Gay applicants

Colleges & Universities Harvard University
1

<p>How many BGL applicants are there to Harvard this year? Does telling them that you are gay give you minority status?</p>

2

<p>I’m a gay applicant and am actually writing my personal statement about my coming out experience (or rather some ethical implications relating to it). I read earlier that this year some college had decided to include sexual minorities in their affirmative action program thus giving them a push in the application process. I don’t know if Harvard has a similar policy, but considering the generally liberal atmosphere of most colleges, telling that you’re gay shouldn’t hurt you.</p>

3

<p>I’m not sure you want to try to MAKE it into minority status, but if your experiences with your sexuality has brought you change or change the way you view the world, by all means, write about it! It definitely won’t hurt and it might even help :)</p>

4

<p>I hope being gay means an auto-declination. I don’t care how liberal colleges are, saying you’re “gay” to get minority status is bs. Then all of a sudden, everyone will be “gay.”</p>

5

<p>Calculus - What’s “auto-declination”?</p>

6

<p>One of my college admissions books says that the coming-out story is tricky - while it’s true that it shouldn’t work against you in <em>most</em> cases, you NEVER know who is going to read your essay. It included an anecdote about jokes being made at Brown admissions. If coming out or being gay was a formative experience and you can write intelligently about, do it, but try to avoid using it as merely a sob story. </p>

<p>I do know Middlebury tags gay applicants favorably.</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>Ironic that *you *speak of auto-declinations.
;]</p>

8

<p>Middlebury does not tag gay applicants. The chronicle for higher ed mistakenly claimed this in an article. The author apologized later.</p>

9

<p>Although being gay won’t necessarily guarantee you admittance to college, it shouldn’t necessarily work against you either.</p>

10

<p><a href=“http://www.middlebury.edu/administration/planning/reports/student_body.htm[/url]”>http://www.middlebury.edu/administration/planning/reports/student_body.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>“:black_small_square: Attend special College fairs at high schools targeting students from underrepresented groups including gay, lesbian, bisexual students
:black_small_square: Heighten capacity with which Admissions Office is able to recruit students from underrepresented groups”</p>

11

<p>Hmm, reading farther down into the comments for the Inside Higher Ed article, the director of admissions says that there is no policy on gay students. I guess you win, Vermontkid? Although I’m confused where all this miscommunication came in from and where that memo came from?</p>

12

<p>My coming out experience was on collegeconfidential…where I decided I would be gay for approximately one week…</p>

13

<p>How so Zanna? Because I am rejecting my acceptance to Princeton?</p>

14

<p>Yeah, Calculus. That’s exactly how so.</p>

15

<p>A Princeton admission at this time of year would be an early decision commitment, wouldn’t it? </p>

<p>“If you have determined that Princeton is your first choice, you may submit your application by November 1 and receive a decision from us by mid-December. Applying Early Decision constitutes a commitment to attend Princeton if you are offered admission.” </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/pr/admissions/u/appl/06/index.htm[/url]”>http://www.princeton.edu/pr/admissions/u/appl/06/index.htm&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>“The obligation explicit in the Early Decision plan, as described here and as defined by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, is a commitment on the part of the candidate to withdraw any other applications and to initiate no new applications if accepted under our Early Decision plan.” </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/pr/admissions/u/appl/06/pdf/PU_appl_0607_earlyagree.pdf[/url]”>http://www.princeton.edu/pr/admissions/u/appl/06/pdf/PU_appl_0607_earlyagree.pdf&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>“Until this year, the University has offered prospective students whose first college choice is Princeton the opportunity to apply early decision with the condition that they agree to matriculate if admitted. The applicants cannot apply elsewhere.”</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S16/64/75S14/index.xml?section=topstories[/url]”>http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S16/64/75S14/index.xml?section=topstories&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

16

<p>As there’s no indication of sexual orientation on the common app/harvard supplement, i don’t think anyone could give you a straight answer (:-P) about how many LGB students are applying. With that said, you can be sure that it’s a rather large number, considering that about 20,000 students apply to harvard each year. Being gay doesn’t make you unique. I don’t think it will impact your application unless you have something interesting to say about how the experience has influenced you. </p>

<p>As for me, i wrote my Yale supplement essay about observing two of my closeted friends being open in NYC, and then being more reserved in our suburban hometown. I liked it, and apparently Yale admissions did too! But i don’t think being gay will improve your application in and of itself. If all you have to tell is a dime a dozen coming out story, i don’t think it will be in your favor any more than any other essay.</p>

17

<p>I doubt that LBGT gives you minority status because like kwijiborjt said, there are many LBGT applicants. With about 20,000 applicants, I bet there will be at least 2,000.</p>

<p>The only place you could really mention it is if you were a member of your school’s GSA or participated in some political movements regarding gay rights.</p>

<p>Also, it’s difficult to keep an essay about coming out from being cliched. The topic itself is not unique, but it’s the way it affects you that is.</p>

18

<p>Just wondering, what is Wellesly’s policy on the transgendered? For example, a girl enrolls there and then decides to become a transgendered man.</p>

19

<p>And just to add on the GSA thing, not all GSA members/presidents/whatevers are gay. Not all gay rights activists are gay. I think there is a fair questioning or slight assumption that someone in those activities is gay, obviously, but speaking as a straight GSA president, it doesn’t always work out that way. Anecdotally, I put GSA involvement on my app but did not bother to clarify my sexual orientation one way or the other because I found it unnecessary.</p>

20

<p>haha yeah lingbo, I forgot to mention that, sorry.
My friend is straight and she is president of the GSA at her school.</p>

<p>I actually meant that if you were a gay applicant, you could try and slip in that you were gay after saying something like you’re in the GSA without just randomly bringing up the fact.</p>

<p>moralityjustice-- I’m not sure. That’s an interesting question!!! haha…we should call and ask :]</p>