place in 2007 to No. 1 in 2008! I do know that their peer health program is amazing and run by students, so go Stanford!

Just in case you care, last year the top two were the University of Minnesota and University of Wyoming, and this year #2 was Columbia and #3 was Cornell.