Diversity Essay Tips for College Applications
What is a diversity essay in a school application? And why does it matter when applying to leading universities? Most importantly, how should you go about writing such an essay?
Diversity is of supreme value in higher education, and schools want to know how every student will contribute to the diversity on their campus. Diversity essays provide applicants who have a disadvantaged or underrepresented background, an unusual education, a distinctive experience, or a unique family history with an opportunity to write about how this element of their life has prepared them to play a valuable role in increasing and promoting diversity among their target program’s student body and broader community.
The purpose of all application essays is to help the adcom better understand who the applicant is and what they care about. Your essays are your chance to share your voice and humanize your application. This is especially true for the diversity essay, which aims to reveal your unique perspectives and experiences, as well as the ways in which you might contribute to a college community.
In this post, we’ll discuss what exactly a diversity essay is, look at examples of actual prompts and a sample essay, and offer tips for writing a standout essay.
What a Diversity Essay Covers
Upon hearing the word “diversity” in relation to an application essay, many people assume that they will have to write about gender, sexuality, class, or race. To many, this can feel overly personal or irrelevant, and some candidates might worry that their identity isn’t unique or interesting enough. In reality, the diversity essay is much broader than many people realize.
Identity means different things to different people. The important thing is that you demonstrate your uniqueness and what matters to you. In addition to writing about one of the traditional identity features we just mentioned (gender, sexuality, class, race), you could consider writing about a more unusual feature of yourself or your life – or even the intersection of two or more identities.
Consider these questions as you think about what to include in your diversity essay:
- Do you have a unique or unusual talent or skill?
- Do you have beliefs or values that are markedly different from those of the people around you?
- Do you have a hobby or interest that sets you apart from your peers?
- Have you done or experienced something that few people have? Note that if you choose to write about a single event as a diverse identity feature, that event needs to have had a substantial impact on you and your life. For example, perhaps you’re part of the 0.2% of the world’s population that has run a marathon, or you’ve had the chance to watch wolves hunt in the wild.
- Do you have a role in life that gives you a special outlook on the world? For example, maybe one of your siblings has a rare disability, or you grew up in a town with fewer than 500 inhabitants.
Showing How You Can Add to a School’s Diversity
Suppose you are an immigrant to the United States. In that case, if you are a child of immigrants or someone whose ethnicity is underrepresented in the United States, your response to such questions as “How will you contribute to the diversity of our class/community?” might enhance your application efforts. Why? Because you have the opportunity to demonstrate to the adcom how your background will bring a distinctive perspective to the program you are applying to.
Of course, if you’re not an underrepresented applicant or part of a disadvantaged group, that doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to write about in a diversity essay.
For example, you might have an unusual or exceptional experience to share, such as volunteering as an EMT, being a member of a dance troupe, or caring for a family member with a disability. These and other distinctive experiences can convey how you will contribute to the diversity of the school’s campus.
Maybe you are the first member of your family to apply to college or the first person in your household to learn English. Perhaps you have helped raise your siblings. You might also have been an ally to those who are underrepresented, disadvantaged, or marginalized in your community, at your school, or in a work setting.
As you can see, diversity is not limited to one’s religion, ethnicity, culture, language, or sexual orientation. It refers to whatever element of your identity distinguishes you from others and shows that you, too, value diversity.
Why Schools Value Diversity
The diversity essay provides colleges with the opportunity to assemble a student body that represents a wide range of ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, backgrounds, and interests. Applicants are asked to illuminate what sets them apart so the adcoms can see the various views and opinions they could bring to campus.
Admissions officers believe that diversity in the classroom improves the educational experience of all the students involved. The more diverse perspectives found in the classroom, throughout the dorms, in the dining halls, and mixed into study groups, the richer people’s discussions will be.
Additionally, learning and growing in this multicultural environment will prepare students for working in our increasingly multicultural and global world. Admissions officers believe that having a diverse workforce better serves society as a whole.
In medicine, for example, a heterogeneous workforce benefits people from previously underrepresented cultures. Businesses recognize that they can market more effectively if they can address different audiences, which is possible when their workforce comprises members from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures. Schools simply want to prepare graduates for the 21st century job market.
Seven Examples of Diversity
Adcoms want to know about the distinctive elements of your character, as well as any unusual experiences you’ve had, and how these have shaped you and helped you develop particular personality traits.
Here are seven examples an applicant could write about:
1. They grew up in an environment with a strong emphasis on respecting their elders, attending family events, and/or learning their parents’ native language and culture.
2. They are close to their grandparents and extended family members, who have taught them how teamwork can help everyone thrive.
3. They have had to face difficulties that stem from their parents’ values being in conflict with theirs or those of their peers.
4. Teachers have not always understood the elements of their culture or lifestyle and how those elements influence their performance.
5. They have suffered discrimination and succeeded despite it because of their grit, values, and character.
6. They acquired skills from a lifestyle that is outside the norm (e.g., living in foreign countries as the child of a diplomat or contractor; performing professionally in theater, dance, music, or sports; having a deaf sibling).
7. They’ve encountered racism or other prejudice (either toward themselves or others) and responded by actively promoting diverse, tolerant values.
Please note that these examples are not exhaustive. There are many ways to show diversity! And remember, diversity is not about who your parents are. It’s about who you are – at the core.
Your background, influences, religious observances, native language, ideas, work environment, and community experiences – all these factors come together to create a unique individual, one who will contribute to a varied class of distinct individuals taking their place in a diverse world.
Diversity Essay Prompts
The best-known diversity essay prompt is found in the Common App. It states:
“Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”
Some schools have individual diversity essay prompts. For example, this one is from Duke University:
“We believe a wide range of viewpoints, beliefs, and lived experiences are essential to maintaining Duke as a vibrant and meaningful living and learning community. Feel free to share with us anything in this context that might help us better understand you and what you might bring to our community.”
And the Rice University application includes the following prompt:
“Rice is strengthened by its diverse community of learning and discovery that produces leaders and change agents across the spectrum of human endeavor. What perspectives shaped by your background, experiences, upbringing, and/or racial identity inspire you to join our community of change agents at Rice?”
In all instances, colleges want you to demonstrate how and what you’ll contribute to their communities.
How to Write About Your Diversity
Your answer to a school’s diversity essay question should focus on how your experiences have built your empathy for others, your embrace of differences, your resilience, your character, and your perspective.
The school might ask how you think about diversity or how you plan to contribute to or enhance the diversity of the school, your chosen profession, or your community. Ensure that you answer the specific question posed by highlighting the distinctive elements of your profile that will contribute to the class mosaic every adcom is trying to create. You don’t want to blend in; you want to stand out in a positive way while also complementing the school’s canvas.
Here’s a simple, three-part framework that will help you think of diversity more broadly:
1. Identity
Who are you? What has contributed to your identity? How do you distinguish yourself? Your identity can include any of the following: gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, religion, nontraditional work experience, nontraditional educational background, multicultural background, and family’s educational level.
2. Deeds
What have you done? What have you accomplished? This could include any of the following: achievements inside and/or outside your studies, leadership opportunities, community service, work experience, research opportunities, hobbies, and travel. Any or all of these could be unique. Also, what life-derailing, throw-you-for-a-loop challenges have you faced and overcome?
3. Ideas
How do you think? How do you approach things? What drives you? What influences you? Are you the person who can break up a tense moment with some well-timed humor? Are you the one who intuitively sees how to bring people together?
Think about each question within this framework and how you could apply your diversity elements to your target school’s classroom or community. Any of these elements can serve as the framework for your essay.
Don’t worry if you can’t think of something totally “out there.” You don’t need to be a tightrope walker living in the Andes or a Buddhist monk from Japan to be able to contribute to a school’s diversity!
All you need to do to be able to write successfully about how you will contribute to the diversity of your target school’s community is examine your identity, deeds, and ideas, with an eye toward your personal distinctiveness and individuality. There is only one you.
Take a look at the following sample diversity essay, and pay attention to how the writer underscores their appreciation for and experience with diversity.
When I was starting 11th grade, my dad, an agricultural scientist, was assigned to a 3-month research project in a farm village in Niigata (northwest Honshu in Japan). Rather than stay behind with my mom and siblings, I begged to go with him. As a straight-A student, I convinced my parents and the principal that I could handle my schoolwork remotely (pre-COVID) for that stretch. It was time to leap beyond my comfortable suburban Wisconsin life—and my Western orientation, reinforced by travel to Europe the year before.
We roomed in a sprawling farmhouse with a family participating in my dad’s study. I thought I’d experience an “English-free zone,” but the high school students all studied and wanted to practice English, so I did meet peers even though I didn’t attend their school. Of the many eye-opening, influential, cultural experiences, the one that resonates most powerfully to me is experiencing their community. It was a living, organic whole. Elementary school kids spent time helping with the rice harvest. People who foraged for seasonal wild edibles gave them to acquaintances throughout the town. In fact, there was a constant sharing of food among residents—garden veggies carried in straw baskets, fish or meat in coolers. The pharmacist would drive prescriptions to people who couldn’t easily get out—new mothers, the elderly—not as a business service but as a good neighbor. If rain suddenly threatened, neighbors would bring in each other’s drying laundry. When an empty-nest 50-year-old woman had to be hospitalized suddenly for a near-fatal snakebite, neighbors maintained her veggie patch until she returned. The community embodied constant awareness of others’ needs and circumstances. The community flowed!
Yet, people there lamented that this lifestyle was vanishing; more young people left than stayed or came. And it wasn’t idyllic: I heard about ubiquitous gossip, long-standing personal enmities, busybody-ness. But these very human foibles didn’t dam the flow. This dynamic community organism couldn’t have been more different from my suburban life back home, with its insular nuclear families. We nod hello to neighbors in passing.
This incredible experience contained a personal challenge. Blond and blue-eyed, I became “the other” for the first time. Except for my dad, I saw no Westerners there. Curious eyes followed me. Stepping into a market or walking down the street, I drew gazes. People swiftly looked away if they accidentally caught my eye. It was not at all hostile, I knew, but I felt like an object. I began making extra sure to appear “presentable” before going outside. The sense of being watched sometimes generated mild stress or resentment. Returning to my lovely tatami room, I would decompress, grateful to be alone. I realized this challenge was a minute fraction of what others experience in my own country. The toll that feeling—and being—“other” takes on non-white and visibly different people in the US can be extremely painful. Experiencing it firsthand, albeit briefly, benignly, and in relative comfort, I got it.
I will bring with me to XYZ University the values I have learned from the Niigata community, and I will strive to maintain the kind of mutual awareness my neighbors there always exhibited. Remembering the interactions I have witnessed among them encourages me to be the kind of mature, engaged person I aspire to be and will help me appreciate the individuals who will be my classmates. I am now far more conscious of people feeling their “otherness”—even when it’s not in response to negative treatment, it can arise simply from awareness of being in some way different.
What did you think of this essay? Does this middle-class Midwesterner have the unique experience of being different from the surrounding majority, something she had not experienced in the United States? Did she encounter diversity from the perspective of “the other”?
Here are a few things to note about why this diversity essay works so well:
- The writer comes from “a comfortable, suburban, Wisconsin life,” suggesting that her background might not be ethnically, racially, or in any other way diverse.
- The diversity “points” scored all come from her fascinating experience of having lived in a Japanese farm village, where she immersed herself in a totally different culture.
- The lessons she learned about the meaning of community are what broaden and deepen her perspective about a purpose-driven life and the concept of “otherness.”
By writing about a time when you experienced diversity in one of its many forms, you can write a memorable and meaningful diversity essay.
Dr. Sundas Ali has more than 15 years of experience teaching and advising students, providing career and admissions advice, reviewing applications, and conducting interviews for the University of Oxford’s undergraduate and graduate programs. In addition, Sundas has worked with students from a wide range of countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, and the Middle East. Want Sundas to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!
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