it’s the personal connection portion to the essay concerning “problem solving.” what do you think? essay will be going to schools like UVA, UNC, Princeton, Gtown, American etc…
It depends on what you mean by “sexuality” and, for that matter, what you mean by “mentioning.” If by “sexuality” you mean sexual orientation, then yes, it would be fine to mention that you identify (or someone identifies) as a certain sexual orientation. (Unless you’re applying to a school that is overtly non-accepting of your sexual orientation, in which case I’m not sure why you’d want to attend such a school.)
On the other hand, if by “mentioning sexuality” you mean “writing about the time I lost my virginity” – or even alluding to your personal sexual experiences – then no, admissions officers really don’t want to hear about your sex life. Yes, it’s a personal essay, but it’s also a quasi-professional context.
This.
Of course, as @jpheys points out, it depends on where you are going with your essay, and yes, it is fine to ‘mention’ your sexual orientation. On the other hand…
…it is in your best interests to have some mercy on the AdComm readers.Try and think about it from their point of view: will that reader - somebody who is not your friend, your family, your peer- be likely to find it interesting? More interesting than the other dozens of essays about sexuality that they are going to read this season? (because you might be surprised how often this question comes up on CC).
Just as with pretty much any other topic you could possibly write about, execution can make or break the essay. The takeaway isn’t “you can’t write about being gay (or whatever the case may be) because that’s boring”; it’s “write something that only you could write.” If you write about being gay (for example), you need to think about how to distinguish it from all the other essays that are also about being gay, just like if you wrote about sports you would need to think about how to distinguish it from all the other essays that are also about sports.