My legal name is different than the name in my school's system, how should I proceed into next year?
So, I'm nonbinary. I'm very much out at my school (president of the LGBTQ+ group) and have changed my name in the school's system to my preferred name.
Which means all my transcripts and documents and things are under my preferred name- but I need stuff under my legal name to apply to college.
I'm not going to be 18 and able to change my name without my parent's consent until January, which is after a lot of deadlines, and even then it takes time to go through the legal system. My parents won't let me legally change my name before then because they "don't like it". (They still deadname me at home.)
But I also don't want to have my very gendered name on the roll sheets, in my school email, on my school accounts, since I've been harassed by people and purposefully deadnamed at school before. (I changed it right before Covid/online school, and then a lot of people only knew me as my preferred name. I'd like to keep it that way.) I want to avoid being targeted even more than I already am.
So what do I do from here?
Hello,
I'm also non-binary. What you should do is explain in your situation. Maybe in your essay you can explain why you prefer your current name over your dead-name? I wish you luck and I know you'll do great.
If you can't legally change your name before college then maybe you could change it once you get there. I'm not sure but maybe you could talk to people at the college who handle all of the things you mentioned and see if they can change your name. You could possibly contact people at the college now and see if that's something they will allow if your name hasn't been legally changed. Again, I'm not sure, I'm also a junior in high school. :)
Hi! Did you ever end up figuring this issue out? I’d love to know how you went about it because I’ll be having the same issue within the next few years.
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
Community Guidelines
To keep this community safe and supportive:
- Be kind and respectful!
- Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
- Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!