Top Law Schools

I have a dilemma. I am a white middle class male, not very diverse sounding I know. However, I am from Appalachia and I was not always middle-class. My mom is now a principal and my father is now a big shot for a multinational corp. We used to be broke eating on the same roast for a week when I was a child until around 10. Parents are divorced, it was an ugly one and still is. Brother was in a coma while I was in UG. 3 kids in my class of 160 are applying for advanced degrees and maybe 300 out of 720 in my county went to college. Town was surrounded by drugs and many friends went to rehab. I know what it is like to struggle and I provide a diverse look into a world that is often shrouded by stereotype.

I am not sure if I should write a diversity statement or not.

Jredelman15 wrote:I have a dilemma. I am a white middle class male, not very diverse sounding I know. However, I am from Appalachia and I was not always middle-class. My mom is now a principal and my father is now a big shot for a multinational corp. We used to be broke eating on the same roast for a week when I was a child until around 10. Parents are divorced, it was an ugly one and still is. Brother was in a coma while I was in UG. 3 kids in my class of 160 are applying for advanced degrees and maybe 300 out of 720 in my county went to college. Town was surrounded by drugs and many friends went to rehab. I know what it is like to struggle and I provide a diverse look into a world that is often shrouded by stereotype.

I am not sure if I should write a diversity statement or not.

No.

Not because you don't have a story to tell, but because you aren't a very good writer.

Maybe.

You don't seem to have one event/experience that would make you diverse. A diversity statement definitely shouldn't be a laundry list of hard times but a defining *something* that affected you.

InGoodFaith wrote:

Jredelman15 wrote:I have a dilemma. I am a white middle class male, not very diverse sounding I know. However, I am from Appalachia and I was not always middle-class. My mom is now a principal and my father is now a big shot for a multinational corp. We used to be broke eating on the same roast for a week when I was a child until around 10. Parents are divorced, it was an ugly one and still is. Brother was in a coma while I was in UG. 3 kids in my class of 160 are applying for advanced degrees and maybe 300 out of 720 in my county went to college. Town was surrounded by drugs and many friends went to rehab. I know what it is like to struggle and I provide a diverse look into a world that is often shrouded by stereotype.

I am not sure if I should write a diversity statement or not.

No.

Not because you don't have a story to tell, but because you aren't a very good writer.

I just put facts down. I didn't pay attention to grammar, structure, etc.

InGoodFaith wrote:

Jredelman15 wrote:I have a dilemma. I am a white middle class male, not very diverse sounding I know. However, I am from Appalachia and I was not always middle-class. My mom is now a principal and my father is now a big shot for a multinational corp. We used to be broke eating on the same roast for a week when I was a child until around 10. Parents are divorced, it was an ugly one and still is. Brother was in a coma while I was in UG. 3 kids in my class of 160 are applying for advanced degrees and maybe 300 out of 720 in my county went to college. Town was surrounded by drugs and many friends went to rehab. I know what it is like to struggle and I provide a diverse look into a world that is often shrouded by stereotype.

I am not sure if I should write a diversity statement or not.

No.

Not because you don't have a story to tell, but because you aren't a very good writer.

This response doesn't seem to be in good faith

I'd say it depends on your numbers and on the school. E.g. if you have a 163/3.7 and are applying to Penn, then yes. If you have a 178/4.0 and are applying to Harvard, then no.

mrizza wrote:

InGoodFaith wrote:

Jredelman15 wrote:I have a dilemma. I am a white middle class male, not very diverse sounding I know. However, I am from Appalachia and I was not always middle-class. My mom is now a principal and my father is now a big shot for a multinational corp. We used to be broke eating on the same roast for a week when I was a child until around 10. Parents are divorced, it was an ugly one and still is. Brother was in a coma while I was in UG. 3 kids in my class of 160 are applying for advanced degrees and maybe 300 out of 720 in my county went to college. Town was surrounded by drugs and many friends went to rehab. I know what it is like to struggle and I provide a diverse look into a world that is often shrouded by stereotype.

I am not sure if I should write a diversity statement or not.

No.

Not because you don't have a story to tell, but because you aren't a very good writer.

This response doesn't seem to be in good faith

Thank you mrizza. What do you think about my overall issues? I am not sure how to construct the statement. Each of those issues affected me in profound ways. I don't want the issues to sound whiny but they need to be stated in order to encapsulate my personality. I want my PS to be about escaping all the shit that happened and overcoming it and being successful.

honeybadger12 wrote:I'd say it depends on your numbers and on the school. E.g. if you have a 163/3.7 and are applying to Penn, then yes. If you have a 178/4.0 and are applying to Harvard, then no.

I have a 3.2 and will be sitting for the October exam. I am practicing in the 170+ range.

No.

Only you really know if writing a DS is worth it or not. It more or less boils down to are these things that make you different, did they have a serious impact in your life, or are you trying to claim diversity just because it existed around you?

I just feel like, with the information given, your DS is going to fall short of "Poor kid rising above the elements of his culture" and more "Middle class kid who use to be slightly lower class but hen mom and dad got better jobs".

Jredelman15 wrote: Thank you mrizza. What do you think about my overall issues? I am not sure how to construct the statement. Each of those issues affected me in profound ways. I don't want the issues to sound whiny but they need to be stated in order to encapsulate my personality. I want my PS to be about escaping all the shit that happened and overcoming it and being successful.

Personally I think you could have something with the rags to riches story of your childhood. If anything you can tell it in a way where you have an even more unique perspective than the straight "i'm poor" story. I'd angle it in a way where you emphasize that you have been on both sides of the fence and because of that can explain the perspective of the impoverished to people that don't have that perspective, in a more relatable and understandable way.

I don't think I'd bring attention to the fact that you went to a crappy undergrad (which is all those numbers say, they don't make you diverse), and I don't think 300/720 going to college is even a low percentage in reality. Also, your brother being in a coma could find a place in your PS I would think, but I don't see how that makes you diverse at all.

Focus on the first one and it could be worth it. Like other people have alluded to though, if it doesn't turn out well, it could actually hurt you. So I'd just write a few drafts and see how it goes, then decide if you are going to submit it.

CyanIdes Of March wrote:Only you really know if writing a DS is worth it or not. It more or less boils down to are these things that make you different, did they have a serious impact in your life, or are you trying to claim diversity just because it existed around you?

I just feel like, with the information given, your DS is going to fall short of "Poor kid rising above the elements of his culture" and more "Middle class kid who use to be slightly lower class but hen mom and dad got better jobs".

Ya also want to reiterate this. Its hard to tell from what you've told us, but if you aren't legitimately poor, and you were just maybe lower-middle class, its almost definitely going to backfire. Write out an example focused entirely on that and we can tell you if we think its beneficial or not.

Question: what is typically considered "poor" by law school standards? Is there a prevailing income level in entering classes? By most economic measures I usually wind up being considered low-income, but I still feel a bit odd writing about the diversity I've gained from my family's income troubles if there's a ton of kids that apply with even worse conditions than what I've grown up in.

No, unless Melungeon

pwyoung wrote:Question: what is typically considered "poor" by law school standards? Is there a prevailing income level in entering classes? By most economic measures I usually wind up being considered low-income, but I still feel a bit odd writing about the diversity I've gained from my family's income troubles if there's a ton of kids that apply with even worse conditions than what I've grown up in.

Personally I'd probably say food stamps is the cutoff point where I would write one. At that point its objectively verifiable, society agrees you had it rough.

I'm a upper-middle class white kid and I am wrote a DS about a defining experience I had freshman year that would lend to the diversity of XXX law school.

Just haven't decided to include it or not. Since im a big splitter I think it would help my chances but at the same time possibly come off as trying to hard.

TheThriller wrote:I'm a upper-middle class white kid and I am wrote a DS about a defining experience I had freshman year that would lend to the diversity of XXX law school.

Just haven't decided to include it or not. Since im a big splitter I think it would help my chances but at the same time possibly come off as trying to hard.

Yeah I still haven't decided to write one. I don't want to appear like I am using every little thing that happened in my life esp since I already wrote an addendum for poor grades. I know my perspective from both sides, being poor and being not so poor, could add to diversity I just don't know if I can make it sound believable because it was for my younger years that aren't as memorable.

Socio-economic stuff could tell a useful story depending on how it affected you. If it was integral in developing your character/motivations and it can be weaved together in a coherent narrative, then go for it. Diversity is more than just skin color.

Jredelman15 wrote:

TheThriller wrote:I'm a upper-middle class white kid and I am wrote a DS about a defining experience I had freshman year that would lend to the diversity of XXX law school.

Just haven't decided to include it or not. Since im a big splitter I think it would help my chances but at the same time possibly come off as trying to hard.

Yeah I still haven't decided to write one. I don't want to appear like I am using every little thing that happened in my life esp since I already wrote an addendum for poor grades. I know my perspective from both sides, being poor and being not so poor, could add to diversity I just don't know if I can make it sound believable because it was for my younger years that aren't as memorable.

See my thread for possible appropriate DS.

EDITED

I'm with mrizza on this: IF you are going to write one - and I'm not certain that you should - I would make the focus on how your past experiences have made you into a person who would add a unique POV to your law school class. It sounds as if you could convey this in a really tight PS, however - and I think that's the way I would go.
Best of luck to you!

nygrrrl wrote:I'm with mrizza on this: IF you are going to write one - and I'm not certain that you should - I would make the focus on how your past experiences have made you into a person who would add a unique POV to your law school class. It sounds as if you could convey this in a really tight PS, however - and I think that's the way I would go.
Best of luck to you!

Is there any evidence that writing a personal statement can hurt you? I can't imagine adcomms sitting around scoffing at a white kid for giving it a shot.

Chickensoup wrote:

nygrrrl wrote:I'm with mrizza on this: IF you are going to write one - and I'm not certain that you should - I would make the focus on how your past experiences have made you into a person who would add a unique POV to your law school class. It sounds as if you could convey this in a really tight PS, however - and I think that's the way I would go.
Best of luck to you!

Is there any evidence that writing a personal statement can hurt you? I can't imagine adcomms sitting around scoffing at a white kid for giving it a shot.

A PS is required by most schools. It can hurt you if it is not well-written and rushed. I imagine stretching for diversity could hurt you. This is the reason why I decided against writing a DS.

Chickensoup wrote:

nygrrrl wrote:I'm with mrizza on this: IF you are going to write one - and I'm not certain that you should - I would make the focus on how your past experiences have made you into a person who would add a unique POV to your law school class. It sounds as if you could convey this in a really tight PS, however - and I think that's the way I would go.
Best of luck to you!

Is there any evidence that writing a personal statement can hurt you? I can't imagine adcomms sitting around scoffing at a white kid for giving it a shot.

I'm assuming you meant DS - My impression is that at certain schools, e.g. Harvard where they're looking at 7000 apps, it's best to be concise and not have extra letters, essays, etc. unless they substantially add to the application

Seems to me this is more PS than DS material.

Jredelman15 wrote:I have a dilemma. I am a white middle class male, not very diverse sounding I know. However, I am from Appalachia and I was not always middle-class. My mom is now a principal and my father is now a big shot for a multinational corp. We used to be broke eating on the same roast for a week when I was a child until around 10. Parents are divorced, it was an ugly one and still is. Brother was in a coma while I was in UG. 3 kids in my class of 160 are applying for advanced degrees and maybe 300 out of 720 in my county went to college. Town was surrounded by drugs and many friends went to rehab. I know what it is like to struggle and I provide a diverse look into a world that is often shrouded by stereotype.

I am not sure if I should write a diversity statement or not.

I imagine you will mention these things in your personal statement, right?

I, personally, would think you would add diversity. But you will have to make sure not to have your personal statement and diversity statement be redundant and overlap each other. Also, don't start off with how successful your parents are, that goes at the end.