I have just submitted my application for the University of Texas at Austin. However, on the Common App I set my pronouns as “any pronouns“, and my preferred name as a unisex shortening of my full first name. Also, one of my most significant activities has been offering mental health support for LGBT teenagers. Though this isn’t a problem for my other schools, I’m concerned that this ambiguity may result in UT Austin thinking that I’m transgender. As someone who has lived in Texas their entire life, I can confirm that our state government considers being transgender to be borderline terrorist behavior, and undercover investigations are performed on suspects. Now I’m worried that the Common App’s demographic information may result in me being rejected from UT Austin, if not arrested. Should I email the university to clarify that it was an accident, that I’m a gender-conforming cisgender person who only uses the pronouns corresponding to birth sex and who has never been associated with the transgender community? Or will that seem even more suspicious?
When I was in elementary school there were two “Tony”’s in my class. One was a boy, one was a girl. It is possible that the girl might have spelled it “Toni” (I do not think that it ever occurred to me to ask).
I have known three “Jan”’s in my life. One was a girl. One was a man who had immigrated from Scandinavia to the US. One was a man who lives and works in Scandinavia. “Jan” (pronounced “Yon”) is apparently a perfectly normal and common man’s name in some parts of the world.
None were confused about whether they were a man or a woman. None of this was a problem at the time for any of them.
And I have known a few women who went by a nickname that was just a shortened version of their name, but that made it sound like a man’s name (such as “Sam” for “Samantha”). None of them were transgender. None of them seemed to worry about it at all.
And offering mental health support for teenagers is a very worthwhile activity.
Personally I would not worry about it.
Little bit of hyperbole here? I can confirm that no one in the Texas state government is reading applications at UT-Austin. This is a non-issue.
I’m so sorry you’re feeling freaked out right now.
While in daily life it may feel dangerous to be thought of as trans in Texas, in Admissions software will sort out your rank to determine if you’re auto admit, then grades, curriculum rigor, scores wrt major. Software does what it’s programmed to do, it doesn’t “think”.
Only at the end of the process will anything else come into the decision and whoever makes the decision is unlikely to follow that thought process wrt gender/gender identity because they only have a few minutes and a strict process to follow which doesn’t allow for time spent on extraneous musings such as unisex first names.
So, relax 
and focus on applications, school, friends, volunteering, and enjoying senior year 
Sad and crazy this enters your mind but i get it. UT has and will have many LGBTQ students. I know this isn’t you.
But I think there is no worry here.
In fact, I think you might bring the wrong kind of attention if you sent a note.
There’s tons of names that are both gender.
So no need to be concerned in my opinion.
This!
I have one of those gender neutral names. When I was in high school, I was given the wrong gender PE class more than once. (Back in the day when the guys and girls were separate for PE).
I’d let this one go.
UT Austin’s admissions office isn’t going to develop logic that attempts to infer that a candidate is transgender. You don’t need to worry about this.