I’m not heterosexual and will soon be applying to law schools in the US and Canada. Should I reveal my sexual orientation on my application?
I am not looking for ethical or principled answers to this question. I’m curious as to the practical advantages and disadvantages.
Thanks for any assistance you guys can offer.
What right does sexual orientation have appearing on school application?
I’m confused as to why anyone would ever think it was appropriate, straight, gay, bi or whatever. Are you putting your religion? Favourite football team? Hair colour? Inside leg measurement?
Yes, why is this even an issue? What would be the relevance of whether you like Doing The Nasty with men or women, whether you like to have the lights on or off, or what flavor of edible undies you prefer, to your law school applications?
Care to explain why you regard these ideas as mutually exclusive?
Cutting off one’s nose in spite of their face is not a good idea, whatever your nose may be.
Probably the same reason blacks have an easier time getting into law school. They want diversity, and having gays in their school would be diverse.
I can’t see any law school app asking for this info so I assume you’re just interested in “offering it up” for consideration in the written portion or as part of apersoanl bio statement.
If I were a law school dean and someone felt compelled to make a sexual preference statement in a context that is not interested in or requesting that information, I would have serious questions about that applicant’s common sense, social integation skills and maturity. The only tangentially relevant context I can see is if you are interested in the law because your sexual orientation has sensitized you to being part of a persecuted class and you want to fight for truth, justice and the American way because of this.
Only if they ask for it. Not because it’s something you should be ashamed of, but because I don’t see how it’s relevant.
For those wondering why the question is even coming up, I believe that many graduate schools asks for some sort of personal essay as part of the application. A few months back I proofread a friend’s personal essay for Columbia Law School, in which she discussed some of her experiences as a Carribean woman. I’d guess that the OP is considering doing something similar in his/her essay about not being hetero and wants to know if there are any problems or benefits to such a plan.
About five years ago, the Boston Globe reported that Northeastern University gives affirmative action points to gays. (Sorry, no cite; too long ago.) Other schools probably do the same. If you want to take a place from an equally-qualified or more qualified straight person, go for it.
I would suggest the obvious . . . if, considering what area of law you would like to practice (civil-rights, public-interest, constitutional), and whether your sexual orientation was a factor in your decision (experienced discrimation, hate-crime, etc.) then it could be relevant and, I would think, ok to include in your essay.
Also, consider the law school’s ideology. Revealing your orientation would perhaps be fine if you’re applying to, say, Hastings Law School in San Francisco, but perhaps unwise if you are sending it in to the Universtiy of Chicago or, definitely, Bringham Young (!).
The application for my law school said something like, “if you wish to identify yourself with an underrepresented group, please list it here and feel free to attach a brief explanation.” Yeah, I think it will help your chances of getting in somewhat. It will probably help more if you’ve been active in gay rights. It seems like all the gay people I went to school with are outspoken activists. (Of course, it might just be that I never noticed the other ones.)
When I applied to law school in the late 90s, “diversity” was a major point of recruitment and a demonstration in your application statement that you would contribute to diversity would go a long way toward supporting your application.
You might check in to see how this law school has responded to the Solomon Amendment, and investigate how recruiters from JAG are treated by the school. Under the Solomon Amendment, any school accepting federal funding, including student loans, must allow JAG to recruit. NALS regulations require member schools to require recruiters to sign a statement affirming that they do not discriminate on the basis of, inter alia, sexual orientation. JAG cannot, and will not, sign the disclaimer.
It could be relevant if you plan to do legal advocacy work for GLBT causes, and especially if the school has a course on such issues.
The real question is whether extraterrestrials should mention the fact that they’re a minority on such applications.
Sorry I haven’t been able to access the SDMB for a while, but I see my post has generated some confusion.
Here is some more information regarding the context of the discussion. Many law school applications in the States are done through a central agency - the Law School Admissions Council (www.lsac.org). Part of the process involves setting up a profile at the website. The profile allows you to indicate both your race/ethnicity and/or your sexual orientation. I am fairly certain that race/ethnicity information is asked for as part of affirmative action programs, though you can chose not to release this information. However, the default option is to have the schools notified of your race. There is another option where you can specify your sexual orientation. Unlike race, this option is disabled by default. Also, as far as I can understand, if you do decide to specify sexual orientation in your biographical profile, then it still only becomes known to schools who specifically search for candidates of that type (yes, the law schools can now use the service to search for candidates who meet criteria they specify, kind of like a dating service).
Beyond that, there is definitely the question of whether to include the information in any essay or written portion of an application. I have already decided not to do that, as I have not been an activist and I do not find it otherwise relevant.
However, simply seeing a little checkbox that allowed me to specify that I “self identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered” made me wonder if I would automatically ingratiate or exclude myself from certain schools if I clicked it. I suppose the answer is more complicated than that.
I get the impression that the issue has become very important for LSAC as the main website has a prominent link to “information for LGBT applicants,” where they mostly just try and sell you a book.
Again, thanks for all of the interest guys.
KellyM, what exactly is JAG?
JAG is probabably the Judge Advocate Generals office , the militarys legal arm.
Its tasked with investigating and prosecuting infractions of the Uniform Code of Conduct, and defending in Court Martials.
Declan
bo989, JAG is the Judge Advocate General corps. There are actually three of them, one in each service (the Marines use the Navy JAG). I don’t know if the Coast Guard has its own JAG, but it might. Basically, they’re military lawyers.
I also got my acronyms wrong. It’s NALP, not NALS, that mandates nondiscrimination by its members. My apologies for the mistake.
This link briefly describes the reaction to the Solomon Amendment at a few schools:
http://www.du.edu/orgs/lgblsa/jag.htm
And, since this isn’t GD, here’s another link for balance: