coyotetrickster

As a former Atlantan, I semi-lurk in the city pages to keep up with the city. The ranking data on student populations presented in the referenced study is misleading. On page two, the methodology declares it uses the MSA data to compile statistics. This is an excellent base, if you are comparing apples to apples, start from the same metrics definitions in order to compare accurately. However, beware the conclusions. There are three contiguous MSAs in the Bay Area. San Francisco-Oakland-Alameda/ San Jose-Santa Clara-Hayward and Santa Rosa-Napa. So, statistically speaking, the approximately 90,000 students at UCBerkely, SFSU, City College, UCSF, USF, Golden Gate University and University of the Pacific are less than 100,000. However, the 115,000 students attending San Jose State, Stanford, Santa Clara University, and Cal State Hayward (plus smaller schools like De Anza and San Mateo Community College) are not in the same as the Atlanta MSA's 176K. The 45,000 students attending Napa/Dominion University and Sononam State are also not counted as that is a separate MSA. Finally, The students at Monterrey State/UCSanta Cruz (another 30,000, approx.) are also within the traffic/transit orbit of the Bay Area, but again, counted as a separate MSA. However, the 9 country Bay Area CSA (5th largest in the US), the student population is almost 300K. However, according to the Census Dept., a CSA is an orange not an apple.

Just happen to come across this thread and felt very strongly this person's posting (above) needed some response/correction. I have no idea what actual formula the poster was using, but I live in San Francisco. Moreover, I've worked on numerous community outreach campaigns with the city's public health department where hard data needed to be collected, and strict extrapolation criteria were used to develop the target cohorts probable size.. Based on services accessed via city programs, including our city clinics, available data from the GLBTQ Center and various civic foundations based in the gay community, (please remember, the US. Census Bureau does not collect data on sexual orientation), San Franciscans identified as gay males are projects at 140 - 160K (plus minus 10,000), with exclusively lesbian identified women toping out at about 30,00. This is slightly less than 200K out of a city population of almost 800K (using the Cal. Department of Finance tracking data - based on tax revenue reported, license and permits, etc, not U.S. census sampling methodologies from the actual decennial surveys). This is a fairly significant concentration (almost one in every 4 residents), and we are potent voting block in the city as well as a vocal, dynamic part of the civic culture. However, we are not 8 out every 10 residents. That would put us at well over half the city population. This is empirically not true.