diversity because it is the most obvious issue. Have a language expert improve your writing. Since then, I have learned how to proudly represent other countries and have gained cultural perspectives other than my own. Was there a problem that you wanted to fix in your community? The second teacher I Any of these elements will essays about diversity as the framework for your essay. We highly recommend giving this tool a try!
How to show you add to diversity
Table of contents What is the diversity essay? A friend who worked in admissions after we graduated said that one of his favorite things about the job was thinking about what it would be like to take this kid from the mountains of Idaho, that kid from Saudi Arabia, and this other kid from La Jolla, and throw them in a dorm together. How would they change how one another saw the world? Many schools have a supplemental essay prompt that asks essays about diversity to reflect on their experiences and demonstrate, essentially, how those experiences would allow them to add to the diversity of a college community.
Optional Duke University seeks a talented, engaged student body that embodies the wide range of human experience; we believe that the diversity of our students makes our community stronger. Real people are reading your application, and we want to do our best to understand and appreciate the real people applying to Duke. Take it. The process of discovery best advances when people from various backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives come together. How do you see yourself contributing to the diversity of Caltech's community? Your response should essays about diversity between words. Why do colleges ask variations of this question? At the risk of repeating the above, colleges value a diverse student body for many reasons, essays about diversity.
One reason is the belief that a strong education involves encountering values, beliefs, and perspectives that are different from, and that may even challenge, your own Caltech makes this fairly explicit in its prompt above. Various academic fields, from business to history to medicine, are increasingly realizing how diversity strengthens creativity and understanding. The diversity essay is also another opportunity to demonstrate how you and a college fit together. So along those lines Do think about how this helps admission officers understand more about who you are. Avoid privilege clichés. They notice the person, essays about diversity, whose skin is darker than theirs, wears worn-out shoes or no shoes at all. The author describes a mix of shame and gratitude for their privileged position.
They either give the person food or money and feel good, but also bad or neglect to give the person food or money and just feel essays about diversity. These kinds of stories have several problems:. Because the interaction has been so minimal, essays about diversity, compelling insights are unlikely to occur. But realizing privilege in an essay like this runs the risk of showcasing unflattering or downright negative qualities like naïveté and ignorance. Help readers see how these elements of diversity have helped shape your values and insights. Here are two straightforward approaches for how you can write your diversity essay:.
Keep in mind that communities can be defined by Action: Groups of people who create change in the world by building, doing, or solving something together Examples: Black Lives Matter, Girls Who Code, March for Our Lives. Interest: Groups of people coming together essays about diversity on shared interests, experiences, or expertise. That exercise asks:. What did you actually do in that community? What kinds of problems did you solve personally, locally, or globally? How did you apply the lessons you learned in and outside of that community? Narrative Structure works well for students who have faced a challenge in this community. Otherwise, Montage Structure works great.
Focus on answering these three questions in your essay if you choose Narrative Structure:. Take some time to list out several different ways in which you identify. Again, think broadly. For example, "I'm a reader, jazz lover, queer, Colombian, singer, feminist, etc. Then, briefly describe why these identities reveal different sides of you. If so, what have you essays about diversity challenging essays about diversity it? Just keep in mind that writing about multiple identities will require you to transition clearly and effectively. Regarding perspective: Think about some unusual experiences that have shaped you, essays about diversity.
Have you worked to promote acceptance and understanding? What has shaped how you see the world and your role in essays about diversity In what ways will you contribute to the diversity on campus? When I joined the Durham Youth Commission, a group of students chosen to represent youth interests within local government, I met Miles. After that, my notion of normal would never be the same. A melting pot of ideologies, skins, socio-economic classes, faiths, and educations, the DYC is a unique collaborative enterprise, essays about diversity.
My ability to listen empathetically helped us envision multifaceted solutions to issues facing 21st-century youth. My experience in this space of affirmation and engagement has made me a more thoughtful person and listener. Reconciling disparate lifestyles and backgrounds in the Commission has prepared essays about diversity to become a compassionate leader, eager to both expand perspectives and take collaborative action. While the hook does a nice job pulling us in, the detail in the body does a nice job of keeping us engaged.
We get to see how the author has explored diverse perspectives, created space for others to share, and tried to build understanding by offering her own. The insights she offers are quick but effective, and she transitions well into focusing on how this experience of diversity has shaped how she wants to continue engaging and contributing in the future. Save yourself time: The student used this essay for several prompts asking about things like diversity or community, likely saving herself hours of writing and revising. My whole family is sitting around the living room on a lazy Sunday afternoon when we suddenly hear sirens.
Lots of sirens. Everyone stops, essays about diversity. My dad peers out the window, trying to get a glimpse of the highway. My mom gets up and goes to the phone. After a few stressful rings, essays about diversity, the person on the other line answers. Nice hook! Is Josh ok? Who is this Josh? Josh is my fourteen-year-old cousin, and he lives less than a mile from my house. Whenever we hear sirens, my mom will give their house a call or shoot my aunt a text, just in case, essays about diversity. Josh was born with a syndrome which affected the formation of the bones of his head and face. As a result, his hearing, vision, breathing and some of his brain structures are compromised. Here the author gives context by explaining who Josh is. Living so close to Josh, essays about diversity, we have had the opportunity to interact daily, essays about diversity.
This game was perfect for Josh, as he could stay in a comfortable seat and still experience speed essays about diversity excitement that he is usually barred from. In this paragraph, the author shows us how close he is with Josh, and the final sentence shows his sensitivity. It goes without saying essays about diversity Josh has not had an easy childhood. He has had to fight for his life in the hospital when his peers were essays about diversity how to multiply and divide in school or playing capture the flag on the beach.
A large portion of his childhood has been arbitrarily taken from him. That is most obviously unfair. At our high school, I see Josh every day walking from second period to third period, and every day I say hello and have a small conversation with him. One day I was walking with a few of my friends when I stopped to talk with him. My friends were horrified, and chastised me as they saw appropriate. He is not some extremely delicate dandelion who falls apart at every breath that causes a slightly adverse situation.
All Josh wants is to be treated like any other person. He is my cousin, and he is my friend, so I treat him as such. We joke, we make fun of each other, just as any other two friends do. The author chooses to treat Josh as he would treat any of his friends — like a normal human being. Josh has proved to me that people with disabilities are exactly that—people. As if that needed proving. One of my favorite people on Earth has lived a life of disability. And he plays a mean game of Monopoly. Here, he connects the dots and provides a bit more insight: Treating people differently because of their disability can be dehumanizing. And for some reason, that Monopoly line makes me cry every time. Have some fun exploring. Click here to learn how to write essays for tons of different prompts.
Graduate School. Counselor Resource Hub. Online Courses, essays about diversity. All Counselor Resources. Free Resources.
what does love mean to you essay
In medicine, for example, a heterogeneous workforce benefits people from previously underrepresented cultures in medicine. Businesses realize they will market more effectively if they can speak to different audiences and markets. Schools simply want to prepare graduates for the 21st-century job market. Adcoms want to know about your diversity elements and the way they have helped you develop particular character and personality traits , as well as the unusual experiences that have shaped you. Your background, your influences, your religious observances, your language, your ideas, your work environment, your community experiences — all of these factors come together to create a unique individual, an individual who can contribute to a diverse class and a diverse world.
Your answer to the diversity question should focus on how your experiences have built your empathy for others, your resilience, your character, and your perspective. Whether the school asks you how you think of diversity or how you can bring or add to the diversity of your school, chosen profession, or community, make sure you answer the specific question posed. Your response should highlight a distinctive you that will add to the class mosaic every adcom is trying to create. Adcoms want each student to add to the overall picture. Military experience. Any or all of these could be unique.
Also, what life-derailing, throw-you-for-a-loop challenges have you faced and overcome? Learn more about this three-part framework in this blog post. Think about each question and how you could apply your diversity elements to the classroom, your school, or your community. Any of these elements will serve as the framework for your essay. And please remember, the examples I have listed are not exhaustive. There are many other ways to show diversity! Want to ensure your application demonstrates the diversity that your dream school is seeking? Work with one of our admissions experts and download our FREE Diversity Checklist.
By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted. Linda earned her bachelors and MBA at UCLA, and has been advising applicants since when she founded Accepted. A diversity essay is a college admissions essay that focuses on you as an individual and your relationship with a specific community. Generally speaking, the diversity college essay is used to promote diversity in the student body. As a result, the parameters of this essay are typically quite broad. Applicants may write about any relevant community or experience. Here are some examples of communities you could discuss:. Although the diversity essay is a common admissions requirement at many colleges; most schools do not specifically refer to this essay as a diversity essay.
Many graduate programs also require diverse essays from applicants. With the diversity essay, what colleges usually want most is to learn more about you , including what experiences have made you the person you are today and what unique insights you can offer the school. Although not many colleges give advice specific to the diversity essay, many provide tips for how to write an effective college essay in general. Here are some tips to help you write a great diversity college essay and increase your chances of admission to college. One of the main purposes of the diversity essay is to present your uniqueness and explain how you will bring a new perspective to the student body and school as a whole. Therefore, for your essay, be sure to choose a topic that will help you stand apart from other applicants.
Try to think of defining experiences in your life. What experiences have made you the person you are today? Being honest also means not exaggerating or lying about your experiences or views. Just try to be as honest about your feelings as possible. What matters most is that your diversity essay accurately represents you and your intellectual potential. This next tip is of a more mechanical nature. So what should you do? First, separate your essay into clear, well-organized paragraphs. Next, proofread your essay several times. As you further tweak your draft, continue to proofread it. If possible, get an adult—such as a teacher, tutor, or parent—to look it over for you as well.
I was raised by a single mother, but my home was filled with family. My mother, sister, and I shared a room with two twin-size beds. My aunts, uncles, five cousins, and grandparents shared the two remaining bedrooms. In total, there were thirteen people sharing a three-bedroom, one-bathroom home. For the children, the nonstop playtime and carefree memories mitigated the obstacles that came with our socioeconomic insufficiency. For me, our tight-knit family and living situation made it much easier to overcome the absence of my father. My father represented many of the negative stereotypes that Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants have to combat. He immigrated to the United States as a young adult and fell into a life of criminal activity.
His choices had an adverse impact on not only my family but also our community at large. I was somewhat sheltered from learning too much about my father, but I knew enough to feel burdened with shame. In fact, that feeling was so strong that I became fixated on the goal of creating a life opposite to that which my father had built. Pursuing a brighter future did not come without obstacles in my neighborhood and family. Rejecting the criminal element in our community required a deliberate choice to exclude me from the majority and often made me feel left out. My family fully supported my goals, but their own education levels and unfamiliarity with the college admission process restricted the amount of guidance they were able to provide.
Counselors at my high school were overloaded by high dropout rates and unable to focus on college-bound students. These processes seem basic to some, but can be overwhelming to a first-generation student to the point where it becomes easier to put it off or quit altogether. I did not spend my entire youth in that overcrowded yet comforting home. My education and career goals have been shaped by my background, and I will continue to aim high despite the challenges that may come my way. As a child, I never found it odd that my parents were immigrants, spoke English with heavy accents, and were only minimally educated.
No comments:
Post a Comment