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I'm only considering writing a DS for Duke because they ask for it. I'm white, but there are three things I thought might be worth writing about: 1) I'm 30, married with children; 2) I grew up in a very large, working class family and am first in my family to earn a bachelor's; 3) I lived in Brazil for 2 years (church service) and speak Portuguese.

I think it's already clear from my PS that I'm married with children and that I had to support myself through college because my parents couldn't help. My church service is in my resume. So my DS would be somewhat redundant, though not entirely because it would include my thoughts on how these aspects would contribute to diversity at Duke, or whatever.

So, is any of this what they're looking for in a DS? And if so, does the fact that these things are already in my application elsewhere make a DS superfluous?

I kind of mentioned similar things in my personal statement, but only at the end. I did that to show that my life turned out great compared with where it statistically should have gone. You know you have a good role model when your hells angel step father puts two state troopers into coma after the two officers tried to arrest him.

"How are we going to teach them law if they can't even fit inside a DS?"

You guys are hilarious, and I'm not just saying that.

I really did live in a DS. A dilapidated shack. Now I'm being hilarious.

I did one for similar reasons to what you are looking at. I figured it couldn't hurt to summarize the unusual aspects of my background even though my PS covered most of it. Mine was about 1/2 page, no need to make it super long. In the end it probably doesn't matter much since you discussed things in your PS.