The College Fix

Application now allows students to choose ‘X for another legal sex,’ ‘Mx.’ prefix option

Changes to a standard college application form regarding a student’s “legal sex” is causing “confusion” at a women’s college.

Common App, which more than 1,000 higher education institutions use for admissions according to its website, recently has made changes to questions about students’ “sex and gender.” These include the option to choose “X for another legal sex” on the application for the 2023-24 school year.

Emma Steele, a spokesperson for the organization, told The College Fix in a recent email that the changes were made “to better reflect the more than one million students who use Common App each year.”

But at women-only Sweet Briar College in Virginia, leaders say the application changes — including “multiple gender options” — have caused “confusion” about whom the institution admits.

“The confusion this creates for applicants seeking admission to a women’s college like Sweet Briar, necessitated a review of the College’s admission policy by the Board and administration of the College,” Sweet Briar said in a statement provided to The Fix by spokesperson Clélie Steckel.

Prompted by the Common App changes, “Sweet Briar College affirmed that it will continue its 123-year commitment to only admit women,” the college stated.

“Since political and other influences now call the meaning of the term ‘woman’ into question, the College affirmed that it understands the term in its historic and traditional way consistent with the intentions of our founder,” it stated.

The spokesperson for Common App, when asked about feedback about the new “legal sex” option, told The Fix the change was announced a year beforehand to give colleges time to become acclimated.

“We announced the addition of ‘X’ or ‘another legal sex’ as an option to the legal sex question a year before it was implemented, giving our members the time to ask questions and adjust their internal processes,” Steele said.

Rather than filling out multiple college applications, students can use the nonprofit’s service to complete one standardized form and submit it to any participating institution. Its mission is to “simplify the application process” and promote “equity” by “supporting all students, especially low-income and first-generation students, in achieving their higher education dreams.”

MORE: College affirms women-only admissions policy despite ‘transphobic’ accusations

Meanwhile, an all-male institution said it did not have any issues with the changes.

Wabash College, a private men’s institution in Indiana, told The Fix there have been “zero issues here.”

The Fix also reached out to the women-only institutions Saint Mary’s College and the College of Saint Mary twice for comment, but neither responded.

Just three colleges in the U.S. still admit women only: Sweet Briar College, the College of Saint Mary in Nebraska, and Saint Mary’s College in Indiana, The Fix reported earlier this year. Many women’s colleges have adopted admissions policies that allow biological male students who identify as female.

Common App has made a number of changes to “sex and gender” questions on its form in recent years.

For the 2021-22 school year, the organization added a pronoun question, as detailed in an article by Steele on its website.

Additionally, it added options for prefixes and the word “legal” to the first name question for the 2022-23 school year.

“For the 2022-2023 application season, Common App will add ‘Mx.’ and ‘other’ options for counselor, parent, recommender, teacher, and advisor prefix options, as well as add ‘legal’ to the first/given name question label,” according to the article.

Steele told The Fix the organization continues to listen to feedback regarding any possible future changes.

“While there are no planned changes to the gender identity questions on the application, we’re constantly listening to our students, members, and recommenders on ways to evolve the application to best serve them,” she told The Fix.

MORE: International ‘equity’ scholars can’t define ‘gender’ after 5 years of research

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