<p>Hey guys, quick question. Does being gay add anything to your college application to more selective schools? Hypothetically, if you had the same application gay or straight, would you have higher chances of being admitted if you were gay? Or does it not matter? Some people and I were talking about it yesterday and I became curious! </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
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<p>Bingo! 10char</p>
<p>If it does, it shouldn’t.</p>
<p>Nope. It would if there might be some lack of LGBT applicants to top schools but there isn’t – so it’s “meh”.</p>
<p>To answer your question, Gay/Lesbian applicants are neither at an advantage nor at a disadvantage compared to other applicants.</p>
<p>I would strongly doubt it. However, if that student became active in PFLAG and say organized and reached out effectively to parents of students of color, it might make a difference. Merely starting a Gay-Straight Alliance to me is a bit “meh”, but I live in the SF Bay Area. Organizing a regional and successful GSA prom is another idea.</p>
<p>Colleges might actually take more interest in you cause it “diversifies” them</p>
<p>It’s a gamble as you never know who the person reading your application is.</p>
<p>I heard something about UPenn enabling kids to check their sexuality in the supplementary. Correct me if I am wrong. Honestly, I do not think it is a very good idea. But i also think having a LGBT community in a college promotes tolerance I guess. But anyone can check “gay, lesbian…etc” if it was known that it gives them an upper hand. Not to offend anyone out there, but if a kid checks he is gay but he is really straight, there is no way of proving sexuality(again, no offense to anyone). If lets say Harvard had the “check LGBT box”, i think many heterosexuals would take advantage of that. But I just cant decide to check “white” or “Native American” or “Asian” because from sight, colleges will see I am not either one of them.</p>
<p>it would probably help at BYU or Bob Jones</p>
<p>It sure won’t be an advantage at strongly religous schools !</p>
<p>guess i should have included some sort of dripping with sarcasm emoticon</p>
<p>Someone with a 4.0/2400 needs to apply to BYU, check off “Mormon,” and casually mention some homosexual escapades in the essay to see what happens.</p>
<p>^ or notre dame ;)</p>
<p>
Just saw a full page ad in the student magazine about a club for LGBT students. ND is trying to walk the line between tolerance and keeping to the official Catholic position, it seems.</p>
<p>BYU would be funnier, in my opinion.</p>
<p>haha i agree</p>
<p>BC on the other hand…is not</p>
<p>It SHOULDN’T (or so they say anyway) </p>
<p>but I think some schools like Yale and other very pro-gay schools may get influenced a bit. But this is probably NOT going to be a determining factor (unless you write a full, detailed essay on it and it actually is a really good essay) to where ever you want to go. It may just be a small breeze that could teeter you either way IF you’re sitting on the fence.</p>
<p>Apparently the “gay student facing hardship coming out in a small, prejudiced Southern town” essays do well, though I can’t attest to that personally.</p>
<p>ngirly: the UPenn policy raised some eyebrows when first introduced. UPenn strongly stated that the sole purpose of that optional self-reporting was to connect the UPenn LGBT organization and support services to help welcome/recruit students who were already admitted. It’s an extra attempt to woo students into matriculating, if they receive an acceptance. </p>
<p>They stated that whatever is checked has no bearing on the accept/reject decision. </p>
<p>Sounds plausible to me.</p>
<p>Personally, I think talk about sexual practices belongs in the bedroom or between intimate partners, whatever those practices are. There’s one otherwise fascinating political blog that I’ve mostly quit reading because I’m tired of hearing about the details of the blogger’s sex life.</p>
<p>But then again, I’m a tired old mossback from the last millennium.</p>