<p>I'm openly gay and I even wrote my college essay on my decision to come out of the closet in high school. My question is does "pulling the gay card" so to speak gives one any advantage of getting admitted to selective colleges? I already have really good grades and lots of extra-cirriculars, but I'm just curious as to if it would give me any advantage. I'm especially interested in how it could/would possibly influence admission into Yale, with its reputation of being "the gay ivy". I'm planning on applying to Yale EASC.</p>
<p>I don’t think it will hurt or help you with the selective colleges. I imagine that it’s not unusual for them to get coming out of the closet essays by gays.</p>
<p>I agree w/NSM. My only caution would be that while your essay is deeply personal, you may not be able to tell if it’s cliched, frankly. Your decision is a life changing step, agreed. However, you must be aware that many others may write of the same thing. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>I sorta-kinda came out in my college essays, but I can’t say at all whether it had an effect or not; I get the feeling I would have gotten the same acceptances/rejections had I written an essay of the same quality on another subject.</p>
<p>One thing I’m curious about for people who know more about admissions: say the essay were read by a homophobic person or something. Would they be obligated to remove themselves from the “judging”? How does that factor in?</p>