College Admission Applications Will Finally Offer More Gender Identity Options

The Common Application and the Universal College Application will offer more options with regard to identifying gender. The next version of both college admission applications will allow applicants, particularly transgender and gender non-conforming students better options when it comes to self-identity.

The Common Application will be offering students a chance to further describe their gender identity in an optional free-response text to incoming applications of academic year 2016-2017. The options will change the "sex" field to "sex assigned at birth." In addition, universities can require for information about gender identity on supplemental applications forms depending on the school.

The Universal College Application, on the other hand, will change the "sex" field to "legal sex" instead. Although applicants must still select whether they are "male" or "female," students will be offered a new optional gender identity question with options of male, female or "self-identity." Students will be allowed to write down their answer in a free-form text field.

The Common Application can be sent to more than 600 schools, while more than 40 colleges and universities use the Universal College Application. Both applications announced their important changes days from each other, according to Huffington Post.

The Universal College Application is seen being responsible to today's diverse student population, according to Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride. Windmeyer explains that this information shows that they are supporting the academic experiences of all of their students.

The updated forms and applications help create chances for transgender students and gender non-conforming learners to feel included and affirmed, according to Victoria Rodriguez-Roldan, the director of the Trans/Gender Non-Confirming Justice Project. Since these students often face violence and discrimination, establishing a welcoming society must go beyond college admissions applications.

Adding a more detailed questionnaire also saves transgender students the burden of notifying the school when their gender shows up incorrectly, according to Gabe Murchison, senior research manager at Human Right Campaign as cited by Take Part. Murchison explains that not all schools are receptive to such intimating calls made by students.

The adoption of more gender-inclusive questions comes after multiple requests from advocacy groups. In August 2015, 25 LGBTQ youth and higher education advocacy organizations wrote an open letter to Common Application about the concern.