In honor of Transgender Awareness Week and Transgender Remembrance Day today, this post is for our trans, non-binary, genderqueer, and genderfluid friends. Applying to college and trying to figure out a good fit for you is hard enough, but when you’re applying to college and you’re trans, non-binary, genderfluid, or genderqueer, it can be especially tough. And, if you’re in one of those groups, you know that these students face additional challenges at home and at school — and that certainly extends to college admissions as well.

Four Quick Tips:

  1. Keep up with the Forms: While many colleges ask for your preferred name, you may still need to use your birth name, if it hasn’t been legally changed yet, so that all your paperwork and files won’t get lost or disorganized.
  2. Think about Your Essays: To come out or not to come out? You don’t have to write about being transgender in your essays, but you certainly can if it’s a story you want to tell. If you’re worried that being trans might hurt you in admissions, ask yourself this question: Do I want to attend a college that would deny me because of who I am?
  3. Check State Laws: I got this amazing advice from a fellow mom of a nonbinary child: “It’s worth checking the state laws where the college is located—the most supportive campus in the world can’t help your student if the state doesn’t guarantee access to health care, makes name/marker change incredibly difficult, etc.” 
  4. Ask Questions: Be sure to ask colleges these kinds of questions when doing your research or reaching out or on tours/visits/info sessions:
  • Do they have gender-inclusive housing?
  • Do they have a nondiscrimination policy for trans/queer students?
  • Do they allow students to change their names on campus records?
  • What resources and opportunities do they have to support trans/queer students?
  • Do the schools’ health clinics and health plans cover trans medical care, if that’s something you are interested in?

Check Out These Helpful Resources:

Looking for college suggestions? Here are some colleges that have been suggested to me or that I’ve heard have trans-friendly environments:

Virginia Commonwealth

Ithaca College

CU Boulder

U Oregon

Tufts

Rutgers

Claremont McKenna

UC Santa Barbara

Pacific University Oregon

Oregon State

University of Montana

Vassar

Washington State

U Washington

Western Washington

UConn

Macalester

Clark U in Massachusetts

SUNY New Paltz

Hampshire

Bard

Oberlin

New School

NYU

Wesleyan

Sarah Lawrence

Kenyon

Tulane

Northern Arizona U

Whitman

Skidmore

Simmons

Clark

Evergreen

Reed

Allegheny

UVM

Pitzer

Brown

Wesleyan

Occidental

Goucher

Lawrence

Beloit

Augustana

Knox

Wheaton

Warren Wilson

Some of you may or may not know this about me, but I’m the mom of three amazing kids — my middle is transgender/non-binary. She has helped me here on A2C in the past with essays both as u/admissionsson and u/admissions_daughter! Now, she’s at Berkeley Law, so her essay editing days are over, but I think you can still find some of her awesome posts about writing essays.

Questions? Ask them here and I’ll try to answer or find the answers — or maybe someone in our fabulous community here can help!

“Your lives matter. Your voice matters. Your stories matter.” ~ Laverne Cox

Take care. Be yourself. Love who you are.

– admissionsmom ??