Diversity Statement Forum

[Nailjohnj]

Ok, so I am finishing up my personal statement I am starting to work on a 300ish word diversity statement that I'll send along as the optional essay. My question is that can I expound upon a part of my personal statement in my diversity statement. Specifically, in my PS I have a small (3 sentence) paragraph about moving abroad and I would like to use growing up abroad as my DS topic since, as a 25 year old white, protestant, male, I'm not really that unique from other applicants in many other ways. Is this acceptable as long as as I make about something specific instead of just broad statements about why living abroad makes me special snowflake? Thanks for the votes

[bk1]

I think growing up outside of the US can make a decent PS. It is hard to tell without the actual DS to read. It could also supremely backfire if written in way that is cliche or sounds pretentious.

[Nailjohnj]

I'll get the rough draft up here as soon as it doesn't sound like a fourth grader wrote it, but the just of it is that I went from a small southern city with a school of 1500 kids to a major German city with school that had 139 kids (military base school). This caused me to have to be able to grow in a constantly changing environment with people from all backgrounds on top of learning an entirely new culture. Essentially, the thesis will be I will create a more diverse student body because work well with all type of different people and thrive in a diverse environment (or something along those lines). Does that work?

[bk1]

That is probably the exact way I wouldn't phrase a DS about growing up abroad. I've seen several DS's on here that basically say things along the lines of "I am friends with and grew up with brown people, that makes me diverse."

I would focus more on talking about how the experience changed you and your perspective and avoid mentioning that you will be able to "work well with diverse people" which sounds positively awful. I think your DS should be more about how you are a changed person from the experience rather than it giving you any sort of insight going forward.

[Nailjohnj]

Yea, I've seen those type of DS too, and that is what I want to avoid. So it would be best to pick a specific experience abroad and talk about my world view changed bc of it?

[bk1]

That could work, though I would definitely place it in a larger context of growing up abroad. If I were to read that you spent only 6-12 months of your 18 years as a child in a foreign country, I would question whether this actually made you diverse considering how small of an impact it had proportionately to everything else.

Try writing it and see what happens. If it comes out well, great, send it in. If not, scrap it, thankfully DS's aren't mandatory and won't make or break you.

[Nailjohnj]

I spent half 9 years growing up on three different installations in Germany and one in Italy so I think that counts as enough to have an impact. I'm at the cusp with some of these schools, so I want to give it a shot. Its mandatory at UNC, I think.

[bk1]

I spent half 9 years growing up on three different installations in Germany and one in Italy. I think that counts as enough to have an impact.

I didn't mean to imply that it was a small portion, but merely to note that if you go with the anecdote to make sure that the reader does not think it is a small portion.

[Nailjohnj]

No, I understand what you meant. I'm going to give it a shot and post the results on here to see if I get boos or raves. I am going cliche with the moment, but bringing it in a completely different way, so we'll see what happens.