The Alliance, a campus support group for gay students, meets each week. University celebrations of National Coming Out Day are held each fall. Seminars titled "Everything You Wanted to Know About Being Gay But Were Afraid to Ask" are conducted in the freshman dorms., Welcome to Drew University - the most accepting college in the nation for gay students, according to a recent survey by The Princeton Review.

The Madison, N.J., campus took the top ranking this fall in the national student survey, edging Boston and Wesleyan universities and Wellesley and Vassar colleges. Drew officials said they welcome the distinction but do not expect to see the ranking in the private university's recruiting materials any time soon.

"We try to be welcoming to all students; diversity is a big thing here," said Tom Harris, a Drew spokesman. "But we almost never use those rankings for marketing."

Although Drew will not market itself as "No. 1 for Gay Students," some colleges are starting to describe themselves specifically as campuses that welcome homosexuals. Schools from San Jose State to Brown universities have slowly begun targeting their recruiting efforts at the increasingly visible male and female gay population.

Last spring, recruiters from nearly 40 New England schools, including Harvard University, attended a first-ever college fair for gay students in Boston. The Journal of College Admissions, the bible of college admissions officers, featured an article on its cover this month about recruiting gay students.

Some schools, including San Jose State University, are featuring gay students prominently in their recruiting brochures. Others, including American University in Washington, have carefully cultivated a reputation among high school counselors as being comfortable for gay students.

Dea Nelson, publication coordinator for San Jose State's enrollment services office, said inquiries from openly gay students, their families and high school counselors have caused colleges to take notice.

Nelson said she has seen a significant increase in attendance at seminars she holds on the topic at annual conventions for college admissions officers.

"I noticed the first few years they were not all that well-attended," Nelson said. "That has really evolved over time. I do see the trend is there."

San Jose State is often credited as a pioneer in marketing to gay students. After years of slipping references to gay life into its recruiting publications, the state university became one of the first schools in the nation to prominently display a rainbow flag and to profile a gay student in materials sent to prospective students.

To Nelson's surprise, nobody complained or objected to including gay students in marketing materials. Several students, including one from as far away as Malaysia, said they applied to San Jose State specifically because the school made it seem they would be welcome, Nelson said.

However, college officials say it is difficult to statistically measure how effective marketing to gay students has been because it is impossible to get an accurate count of how many homosexuals are on campus.

For years, gay students have been choosing colleges based on word of mouth or the visibility of gay groups on campus. But with students coming out at earlier and earlier ages - and with parents becoming increasingly accepting of their children's sexual orientations - colleges have begun to get questions about gay life on campus.

Last year, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, based in New York, published a college guide to "Finding an LGBT-Friendly Campus" for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual students. The first printing of the pamphlet disappeared almost immediately.

"There was a need," said Mary Kate Cullen, the group's public policy director. "Over the past seven years, the number of students out in high school has increased tremendously. ... More teachers, parents and counselors are aware of these students and their needs."

The education network recommends that gay students gauge a college's "friendliness" by asking how many openly gay students, professors and administrators are on campus and whether there are gay-studies courses or majors offered.

Students also should ask whether there are support services for homosexual students and whether the campus has active clubs and student organizations for gays, Cullen said.

Drew University's Alliance, a support group for gay and heterosexual students, has about 20 members, holds weekly meetings and organizes events such as a Coming Out Day panel and dinner last month. Jennifer Royer, the group's co-president, said the atmosphere at Drew is welcoming enough to attract students from nearby Fairleigh Dickinson University to the Alliance's meetings.

The group welcomes heterosexual students at its events and makes a point never to ask anyone's sexual orientation, Royer said.

"It's such not an issue here," Royer said. "When people go out in the real world, that's the problem."