NU Apps '11-'12 - Good Luck Hold Candidates!!!! <3 Forum

[Samara]

I know Johann said that the optional essays weren't really optional. But is it worth it to write a diversity statement if you're not diverse? I'm a white, middle-class protestant female. For other schools I'm going to write one about having work experience, but that doesn't make me diverse at Northwestern. Should I BS one just so it's clear I made the effort or would it be better to go without one?

Did you major or work in something male-dominated? That was one DS topic suggestion I saw for women who were engineers or whatever.

(I didn't write one, though I am female and an engineer.)

That's a good idea!

My academic area is dominated by old ladies. Maybe I should have written about being a male in an old lady world...

[emkay625]

I know Johann said that the optional essays weren't really optional. But is it worth it to write a diversity statement if you're not diverse? I'm a white, middle-class protestant female. For other schools I'm going to write one about having work experience, but that doesn't make me diverse at Northwestern. Should I BS one just so it's clear I made the effort or would it be better to go without one?

Did you major or work in something male-dominated? That was one DS topic suggestion I saw for women who were engineers or whatever.

(I didn't write one, though I am female and an engineer.)

I'm not - I worked in marketing and education, which are as female-dominated as they come.

[crumpetsandtea]

One of the admissions officers told one of us that you should write a DS regardless of if it's spectacular diversity or not. I wrote something, and I'm asian-american middle/upper middle class with no real diversity to speak of.

[emkay625]

I do not have any diverse attributes to speak of. For other schools, I'm writing about having work experience, but that does not make me diverse for NU. The only other interesting things about me are I'm married and I'm a national award-winning public speaker. Those do not seem worthy of a diversity statement. Do I BS one or do I just not do it?

[Flips88]

I do not have any diverse attributes to speak of. For other schools, I'm writing about having work experience, but that does not make me diverse for NU. The only other interesting things about me are I'm married and I'm a national award-winning public speaker. Those do not seem worthy of a diversity statement. Do I BS one or do I just not do it?

Being married isn't really special at NU. I can think of 6 or 7 people off the top of my head that are married in my section alone.

[emkay625]

I do not have any diverse attributes to speak of. For other schools, I'm writing about having work experience, but that does not make me diverse for NU. The only other interesting things about me are I'm married and I'm a national award-winning public speaker. Those do not seem worthy of a diversity statement. Do I BS one or do I just not do it?

Being married isn't really special at NU. I can think of 6 or 7 people off the top of my head that are married in my section alone.

This is my thought. I think I'm way too vanilla for a diversity statement. I just don't want them to think I was just being lazy! I feel like as a splitter, the rest of my app has to be perfect to make up for my 3.23.

[Samara]

One of the admissions officers told one of us that you should write a DS regardless of if it's spectacular diversity or not. I wrote something, and I'm asian-american middle/upper middle class with no real diversity to speak of.

The thing is, even though Asians are over-represented, they are still a minority. (I know your DS isn't about that, but still) As a member of the dominant culture and socioeconomic class, it feels disingenuous to me to write a DS on some half-assed different-perspective thing. I used my only unique quality for my PS and even that makes me entitled compared to pretty much every PS I've read on this site.

[thelawschoolproject]

I do not have any diverse attributes to speak of. For other schools, I'm writing about having work experience, but that does not make me diverse for NU. The only other interesting things about me are I'm married and I'm a national award-winning public speaker. Those do not seem worthy of a diversity statement. Do I BS one or do I just not do it?

Being married isn't really special at NU. I can think of 6 or 7 people off the top of my head that are married in my section alone.

This is my thought. I think I'm way too vanilla for a diversity statement. I just don't want them to think I was just being lazy! I feel like as a splitter, the rest of my app has to be perfect to make up for my 3.23.

Did you ever . . .

-Study unusual subject matter in school? (Russian literature, Engineering, Neuroscience, etc.)
-Live in a wide variety of places?
-Work in a low-income area?
-Work with disadvantaged people?
-Suffer discrimination for being a woman?
-Suffer discrimination for religious beliefs?
-Survive a random event? (car accident/hurricane/tornado/earthquake, etc.)
-Participate in a strange hobby?
-Achieve great success at something? (Your public speaking might work.)
-Need to provide care to a family member?
-Battle depression/or an illness?
-Suffer financial hardship?
-Work in the military? TFA? AmeriCorps?
-Learn that you have weird family lineage/relation?
-Have an impressive internship?
-Create something?

These are all things that an alum at GULC told me to consider when I visited. I'm sure there's something about you that's diverse, you just have to find it and position it in that way.

[Tiago Splitter]

One of the admissions officers told one of us that you should write a DS regardless of if it's spectacular diversity or not. I wrote something, and I'm asian-american middle/upper middle class with no real diversity to speak of.

The thing is, even though Asians are over-represented, they are still a minority. (I know your DS isn't about that, but still) As a member of the dominant culture and socioeconomic class, it feels disingenuous to me to write a DS on some half-assed different-perspective thing. I used my only unique quality for my PS and even that makes me entitled compared to pretty much every PS I've read on this site.

I'm with Samara. My PS discussed my work experience, so even if I wanted to write a DS my defining characteristic had already been used.

[Samara]

Did you ever . . .

-Study unusual subject matter in school? (Russian literature, Engineering, Neuroscience, etc.)
-Live in a wide variety of places?
-Work in a low-income area?
-Work with disadvantaged people?
-Suffer discrimination for being a woman?
-Suffer discrimination for religious beliefs?
-Survive a random event? (car accident/hurricane/tornado/earthquake, etc.)
-Participate in a strange hobby?
-Achieve great success at something? (Your public speaking might work.)
-Need to provide care to a family member?
-Battle depression/or an illness?
-Suffer financial hardship?
-Work in the military? TFA? AmeriCorps?
-Learn that you have weird family lineage/relation?
-Have an impressive internship?
-Create something?

These are all things that an alum at GULC told me to consider when I visited. I'm sure there's something about you that's diverse, you just have to find it and position it in that way.

haha, case in point. I am seriously a no to all of those things, except the first one. It's not even that unusual and it's the subject of my PS. Yes, I have led an incredibly boring life.

[emkay625]

I do not have any diverse attributes to speak of. For other schools, I'm writing about having work experience, but that does not make me diverse for NU. The only other interesting things about me are I'm married and I'm a national award-winning public speaker. Those do not seem worthy of a diversity statement. Do I BS one or do I just not do it?

Being married isn't really special at NU. I can think of 6 or 7 people off the top of my head that are married in my section alone.

This is my thought. I think I'm way too vanilla for a diversity statement. I just don't want them to think I was just being lazy! I feel like as a splitter, the rest of my app has to be perfect to make up for my 3.23.

Did you ever . . .

-Study unusual subject matter in school? (Russian literature, Engineering, Neuroscience, etc.)
-Live in a wide variety of places?
-Work in a low-income area?
-Work with disadvantaged people?
-Suffer discrimination for being a woman?
-Suffer discrimination for religious beliefs?
-Survive a random event? (car accident/hurricane/tornado/earthquake, etc.)
-Participate in a strange hobby?
-Achieve great success at something? (Your public speaking might work.)
-Need to provide care to a family member?
-Battle depression/or an illness?
-Suffer financial hardship?
-Work in the military? TFA? AmeriCorps?
-Learn that you have weird family lineage/relation?
-Have an impressive internship?
-Create something?

These are all things that an alum at GULC told me to consider when I visited. I'm sure there's something about you that's diverse, you just have to find it and position it in that way.

I am in TFA, but my PS statement is entirely about TFA.

[JamMasterJ]

Did you ever . . .

-Study unusual subject matter in school? (Russian literature, Engineering, Neuroscience, etc.)
-Live in a wide variety of places?
-Work in a low-income area?
-Work with disadvantaged people?
-Suffer discrimination for being a woman?
-Suffer discrimination for religious beliefs?
-Survive a random event? (car accident/hurricane/tornado/earthquake, etc.)
-Participate in a strange hobby?
-Achieve great success at something? (Your public speaking might work.)
-Need to provide care to a family member?
-Battle depression/or an illness?
-Suffer financial hardship?
-Work in the military? TFA? AmeriCorps?
-Learn that you have weird family lineage/relation?
-Have an impressive internship?
-Create something?

These are all things that an alum at GULC told me to consider when I visited. I'm sure there's something about you that's diverse, you just have to find it and position it in that way.

haha, case in point. I am seriously a no to all of those things, except the first one. It's not even that unusual and it's the subject of my PS. Yes, I have led an incredibly boring life.

same boat. I have diabetes, but that's really the only thing that could be remotely diverse. And I spend a lot of my PS talking about it

[emkay625]

Did you ever . . .

-Study unusual subject matter in school? (Russian literature, Engineering, Neuroscience, etc.)
-Live in a wide variety of places?
-Work in a low-income area?
-Work with disadvantaged people?
-Suffer discrimination for being a woman?
-Suffer discrimination for religious beliefs?
-Survive a random event? (car accident/hurricane/tornado/earthquake, etc.)
-Participate in a strange hobby?
-Achieve great success at something? (Your public speaking might work.)
-Need to provide care to a family member?
-Battle depression/or an illness?
-Suffer financial hardship?
-Work in the military? TFA? AmeriCorps?
-Learn that you have weird family lineage/relation?
-Have an impressive internship?
-Create something?

These are all things that an alum at GULC told me to consider when I visited. I'm sure there's something about you that's diverse, you just have to find it and position it in that way.

haha, case in point. I am seriously a no to all of those things, except the first one. It's not even that unusual and it's the subject of my PS. Yes, I have led an incredibly boring life.

same boat. I have diabetes, but that's really the only thing that could be remotely diverse. And I spend a lot of my PS talking about it

Are you writing one Jam?

[JamMasterJ]

Did you ever . . .

-Study unusual subject matter in school? (Russian literature, Engineering, Neuroscience, etc.)
-Live in a wide variety of places?
-Work in a low-income area?
-Work with disadvantaged people?
-Suffer discrimination for being a woman?
-Suffer discrimination for religious beliefs?
-Survive a random event? (car accident/hurricane/tornado/earthquake, etc.)
-Participate in a strange hobby?
-Achieve great success at something? (Your public speaking might work.)
-Need to provide care to a family member?
-Battle depression/or an illness?
-Suffer financial hardship?
-Work in the military? TFA? AmeriCorps?
-Learn that you have weird family lineage/relation?
-Have an impressive internship?
-Create something?

These are all things that an alum at GULC told me to consider when I visited. I'm sure there's something about you that's diverse, you just have to find it and position it in that way.

haha, case in point. I am seriously a no to all of those things, except the first one. It's not even that unusual and it's the subject of my PS. Yes, I have led an incredibly boring life.

same boat. I have diabetes, but that's really the only thing that could be remotely diverse. And I spend a lot of my PS talking about it

Are you writing one Jam?

I really don't think I should, but I probably will write something short b/c crumps told me to

[crumpetsandtea]

I really don't think I should, but I probably will write something short b/c crumps told me to

I just wanted to say I highly enjoy this 'I do what crumps tells me to' running joke XD

[elibrarian]

No DS for me, I had actually written one that I have submitted to several other schools but it just felt like a stretch so I didn't submit it to NU. I think its the sort of thing that will be obvious if it is forced and won't add anything to your application other than another sheet of paper the adcom has to read. Just my two cents!

[Samara]

No DS for me, I had actually written one that I have submitted to several other schools but it just felt like a stretch so I didn't submit it to NU. I think its the sort of thing that will be obvious if it is forced and won't add anything to your application other than another sheet of paper the adcom has to read. Just my two cents!

I agree with this. It's a tough balance for splitters/reach schools. On the one hand, I want to do everything I can to boost my chances. On the other hand, submitting fluff will only annoy them. I'm doing my best to keep my app lean and mean.

[elibrarian]

No DS for me, I had actually written one that I have submitted to several other schools but it just felt like a stretch so I didn't submit it to NU. I think its the sort of thing that will be obvious if it is forced and won't add anything to your application other than another sheet of paper the adcom has to read. Just my two cents!

I agree with this. It's a tough balance for splitters/reach schools. On the one hand, I want to do everything I can to boost my chances. On the other hand, submitting fluff will only annoy them. I'm doing my best to keep my app lean and mean.

I like this.

[UnamSanctam]

Man...what do I write a DS about?

[JamMasterJ]

No DS for me, I had actually written one that I have submitted to several other schools but it just felt like a stretch so I didn't submit it to NU. I think its the sort of thing that will be obvious if it is forced and won't add anything to your application other than another sheet of paper the adcom has to read. Just my two cents!

I'm kinda feeling the same way. Crumps, any last words before I don't write a DS?

[iamrobk]

My NU app went complete today. I think my numbers are good (right above 25th GPA and at 75th LSAT), but I don't have much else to help me out, so I'm probably out. But whatever, they sent me a fee waiver, so it's worth $16 to get rejected.

[Strange]

My NU app went complete today. I think my numbers are good (right above 25th GPA and at 75th LSAT), but I don't have much else to help me out, so I'm probably out. But whatever, they sent me a fee waiver, so it's worth $16 to get rejected.

Out for ED maybe but you should be good for RD??

[iamrobk]

My NU app went complete today. I think my numbers are good (right above 25th GPA and at 75th LSAT), but I don't have much else to help me out, so I'm probably out. But whatever, they sent me a fee waiver, so it's worth $16 to get rejected.

Out for ED maybe but you should be good for RD??

I don't really have any work experience (well, 2 summer internships and a job the other summer I was in school), or any good softs. I figure just based on numbers I have a decent shot (looking at LSN), but my understanding has always been that other factors are very important for NU, and I don't really have that.

[crumpetsandtea]

I'm kinda feeling the same way. Crumps, any last words before I don't write a DS?

TBH you should be fine without one, so just pass, lol

I don't really have any work experience (well, 2 summer internships and a job the other summer I was in school), or any good softs. I figure just based on numbers I have a decent shot (looking at LSN), but my understanding has always been that other factors are very important for NU, and I don't really have that.

You might have a hard time getting into NU without FT post-grad WE, because I think (not 100%) that they only take K-JDs who are above both medians.

[JamMasterJ]

I'm kinda feeling the same way. Crumps, any last words before I don't write a DS?

TBH you should be fine without one, so just pass, lol

Yeah they never mentioned writing one in my interview. I think I'll give it another couple days to try to get a fee waiver. Otherwise, I'll just drop the $100.