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I was advised by the pre-law adviser at my UG that I should write a diversity statement no matter what, I would just have to be creative since I am white and middle class. I decided that if I were to write one I would write about being the first in my family to get their bachelor's degree and how I was largely on my own in college since my parents did not have the background to help me. However, I am worried that admissions is going to read it and think its a stretch since my parent's made pretty good money despite not having college degrees.

What are your thoughts? Is it better to write one so adcomms see that I took every opportunity to write about myself and set myself apart or will it not help/maybe hurt my application?

kaf5250 wrote:I was advised by the pre-law adviser at my UG that I should write a diversity statement no matter what,

Sometimes I feel like prelaw advisors are purposefully giving kids bad advice. How does this even make sense?

Yes, it will hurt your application if you write a dumb DS. If you can write a good one, by all means. If you can't, then don't.

thats what I thought, I'm not going to write one. anything I say, whether it be true or not, isn't going to sound anywhere near as compelling as people who actually are a URM

kaf5250 wrote: I decided that if I were to write one I would write about being the first in my family to get their bachelor's degree and how I was largely on my own in college since my parents did not have the background to help me.

That is a fine DS topic. Being the first person in your family to earn a BA is a great accomplishment. At least one of most law student's parents went to college.

Ima URM, and have read lots of URM DSs.... many "hey Im a URM" statements are really are not that compelling.

A DS gives you another opportunity to show off your writing abilities to the adcoms. I think you should write it, but post it in the PS forum before you submit it to make sure it doesnt suck.

So in the same vein as the poster above - I am an URM (AA female). But I didn't plan to write a diversity statement. Third generation college student, middle class. I am black and my family is South American, but I mentioned that in my PS. Do you think it would be a mistake not to write something?

There's no real brightline where anyone can say you should or shouldn't write a DS. Obviously you shouldn't write a DS no matter what. If you simply mentioned it in your PS, I might go a step further and write about how that gives you a unique approach to life, a lot of your friends didn't graduate high school, whatever. If you really think you've done all you can, then don't write it -- it will just come off as forced.

In my mind, unless a diversity statement is either extraordinarily good, or extraordinarily bad, it's likely to not have that much effect on your cycle regardless.