Well before I start, I wanted to just say a bit about myself. I'm a gay male going into my Senior year of high school. I have come out to a few close friends and my high school counselor. I am not out yet to anyone else including my family, and I don't want to come out until I'm in college and can support myself. I understand that coming out is different for everyone and I guess I'm one of the slow ones but yeah- it took me a very long time to even get to where I am now. I was just wondering if this is something I should write about for my college essay. I know it's not going to be good as those coming out essays where the person is already out to everyone but it took me a long time to open up and now that I've started to open up, I feel like I'm becoming a better person. This is an important aspect of my life that I wanted to share with future colleges. What should I do?
There's no timetable for coming out - it happens at your own pace. So no worries, you're not slow. Granted I don't know what schools you're applying to or what, if anything, they're asking to hear about in your application essay, but I think it would be a great topic to write about. Only question would be how you want to connect it to being in school/going to college (again, if that's even something they want to ask about). I'd think the only reason not to write about it is if you were applying to a religious-affiliated school that wasn't openly welcoming of lgbt students. Good luck with the essay - and welcome to EC.
Most of the colleges I am applying to are very liberal and/or have large GLBT organizations. I'm looking forward to being active and more open. I'm hoping to tie this in with my WHY? Essay. or - I will probably use my story for my personal essay. The latter seems easier but I might actually do both. Thanks for the GL
There's nothing wrong with writing about coming out in a college essay... unless you're applying to Liberty, Oral Roberts or Bob Jones U. They might not take too kindly. The only thing I will say is... that's a pretty common topic to write about in a college essay, so if you're going after super competitive schools, one of the ways you differentiate yourself is by writing on a really unusual and out-of-the-ordinary topic, and writing about coming out is almost mundane these days to admissions officers. So it's a reasonable, solid topic, but not one that will make you stand out in a dramatic way. If there's something else you could write about that is really unusual or unique, that might be stronger, but if not, I'd say go for it.
