"If you would like the opportunity, we invite you to share more about your gender identity below."
That’s a new(?) optional field in the Common App. It’s right under “Sex assigned at birth”.
My question: I currently don’t identify with a gender. I don’t mind being called he, she, they, it, or anything. People call me “he”, and I’m fine with that. I’m not against gender, but I don’t fully identify with one or another. Would it be in my best interest to disclose this identity of “agender”?
For the record, I’m applying to Brown, Northeastern, and Drexel.
(I don’t want my parents finding out, they’d most likely be weirded out. I’m showing them my essays and applications with all mentions of “gay” and “agender” removed, then I’ll add it in right before I submit.)
^^I can. I have a close friend who’s non-binary, and I think when they were applying for a room they were allowed to specify no-gender preference. They’re biologically female and so is their roommate, but my understanding is that they could have possibly ended up paired with a guy.
I’m in a similar situation (I hope it’s okay that I also post in this thread). I very strongly don’t want my parents or anyone from my school to find out right now, but I do want as gender neutral treatment as possible when I’m in college, hopefully far away… is it a wise decision to put agender now, or should I leave it off? What would it likely change, if anything?
(For early action, Caltech/MIT/maybe University of Chicago/maybe large automatic scholarship safety schools.)
Since it really doesn’t seem to affect our admissions nor housing (depends on the school, but it seems like a separate application to fill out), it really just depends. Is it worth risking our safety and revealing this to our parents? I don’t know.
None of the colleges on the OP’s list will blink. There are colleges that would – if they were applying to colleges with a religious or strong conservative leaning, I’d suggest they leave it off. But none of their colleges match that.
Why would you feel compelled to tell the school your gender or think it would matter one way or another. As a matter of fact, why would students want to tell the adcoms whether they are gay or not ? Why would that be of anyone’s business? I think most of the time when people ask such question, they are trying to use it as a hook.
@oldfort ^ I wouldn’t say that people are trying to use it as a hook. That’s not a hook anyway. It’s more about adding a dimension to their application (of themselves). I don’t think that you understand that for these kids it’s very much part of their identity because they have undergone a journey to get where they are at. They’ve had to think and process a lot and that is maybe what they want to convey.
Please keep an open mind. Automatically assuming that their is a hidden agenda is close minded.
