Writing about religion in Diversity Statement Forum

[Anne784]

Hi, I am new to tls, but I was wondering if writing about being a Seventh Day Adventist would be a good topic for a diversity statement?

I am a URM, African American but believe I may be better off writing about my religion.

Much needed advice please!

[AAJD2B]

Absolutely. Religious upbringing is part of diversity. Anything you feel strongly about that has helped define or shape you can be addressed in a DS.

[Anne784]

Thank you so much!

[Hitchensian]

No need for mutual exclusivity here. Incorporate your URM status AND your religiosity in the statement.

[wlee1220]

I wrote about religion in my personal statement and so far it has worked pretty well. If it's a definitive part of who you are by all means go for it.

[Twitch]

I think that the more you play up other factors than your race, you'll be seen as a stronger applicant. Yes, the URM boost will be there and it will help, but it looks good to be more than just a racial diversity data point, yanno?

[SFrost]

How is being Christian in America diverse? Protestant, at that!

Certain subjects are hard to discuss openly. Politics, religion, etc. tend to be polarizing. Being a protestant Christian makes you part of the majority, which is the opposite of diversity. Additionally, it tempts the biases of whomever is reading your application. Bad idea, imo.

[Caesar Salad]

How is being Christian in America diverse? Protestant, at that!

Certain subjects are hard to discuss openly. Politics, religion, etc. tend to be polarizing. Being a protestant Christian makes you part of the majority, which is the opposite of diversity. Additionally, it tempts the biases of whomever is reading your application. Bad idea, imo.

Yeahhhhhhh, 7th day adventists make up less than .05% of the US, nothing diverse about that. Additionally writing about something like your religious upbringing is EXACTLY the type of thing you should put into your PS. Swing and a miss.

[SFrost]

How is being Christian in America diverse? Protestant, at that!

Certain subjects are hard to discuss openly. Politics, religion, etc. tend to be polarizing. Being a protestant Christian makes you part of the majority, which is the opposite of diversity. Additionally, it tempts the biases of whomever is reading your application. Bad idea, imo.

Yeahhhhhhh, 7th day adventists make up less than .05% of the US, nothing diverse about that. Additionally writing about something like your religious upbringing is EXACTLY the type of thing you should put into your PS. Swing and a miss.

Nobody is really going to distinguish 7th day adventists from any other Christian. It's all the same in this context.

Again, Christian majority nation means being a Christian does not contribute to diversity.

[Anne784]

How is being Christian in America diverse? Protestant, at that!

Certain subjects are hard to discuss openly. Politics, religion, etc. tend to be polarizing. Being a protestant Christian makes you part of the majority, which is the opposite of diversity. Additionally, it tempts the biases of whomever is reading your application. Bad idea, imo.

Yeahhhhhhh, 7th day adventists make up less than .05% of the US, nothing diverse about that. Additionally writing about something like your religious upbringing is EXACTLY the type of thing you should put into your PS. Swing and a miss.

Nobody is really going to distinguish 7th day adventists from any other Christian. It's all the same in this context.

Again, Christian majority nation means being a Christian does not contribute to diversity.

I was one of 2 or 3 Adventist students in my high school, with 2500 students. Most people do not even know of Seventh-day Adventist to be completely honest. I think you can distinguish Adventists from other Christians.

[bjsesq]

How is being Christian in America diverse? Protestant, at that!

Certain subjects are hard to discuss openly. Politics, religion, etc. tend to be polarizing. Being a protestant Christian makes you part of the majority, which is the opposite of diversity. Additionally, it tempts the biases of whomever is reading your application. Bad idea, imo.

Yeahhhhhhh, 7th day adventists make up less than .05% of the US, nothing diverse about that. Additionally writing about something like your religious upbringing is EXACTLY the type of thing you should put into your PS. Swing and a miss.

Nobody is really going to distinguish 7th day adventists from any other Christian. It's all the same in this context.

Again, Christian majority nation means being a Christian does not contribute to diversity.

Plenty of people distinguish 7th day adventists from other christians. Just like they do Jehovah's Witnesses. Paint with a narrower brush, dude.

[SFrost]

Only 0.0000003% of the population has a given social security number (usually).

That doesn't mean it contributes to diversity

[bjsesq]

Only 0.0000003% of the population has a given social security number (usually).

That doesn't mean it contributes to diversity

I'm sure, if you sat down and thought about it, you can see how inapposite that analogy is.

[SFrost]

Only 0.0000003% of the population has a given social security number (usually).

That doesn't mean it contributes to diversity

I'm sure, if you sat down and thought about it, you can see how inapposite that analogy is.

Ok, how about this: only 0.0000003% are white, male, cis-gender, straight, Seventh day Adventist, from Alaska, named "insert generic name", from "insert generic UG".

Very rare. Also a complete nonfactor in diversity considerations. Do you understand the meaning of 'diversity' in the context of admissions??

[bjsesq]

Only 0.0000003% of the population has a given social security number (usually).

That doesn't mean it contributes to diversity

I'm sure, if you sat down and thought about it, you can see how inapposite that analogy is.

Ok, how about this: only 0.0000003% are white, male, cis-gender, straight, Seventh day Adventist, from Alaska, named "insert generic name", from "insert generic UG".

Very rare. Also a complete nonfactor in diversity considerations. Do you understand the meaning of 'diversity' in the context of admissions??

What a daft fucking question. This is a much more narrow context than that: writing a personal statment. The diversity of a small sect of christianity and how it impacted the life of a person who is a minority could be compelling, and that is all that matters here.

[SFrost]

What a daft fucking question. This is a much more narrow context than that: writing a personal statment. The diversity of a small sect of christianity and how it impacted the life of a person who is a minority could be compelling, and that is all that matters here.

The OP originally asked about a topic for a DIVERSITY statement. Now you're talking about personal statements? Let's try to stay on topic. If religion is important to who you are, then by all means put it in your personal statement.

A diversity statement tells an admissions committee how you will contribute to the variety of their class. Will you promote the minority voice to one of equal footing with the majority? Will you have different perspectives and experiences that are unlikely to be found if they don't admit you?

With that in mind, how in the heck does being part of the largest religion in the country promote a minority voice or offer unique perspectives? Law school will predominantly be filled by people of a very similar religion or the areligious.

And no, changing church from Sunday to Saturday is not a big enough change to call it another religion. I'd even put Catholic in the 'majority'.

[August Wilson]

What a daft fucking question. This is a much more narrow context than that: writing a personal statment. The diversity of a small sect of christianity and how it impacted the life of a person who is a minority could be compelling, and that is all that matters here.

The OP originally asked about a topic for a DIVERSITY statement. Now you're talking about personal statements? Let's try to stay on topic. If religion is important to who you are, then by all means put it in your personal statement.

A diversity statement tells an admissions committee how you will contribute to the variety of their class. Will you promote the minority voice to one of equal footing with the majority? Will you have different perspectives and experiences that are unlikely to be found if they don't admit you?

With that in mind, how in the heck does being part of the largest religion in the country promote a minority voice or offer unique perspectives? Law school will predominantly be filled by people of a very similar religion or the areligious.

And no, changing church from Sunday to Saturday is not a big enough change to call it another religion. I'd even put Catholic in the 'majority'.

Dude. You are done here. Being 7th day adventist is totally something someone can talk about in a diversity statement or a personal statement. From what I understand, there are major departures from mainstream christianity in terms of worship and lifestyle that would most certainly bring, at the very least, a "unique perspective".

Also, what the hell are you arguing about? Someone's not diverse enough for you? Fine. It's not your decision to make. Let them write about whatever they want and let the adcomms decide if they sufficently contribute to the diversity of the class. It's precisely this inside the box way of approaching law school admissions that has people writing the same bullshit personal and diversity statements about how they love the law and are good at arguing.

[SFrost]

What a daft fucking question. This is a much more narrow context than that: writing a personal statment. The diversity of a small sect of christianity and how it impacted the life of a person who is a minority could be compelling, and that is all that matters here.

The OP originally asked about a topic for a DIVERSITY statement. Now you're talking about personal statements? Let's try to stay on topic. If religion is important to who you are, then by all means put it in your personal statement.

A diversity statement tells an admissions committee how you will contribute to the variety of their class. Will you promote the minority voice to one of equal footing with the majority? Will you have different perspectives and experiences that are unlikely to be found if they don't admit you?

With that in mind, how in the heck does being part of the largest religion in the country promote a minority voice or offer unique perspectives? Law school will predominantly be filled by people of a very similar religion or the areligious.

And no, changing church from Sunday to Saturday is not a big enough change to call it another religion. I'd even put Catholic in the 'majority'.

Dude. You are done here. Being 7th day adventist is totally something someone can talk about in a diversity statement or a personal statement. From what I understand, there are major departures from mainstream christianity in terms of worship and lifestyle that would most certainly bring, at the very least, a "unique perspective".

Also, what the hell are you arguing about? Someone's not diverse enough for you? Fine. It's not your decision to make. Let them write about whatever they want and let the adcomms decide if they sufficently contribute to the diversity of the class. It's precisely this inside the box way of approaching law school admissions that has people writing the same bullshit personal and diversity statements about how they love the law and are good at arguing.

If they want to put that they're white, cis, hetero, Christian in their DIVERSITY statement, that's hilariously fine with me. It's not my application. The OP came here for advice so that's what they got. Summary of my advice: put the religion in your PS.

[AJS915]

Considering that no essay consists of

"I am (single data point of interest), which makes me interesting, because I am different from other applicants in that singular way," it is pretty foolish to say "sorry, being a 7DA is christian and christian isn't unusual and so you're common, next case 30 days."

If you can make a case for the notion that being part of a rather small intra-religious minority has given you different life experiences and perspectives that add to the overall diversity of a law school class, then go for it. If that same essay manages to kill two birds with one stones by mentioning your ethnic background-- since skin-tone diversity is the only type colleges can brag about and capitalize on in more cynical terms -- so much the better. How to frame the focus is up to you, not brilliant internet commentators for whom a Swedenborgian or Mennonite or whatever is just another boring white-bread Christian.

One note of caution that was relevant above, is that you should be careful exposing yourself to potential biases of a reader who is still an unknown quantity to you. If you come off super faithy-preachy (not saying you would, this is just an example of many ways you could accidentally torpedo yourself), and your reader is an atheist with little patience for missionaries, it will hurt you. Or other such examples.