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Black female who grew up in Hawaii/Japan...

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 6:34 pm
by ashca14
I'm just going to mention various factors which I think may make my URM status more compelling:

Black female.
Grew up in Hawaii and Japan, and attended school in Germany for a while.
I went from nearly flunking out of high school due to illness, but managed to make it to a top public school in the end.
I double majored in philosophy and German.
Grandfather was a plaintiff in Brown v. Board of Education.
Divorced after leaving an abusive relationship.

Are any of these issues I should refrain from mentioning, or only mention in my diversity statement? Will they make much of a difference?

Re: Black female who grew up in Hawaii/Japan...

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 8:10 pm
by sesto elemento
Being a black female is enough to make your urm status compelling.

Not sure why there's a recent trend of urm posters who think that they have to quantify their urm status.

You do have enough material to write an interesting diversity statement. I would refrain from mentioning almost dropping out from HS due to an illness. Being a double major isn't interesting either unless there's a compelling reason behind it.