DURHAM, N.C. — Duke University will become only the fourth college or university nationally to debut an LGBT-inclusive application this fall.
The news was shared at The Huffington Post by Duke University senior Daniel Kort, president of the university’s undergraduate LGBT student organization. The new application will include a new essay question specifically mentioning sexual orientation and gender identity.
The question will read: “Duke University seeks a talented, engaged student body that embodies the wide range of human experience; we believe that the diversity of our students makes our community stronger. 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. Real people are reading your application, and we want to do our best to understand and appreciate the real people applying to Duke.”
Duke is the fourth university in the U.S. to add the question, according to Kort, and is the first among schools using the Common Application.
Campus Pride, a Charlotte-based national non-profit working with LGBT college students and campuses, has long pushed for the addition of such LGBT-inclusive questions. Its efforts to see such questions added to the Common Application, used by hundreds of schools, have not been successful.
Read more Back to School features
Back to School: LGBT students share their campus experiences