<p>In your opinion, when applying to colleges, would being lesbian/gay increase your chances (even ever so slightly) of admission?</p>
<p>No</p>
<p>Don’t say it.</p>
<p>You must at least explain why :)</p>
<p>Yes, yes, yes. The only school on whose application I mentioned that I was gay was Stanford and I got in. It was a substantial part of one of my essays. I got rejected from Penn, Scripps, Northwestern, and Brown and didn’t mention it once. My essays for these schools were extremely boring and cookie cutter.</p>
<p>Is it a huge admissions booster and will it make up for poor scores (like some URMs I have seen)? No, but it will give you a tick in the diversity box, should make for a great essay topic, and will have you stand out. I may get called out on this, but I can send you my stats (which are on the low end for Stanford students), and then you tell me how I got in.</p>
<p>The only schools where this might be an issue are religious or conservative schools. But even then the school would have to be super conservative.</p>
<p>Um… probably not.</p>
<p>There are several threads already extant about this. No, being LGBT in and of itself isn’t an edge. However, if it can be translated as a significant factor in personal statements (and that’s a BIG “IF”) it might be a factor. Also, not everyone who is LGBT needs to use it as an essay topic. Everyone has a topic. Some LGBT people use their sexual orientation as one – some don’t.</p>
<p>But there’s no shortage of LGBT applicants to top schools – so it’s not significant in that sense. Here, I fully disagree with bluebubbles. </p>
<p> I’ll bet you that “my growth and struggles as a teen LGBT person” is one of the top ten most-used essay topics of top schools application essays. That being said, it can still be profound and meaningful. It’s the writer, not the topic, that will shine in great essays.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/writingtheessay.html[/url]”>http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/writingtheessay.html</a></p>
<p>I must agree with T26E4 that “it’s the writer, not the topic, that will shine in great essays”. This is true with any of these more “cliched” essays. You can write a fantastic essay about overcoming your grandma’s death or you can write a terrible essay. You can write a fantastic essay about volunteering in Africa or you can write a terrible essay.</p>
<p>I do still stand by my belief that being an LGBT is not a “hook” per say, but will get you to stand out. Top schools are looking for a well-rounded and diverse class, and yes, admissions officers will take a gay kid who started his school’s first GSA over the 50th computer geek who might have better scores.</p>
<p>A lot of schools already have a large LBGT population.</p>
<p>I think top colleges are overrepresented with gays/lesbians. But most of them are hiding in their closet. I read that gays/lesbians have higher per capita income than national average. All of the “gay ghettos” I know are among the nicest and most desirable areas within their respective cities (Castro/Noe Valley of SF, Midtown of Atlanta, Lakeview of Chicago, Chelsea/Greenwich Village of NYC, Dupont Circle of DC, and Hillcrest of SD). By the way, I heard Yale/Wesleyan are pretty gay. :)</p>
<p>From personal observations, I’ve found that gays are usually more represented in colleges and are (generally) more well off. With that said, it can definitely make a great essay topic!</p>
<p>In my opinion, no.</p>
<p>Colleges don’t care whether you’re attracted to men or women.</p>
<p>I would say no, only because someone could lie about it to improve their chances.</p>
<p>No, gays are not URMs.</p>
<p>Being gay and having done something exceptional related to gay rights, etc. may be a tip factor for the top colleges – places like HPYS – that have such an overabundance of high stat applicants that they can use other factors to pick and choose from among them to create an active, diverse campus. However, even for such colleges, just being gay probably won’t be a tip factor. Being gay and extraordinary in some way or having risen above challenges related to being gay (such as if you fought to establish a gay-straight alliance at your school or lobbied at your state capitol for gay rights) would be important.</p>
<p>Year old thread. The OP has already decided what to do.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t necessarily throw L, G, B and T all into the same category. It is wrong to group everyone together like that. Each applicant is an individual.</p>
<p>Well everyone who has gotten into Harvard from my school in the last five years has been gay, although that’s only two people.</p>
<p>I dont think its a huge factor, but being that that was my topic for my essay I can say it might help a little. I came out when I was 15 and had some pretty rough times that I dont normally speak about, but I opened up in my application essay and was accepted to almost all of my schools (including Fordham, a Catholic university. I was denied into one honors program, but other than that I got into all the others). </p>
<p>It probably helped that I was in GSA for all 4 years of high school and President of it for the last two, which shows my passion for being active in what some consider to be a civil rights movement. Of course, I had many other activities and good grades, but I did feel it was important for my colleges to know what I went through in high school and how it helped shape me into a more mature person. My essay was about when I came out, but it really spoke to who I was as a whole person.</p>
<p>glido: at my alma mater and at many other institutions, LGBT is a unifying umbrella which those admittedly disparate groups feel very comfortable identifying themselves.</p>
<p>You say it’s “wrong” to lump them together. Sorry but I didn’t juxtapose the letters. You go and tell them it’s “wrong”</p>
<p>Should I mention that I’m gay in my college essay? It won’t be the main topic, of course. Will this piece of information allows adcoms to “know me better”?</p>