MBA Diversity: ‘Coming Out’ in Business School Applications

TopMBA.com looks at whether being open about your sexual identity in your MBA application is a good idea. 

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community can often be put-off applying to MBA programs as a result of common misconceptions surrounding the business community.

However, for those that do decide to apply, these misconceptions can still present a conundrum in whether to disclose their sexual identity during the MBA admissions process. While some think the world of business, often perceived as being conservative, might not be willing to accept differing sexual orientations, others take the view that the business community would benefit from a more diverse background.

Michael Ruderman is a former executive director at the Out for Undergraduate Business Conference (OUBC) and a successful applicant to Stanford University Graduate School of Business’ MBA class of 2013. Drawing on his leadership experience at the OUBC, he chose to be open about his sexuality in his application.

“I was out in the business school admissions process,” Ruderman tells TopMBA.com. “I wanted to share my most significant leadership experiences in my application and, as the volunteer executive director of an LGBT non-profit, I could not separate my experiences and what I believed made me a strong applicant from my sexual orientation.”

However, he’s sure that being honest about his sexuality did not harm his application, pointing out that many business schools actively recruit members of the LGBT community for their MBA programs.

“There's no doubt business schools are looking to attract LGBT talent to their campuses,” he says. “At OUBC, an event exclusively for LGBT undergraduates, we hosted business school representatives from Stanford, Harvard Business School, Cornell, and Duke because they were looking to encourage the undergraduates to consider an MBA at their schools at some point in the future.”

Stereotypical views

Fernando Gonzalez, a 2012 MBA candidate at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin explains that he chose not to reveal his sexuality in his application as a result of his fears that it might hinder his application to the Texas based business school. However, in reality the school was far more open to differing sexualities than he originally thought.

“My biggest fears arose from my own expectations of the personality of businesspeople. In retrospect, I find it ironic that I was the person stereotyping a group of people,” Gonzalez reveals.

“Even as a lifelong Texas resident, I was concerned that the staff of the business school may be conservative... I chose not to be open in my application, but as it turns out, the director of admissions in the program is openly gay as are some prominent members of the staff.”

MBA applicant eligibility

But, while being open about one’s sexuality during the MBA admissions process appears not to thwart a successful application to business school, can it enhance an applicant’s eligibility?

“It can only help. If you’re going to a school where it doesn’t, or where it hurts your application, you don’t want to go there anyway,” says Seth D Gilmore, MBA candidate in the class of 2011 at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

“That said, being LGBT is not enough to get you in. At best it puts you in the ‘diversity candidate’ category, which may help to distinguish you from someone whose resume, GMAT, etc... is in all other respects similar to yours.”

This is a sentiment that Adam Domain, an MBA candidate in the class of 2011 at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University agrees with.

“I would not say that it will benefit the applicant explicitly. If the fact that the applicant is gay helps to tell his or her 'story', I would certainly include it in a thoughtful and meaningful way,” he explains. “I would never come out in an application just to come out or increase the chances of acceptance.”

Ruderman takes a similar view, in that an applicant’s sexuality should only be mentioned in an application if it supports achievements, or life experiences that support the person’s suitability for business school.

“Don't come out just for the sake of coming out. Be sure coming out makes sense in the context of the broader story you are telling,” he advises.

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