Colleges and Universities with LGBTQ Identity Questions as an Option on Admission Applications & Enrollment Forms

Undergraduate Applications

California two-year colleges: ask students to “please indicate your sexual orientation,” and gives the choices of straight/heterosexual, gay or lesbian/homosexual, bisexual, other, and decline to state. It also asks an optional question, “Do you consider yourself transgender?”

Connecticut College: has an optional question, “If you identify as Trans*, Queer, Cis, or another gender, please indicate that here.”

Dartmouth College: lists “gender identity” and “LGBT community” among 22 “personal interests” that students can choose from on the supplement to their Common Application.

Duke University: has an optional essay question on its supplemental application: “If you’d like to share a perspective you bring or experiences you’ve had to help us understand you better—perhaps related to a community you belong to, your sexual orientation or gender identity, or your family or cultural background—we encourage you to do so.”

Elmhurst College: asks an optional question, “Would you consider yourself to be a member of the LGBT community?”

Elon University: asks an optional question, “Do you consider yourself part of the LGBTQIA community?”

MIT: asks an optional question, “How would you describe your sexual orientation/gender identity? (Check all that apply)” and gives the choices of lesbian, gay, straight/heterosexual, unsure, bisexual, transgender, another identity (with a fill in the blank), and prefer not to answer.

Northeastern Illinois University: asks an optional question, “Do you identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or questioning (GLBTQ)?”

Ohio State University: asks an optional question, “Do you identify as a part of the LGBTQ community?”

Purdue University: sends admitted undergraduate students a survey where they have the option of identifying their sexual identity (choices [can choose more than one]: asexual, bisexual, gay, straight/heterosexual, lesbian, pansexual, queer, questioning, same-gender loving, two spirit, prefer not to disclose, and not listed [fill in the blank]) and their gender identity (choices: woman, man, FTM/transgender man/trans man, MTF/transgender woman/trans woman, gender queer [identifying as neither man or woman], prefer not to disclose, and not listed [fill in the blank]).

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD): has admitted students complete a “Cultural Community Survey” that asks “sex” (choices: male, female, intersex, and self-identify), “gender” (male, female, transgender, and self-identify), and “sexual orientation” (gay, lesbian, bisexual, straight, and self-identify).

University of California system: asks gender identity and sexual orientation on the admissions application for all UC schools: “How do you describe yourself? (mark one answer): Male, Female, Trans Male/Trans Man, Trans Female/Trans Woman, Genderqueer/Gender Non-Conforming, Different Identity” and “Do you consider yourself to be (mark one answer): Heterosexual or straight, Gay or lesbian, Bisexual, Not listed above (please specify) __________.” University of California students do not need to provide any sex/gender on their admissions applications, as explained here.

University of Iowa: asks an optional question, “Do you identify with the LGBTQ community?” Students can also identify their gender as male, female, or transgender.

University of Maryland: sends admitted undergraduate students a survey where they have the option of identifying their sexual identity (choices: heterosexual or straight, gay or lesbian, bisexual, and prefer not to answer) and can indicate whether or not they are transgender.

Washington two-year colleges: ask an optional question about sexual orientation, and gives students the opportunity to identify their gender as feminine, masculine, transgender, androgynous, gender neutral, other, and prefer not to answer.

Graduate School Applications

Oregon State: asks students for their gender identity, and has an optional question on whether they identify as LGBQ.

Penn’s Law School: offers an optional question, “Do you identify as a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender person?”

University of California, Santa Cruz: asks an optional question, “What is your sexual orientation?,” and gives the choices of bisexual, gay, heterosexual/straight, lesbian, and queer.

University of Maryland School of Business: lists “LGBT” among a range of “affiliations” that students have the option of marking.