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• How to Write a Diversity Essay | Tips & Examples

How to Write a Diversity Essay | Tips & Examples

Published on November 1, 2021 by Kirsten Courault . Revised on May 31, 2023.

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What is a diversity essay, identify how you will enrich the campus community, share stories about your lived experience, explain how your background or identity has affected your life, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about college application essays.

Diversity essays ask students to highlight an important aspect of their identity, background, culture, experience, viewpoints, beliefs, skills, passions, goals, etc.

Diversity essays can come in many forms. Some scholarships are offered specifically for students who come from an underrepresented background or identity in higher education. At highly competitive schools, supplemental diversity essays require students to address how they will enhance the student body with a unique perspective, identity, or background.

In the Common Application and applications for several other colleges, some main essay prompts ask about how your background, identity, or experience has affected you.

Why schools want a diversity essay

Many universities believe a student body representing different perspectives, beliefs, identities, and backgrounds will enhance the campus learning and community experience.

Admissions officers are interested in hearing about how your unique background, identity, beliefs, culture, or characteristics will enrich the campus community.

Through the diversity essay, admissions officers want students to articulate the following:

• What makes them different from other applicants
• Stories related to their background, identity, or experience
• How their unique lived experience has affected their outlook, activities, and goals

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Think about what aspects of your identity or background make you unique, and choose one that has significantly impacted your life.

For some students, it may be easy to identify what sets them apart from their peers. But if you’re having trouble identifying what makes you different from other applicants, consider your life from an outsider’s perspective. Don’t presume your lived experiences are normal or boring just because you’re used to them.

Some examples of identities or experiences that you might write about include the following:

• Race/ethnicity
• Gender identity
• Sexual orientation
• Nationality
• Socioeconomic status
• Immigration background
• Religion/belief system
• Place of residence
• Family circumstances
• Extracurricular activities related to diversity

Include vulnerable, authentic stories about your lived experiences. Maintain focus on your experience rather than going into too much detail comparing yourself to others or describing their experiences.

Keep the focus on you

Tell a story about how your background, identity, or experience has impacted you. While you can briefly mention another person’s experience to provide context, be sure to keep the essay focused on you. Admissions officers are mostly interested in learning about your lived experience, not anyone else’s.

When I was a baby, my grandmother took me in, even though that meant postponing her retirement and continuing to work full-time at the local hairdresser. Even working every shift she could, she never missed a single school play or soccer game.

She and I had a really special bond, even creating our own special language to leave each other secret notes and messages. She always pushed me to succeed in school, and celebrated every academic achievement like it was worthy of a Nobel Prize. Every month, any leftover tip money she received at work went to a special 509 savings plan for my college education.

When I was in the 10th grade, my grandmother was diagnosed with ALS. We didn’t have health insurance, and what began with quitting soccer eventually led to dropping out of school as her condition worsened. In between her doctor’s appointments, keeping the house tidy, and keeping her comfortable, I took advantage of those few free moments to study for the GED.

In school pictures at Raleigh Elementary School, you could immediately spot me as “that Asian girl.” At lunch, I used to bring leftover fun see noodles, but after my classmates remarked how they smelled disgusting, I begged my mom to make a “regular” lunch of sliced bread, mayonnaise, and deli meat.

Although born and raised in North Carolina, I felt a cultural obligation to learn my “mother tongue” and reconnect with my “homeland.” After two years of all-day Saturday Chinese school, I finally visited Beijing for the first time, expecting I would finally belong. While my face initially assured locals of my Chinese identity, the moment I spoke, my cover was blown. My Chinese was littered with tonal errors, and I was instantly labeled as an “ABC,” American-born Chinese.

I felt culturally homeless.

Speak from your own experience

Highlight your actions, difficulties, and feelings rather than comparing yourself to others. While it may be tempting to write about how you have been more or less fortunate than those around you, keep the focus on you and your unique experiences, as shown below.

I began to despair when the FAFSA website once again filled with red error messages.

I had been at the local library for hours and hadn’t even been able to finish the form, much less the other to-do items for my application.

I am the first person in my family to even consider going to college. My parents work two jobs each, but even then, it’s sometimes very hard to make ends meet. Rather than playing soccer or competing in speech and debate, I help my family by taking care of my younger siblings after school and on the weekends.

“We only speak one language here. Speak proper English!” roared a store owner when I had attempted to buy bread and accidentally used the wrong preposition.

In middle school, I had relentlessly studied English grammar textbooks and received the highest marks.

Leaving Seoul was hard, but living in West Orange, New Jersey was much harder一especially navigating everyday communication with Americans.

After sharing relevant personal stories, make sure to provide insight into how your lived experience has influenced your perspective, activities, and goals. You should also explain how your background led you to apply to this university and why you’re a good fit.

Include your outlook, actions, and goals

Conclude your essay with an insight about how your background or identity has affected your outlook, actions, and goals. You should include specific actions and activities that you have done as a result of your insight.

One night, before the midnight premiere of Avengers: Endgame , I stopped by my best friend Maria’s house. Her mother prepared tamales, churros, and Mexican hot chocolate, packing them all neatly in an Igloo lunch box. As we sat in the line snaking around the AMC theater, I thought back to when Maria and I took salsa classes together and when we belted out Selena’s “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” at karaoke. In that moment, as I munched on a chicken tamale, I realized how much I admired the beauty, complexity, and joy in Maria’s culture but had suppressed and devalued my own.

The following semester, I joined Model UN. Since then, I have learned how to proudly represent other countries and have gained cultural perspectives other than my own. I now understand that all cultures, including my own, are equal. I still struggle with small triggers, like when I go through airport security and feel a suspicious glance toward me, or when I feel self-conscious for bringing kabsa to school lunch. But in the future, I hope to study and work in international relations to continue learning about other cultures and impart a positive impression of Saudi culture to the world.

The smell of the early morning dew and the welcoming whinnies of my family’s horses are some of my most treasured childhood memories. To this day, our farm remains so rural that we do not have broadband access, and we’re too far away from the closest town for the postal service to reach us.

Going to school regularly was always a struggle: between the unceasing demands of the farm and our lack of connectivity, it was hard to keep up with my studies. Despite being a voracious reader, avid amateur chemist, and active participant in the classroom, emergencies and unforeseen events at the farm meant that I had a lot of unexcused absences.

Although it had challenges, my upbringing taught me resilience, the value of hard work, and the importance of family. Staying up all night to watch a foal being born, successfully saving the animals from a minor fire, and finding ways to soothe a nervous mare afraid of thunder have led to an unbreakable family bond.

Our farm is my family’s birthright and our livelihood, and I am eager to learn how to ensure the farm’s financial and technological success for future generations. In college, I am looking forward to joining a chapter of Future Farmers of America and studying agricultural business to carry my family’s legacy forward.

Tailor your answer to the university

After explaining how your identity or background will enrich the university’s existing student body, you can mention the university organizations, groups, or courses in which you’re interested.

Maybe a larger public school setting will allow you to broaden your community, or a small liberal arts college has a specialized program that will give you space to discover your voice and identity. Perhaps this particular university has an active affinity group you’d like to join.

Demonstrating how a university’s specific programs or clubs are relevant to you can show that you’ve done your research and would be a great addition to the university.

At the University of Michigan Engineering, I want to study engineering not only to emulate my mother’s achievements and strength, but also to forge my own path as an engineer with disabilities. I appreciate the University of Michigan’s long-standing dedication to supporting students with disabilities in ways ranging from accessible housing to assistive technology. At the University of Michigan Engineering, I want to receive a top-notch education and use it to inspire others to strive for their best, regardless of their circumstances.

If you want to know more about academic writing , effective communication , or parts of speech , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Academic writing

• Writing process
• Transition words
• Passive voice
• Paraphrasing

 Communication

• How to end an email
• Ms, mrs, miss
• How to start an email
• I hope this email finds you well
• Hope you are doing well

 Parts of speech

• Personal pronouns
• Conjunctions

In addition to your main college essay , some schools and scholarships may ask for a supplementary essay focused on an aspect of your identity or background. This is sometimes called a diversity essay .

Many universities believe a student body composed of different perspectives, beliefs, identities, and backgrounds will enhance the campus learning and community experience.

Admissions officers are interested in hearing about how your unique background, identity, beliefs, culture, or characteristics will enrich the campus community, which is why they assign a diversity essay .

To write an effective diversity essay , include vulnerable, authentic stories about your unique identity, background, or perspective. Provide insight into how your lived experience has influenced your outlook, activities, and goals. If relevant, you should also mention how your background has led you to apply for this university and why you’re a good fit.

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Tackling the Texas A&M Short Answer Application Prompts

When Texas A&M introduced short answer questions to their application in 2020, many students felt panicked. Applications are already writing-intensive, so the thought of even more required writing was an overwhelming prospect.

It is helpful to remember that these short answer questions are intended to benefit students. How? By giving them more opportunities to show why they should be an Aggie.

GENERAL TIPS FOR RESPONDING TO SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

Short answers offer one more opportunity for application reviewers to get to know you. It sounds obvious, but the first piece of advice is: answer the question! It's important to keep in mind that these are not trick questions. Texas A&M is asking students exactly what they want to know. Students should read the question carefully and be sure they're addressing it with relevant and specific information.

• Answer every part of the question. Some of these prompts are more like two prompts in one, as in the Diversity prompt (discussed at greater length below): “Describe the benefits of diversity and inclusion for you personally and for the Texas A&M campus community.” Notice how there are really two questions here: one about the student’s personal relationship to diversity and one about the importance of diversity and inclusion at A&M more broadly. Students should outline their answers in order to ensure that they are responding to every part of the question.
• Be succinct. Students should use illustrative examples where appropriate, but they can save their creative juices for Essay A. The short answers are about providing information to the admissions readers that they could not get from the student’s resume, transcript, or test scores alone. The typical length of a strong short answer is about two paragraphs, or around 250-300 words.

These answers may be short, but that doesn’t mean they are trivial. These questions offer students an important chance to make a positive impression on the admissions committee by highlighting their distinctive qualities, accomplishments, values, and why they believe they would be a great fit at Texas A&M.

You can find more specific information about this year’s Texas A&M short answer questions below.

REQUIRED SHORT ANSWER 1: DIVERSITY

Short Answer Prompt

Texas A&M University believes that diversity is an important part of academic excellence and that it is essential to living our core values (loyalty, integrity, excellence, leadership, respect, and selfless service). Describe the benefits of diversity and inclusion for you personally and for the Texas A&M campus community. 

Diversity is a broad term, so before students start writing, they should think about all of its implications. Diversity can include race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious and cultural beliefs, socioeconomic background, immigration status, physical disabilities, and neurological differences, among many other aspects of identity. Students should also consider the other key term in this question: inclusion. Diversity is one thing, but any environment needs to be inclusive (accepting and encouraging of diversity) in order to allow all different kinds of people to thrive within a community.

Once they've taken a step back, it's time to focus on the two parts of the prompt: 

Part 1: Describe the benefits of diversity and inclusion for you personally

Part 2: and for the Texas A&M campus community.

First, they'll need to zoom in to their personal experiences: What kinds of diverse communities have they been a part of? How have those communities helped them? How did they personally grow from their experiences within those communities? They can keep those values that A&M describes (loyalty, integrity, excellence, leadership, respect, and selfless service) top of mind while they brainstorm.

Next, students need to think about why it’s important for a college community to be both diverse and inclusive. As a thought experiment, students can imagine themselves in an environment with people with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and beliefs. In what ways will that make their college experience richer—both inside and outside the classroom?

As students write, they should cite personal examples from their own lives. They only have 250-300 words, but that should be enough for a quick anecdote. And if a student doesn't come from a diverse background, they can use this space to talk about why it's important for them to be part of a diverse culture on campus and how it will help them grow.

Students may also want to consult A&M’s own statement on the diversity page of their website:

“We define diversity as the inclusion and support of individuals from all groups, encompassing the various characteristics of people in our community. Diversity is the exploration of differences, identities, and ideas in a welcoming and nurturing academic environment. The educational benefits of diverse learning environments includes: civic learning, engagement, and preparation to live in complex global settings.”

REQUIRED SHORT ANSWER 2: LIFE EVENT

Describe a life event which you feel has prepared you to be successful in college.

As with the first short answer question, you might think of this question as having two parts as well. First, it asks students to recount a single event or experience, and second, it asks them to reflect on how it has prepared them for college success. The student’s answer does not need to follow a two-part structure, but it is crucial that both parts of this answer (the anecdote and the reflection) be included.

What kind of life event should students choose to write about? In making this decision, students should think about the goal of their essay. Like the other two short answer questions, this one allows admissions readers to get a deeper understanding of the student’s context and life experiences. Students should focus on a life event that offers readers at least one of the following things:

• an understanding of how the student approaches opportunities and/or setbacks
• insight into the kinds of challenges the student has faced, or of an obstacle the student has overcome
• a sense of the student’s character and strengths

Students may choose to recount a story of accomplishment, but they can also use this question to reflect upon a less positive experience and how they have learned or grown as a result of it. Whether they write about triumphs or tribulations, they should be sure to answer the second part of the question: how has this event prepared them to be successful in college (whatever “success” might mean to them personally)?

Remember that this short answer should not overlap with the student’s Essay A. It should discuss a different event than any outlined in that personal statement, and it should offer different insights about the student’s personality, maturity, and values.

REQUIRED SHORT ANSWER 3: KEY PERSON

Tell us about a person who has most impacted your life and why.

Some students are daunted by the challenge of choosing a person who has most impacted their life. How to choose just one person? Our advice is not to get overwhelmed, but instead to select a person whose impact the student can both: a) illustrate with specific examples; and b) reflect on in a thoughtful and illuminating way. Keep in mind that specific examples are always more interesting to a reader than vague generalizations. The student’s aim is to paint a vivid picture of this person, so that the reader can appreciate this person’s influence in the student’s life.

It is no surprise that many students choose to write about a parent for this answer. While there is nothing wrong with that, we would encourage students to think beyond their parents for this answer-- and even beyond their nuclear family. Some of the most distinctive short answers to this question focus on a friend, teammate, colleague, teacher, coach, community or religious leader, among others. In selecting whom to write about-- and what to say about them-- students should consider what they admire about this person. Which of the students’ values does this person embody? What qualities in this person might the student want to emulate? What has this person’s actions and/or words taught the student?

As with all of these short answers, remember that Texas A&M is interested, above all, in getting to know the student better. When students write about an important individual in their life, they are also giving the admissions committee a deeper sense of the kind of person they are.

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The New Texas A&M Essay Prompts

• Sasha Chada
• September 14, 2021

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Texas A&M has added three new essay prompts for students applying this fall, which is three more essays than they required last year. This change has made many students nervous, as this seems like a major shift, and may impact their chances of admission. We believe this change has come due to the decreased importance of standardized tests during the Coronavirus pandemic.

While we already created a guide to Texas A&M , we thought it would be helpful for students if we also provided analysis of the essays the school required. In this article, we’ll go over the three new essay questions, give examples of how they can be answered, and discuss what Texas A&M is looking for.

Diversity Essay Example

Texas A&M University believes that diversity is an important part of academic excellence and that it is essential to living our core values. Describe the benefits of diversity and inclusion for you and for the Texas A&M campus community. Please share any personal experiences that have shaped your views. (300 words)

An emphasis on diversity prevents a community from collapsing into dull uniformity and close-mindedness. I am deeply aware of the upshot of diversity in this respect, but making sure an abstract ideal becomes more than a mere catchphrase or empty aspiration can be tricky. Diversity has to be cultivated; it doesn’t necessarily arise by itself when a bunch of very different people are brought together. Factionalism can set in even in those places where, on paper, a diverse set of people are working together, attending school, or playing sports on a team. I think that for diversity to become a reality, there needs to be those who take it upon themselves to establish communication between separate groups. I see myself at Texas A&M – which already has a vibrant sense of community – working as a moderator between friends and classmates to effect constructive dialogue. I have experience navigating the dicey waters of diversity.

The past two elections were obviously some of the most divisive periods in our nation’s history and my school community was not spared the fallout. With friends belonging to different camps, I would frequently find myself in the midst of one of those soul-crushing shouting matches where everyone seems to be talking past each other. I have always had a strong moral compass, and, although I’m no expert when it comes to politics, I am willing to call out hypocrisy when I see it. When one day a difference of aesthetic preference regarding Trump Tower quickly degenerated into a conflict that nearly approached fisticuffs, I knew I had to do something. I decided that I should avoid partisanship and expose the hypocrisies and quandaries of both sides of the political spectrum. My intervention was effective, and, as the emotions simmered, actual constructive dialogue began.

Diversity Essay Analysis

This prompt is fairly explicit in what it is asking for, and what position it takes. It is, however, looking for two separate things in the same essay. The first is an explanation of what you believe the benefits of diversity are, both for yourself and for Texas A&M. The second is an exploration of how your personal experiences shaped your beliefs on diversity.

In answering the first part of this question, you should focus on your personal reasons for embracing diversity. You should try to create a response which is not cliched, and which does not read like a Hallmark card. In the example above, the author discusses how diversity is not a state of existence, but a process, one which must be worked at in order to be maintained.

In doing this, the author shows a deep understanding of how diversity works at an institution like Texas A&M, and demonstrates a willingness to contribute to that diversity. Colleges want to admit students who will actively participate in their communities, and contribute to the culture they have worked to build. The second half of this essay is where you can provide an example of this capability. By showing how you personally encountered diversity, you demonstrate to the university how you are able to contribute to it in the future.

In the example above, the author discusses diversity of political opinions. This can be a controversial topic, but is quite relevant in our current times. While the author does not take a political stance in this essay, that does not mean you cannot. We do, however, recommend being cautious when taking a contentious political stance. Admissions officers are people too, and if your essay comes across as combative, they may think poorly of your application.

This is a good example of how diversity can cover many different traits. You can write about race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, socio-economic status, politics, or even lighter fare. Being a female wrestler or a male ballet dancer both count as diversity, and can lead to interesting essays. Whatever you write about, you should demonstrate how you will contribute to the school’s community if you are admitted. Again, many of these topics can be quite sensitive, and we urge you to use tact and cautious editing when writing this essay.

Personal Impact Essay Example

Tell us about the person who has most impacted your life and why. (300 words)

The lessons that my dad drilled into me can be condensed into the following aphorism: it isn’t how hard you hit, but how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. When serving his community and church, he has had his fair share of dealings with disgruntled or troubled people who were going through a lot. Sometimes those people would lash out at him, but my dad is unperturbable. He maintains zen-like equanimity and never lets unpleasant behavior compromise his empathy.

Life includes many frustrations and unforeseen anxieties. Keeping a level head is perhaps the most crucial skill to have nowadays. When my family was driving to Colorado during an unbelievably fierce blizzard, we suddenly realized we were low on gas. Then snow, somehow, got even worse. It looked like downy blankets of white were being thrown on the windshield. Everyone in the car was in full panic mode, except my dad. If he felt the same terror that gripped me, he didn’t show it. Rather than being annoyed at my mom’s anxiety-ridden but essentially useless vocalizations, he somehow managed to comfort her and us with reassuring words and timely humor. All the while, without being able to see two feet in front of the car, he managed to get us to a gas station.

It’s that kind of experience that has really cemented my admiration for my dad. The guy is enormously compassionate in situations where there simply isn’t time for empathy. Many people with his level of toughness tend to be rough around the edges. Not so with my dad; he never lets clouds, tantrums, mistakes, breakdowns, personal conflicts, disgruntled folks, or general bad luck, darken his heart of gold.

Personal Impact Essay Analysis

In contrast to the first prompt, this essay is far more open in regards to subject matter. While you can write about most anyone, family members are likely to be a common choice, as we see in the essay above. This is completely reasonable; it makes sense that the person who has raised you since birth would have a major impact on who you are as a person. This essay, however, merely asks about impact on you, which means there are several directions you can take this essay.

It is important to consider what the university is looking for when they ask this question. As with all other essay prompts, what Texas A&M wants to know with this is some of who you are as a person, and what your values are. The person who impacted you most, and the values they instilled, says something important about what your values are, and how you will impact others once you reach college.

In the example above, the author discusses his father, and the virtue of equanimity. The ability to face problems calmly, and deal with them in an adult manner, regardless of the challenges life presents.

This is a good value to demonstrate for colleges, and has the advantage of being uncommon. The less common a value is, the more likely your essay is to stand out, and the more likely admissions officers are to take note of what you say. You can talk about more common values, but these should be discussed in uncommon ways. For example, discussing strength in vulnerability, or patience through an uncommon past-time.

In the example above, the author uses driving through a snow storm to demonstrate calm under pressure, and show the impact of equanimity. The ability to remain calm and collected under pressure, and to spread that calm to others, is quite helpful at college, which is notoriously stressful.

Whatever you decide to write about, you should show how the person impacted you, and how those impacts have turned you into the person you are today, and how that person will be a positive impact on campus. This person can be a family member, a teacher, or even a stranger, though you would need some very persuasive writing to make the latter option make sense.

Life Event Essay Example

Describe a life event which you feel has prepared you to be successful in college. (300 words)

Back before climate change habituated us to 100+ degree days as a matter of course, 95 degrees was sufficient to earn a day the label of “scorcher”. My teammates and I were preparing to run our district race for cross country, and were already dripping with sweat. When the gun went off, we rushed to the top of the pack and hoped to cement that early lead. We had put some distance between ourselves and the rest of the competitors when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw my coach, arms akimbo, flailing like a madman to get our attention. We had taken a wrong turn – a 200 meter wrong turn. Not good.

At that catastrophic moment, there were two options. #1: quit in the face of a seemingly insurmountable mistake. #2: turn around and finish the race.

When we halted, seconds ticked by in indecision. I broke our paralysis with a barbaric yawp of “let’s go!” and charged in the other direction.

Once we got back on the course, we were in the back of the pack. Naturally, I was horrifically discouraged about having led my teammates the wrong way. The idea that I had potentially squandered our one chance to win our first-ever district race was devastating. But I didn’t crumble. Instead, I pushed my teammates up the last mile, catching one runner after another. The distance between us and the rest of the runners seemed to shrink. Before we knew it, I was in third place with my teammates tracking behind me, with a half a mile to go. Once we got to the final kick, I was able to push through and finished first, with my best friend and former teammate getting second. We got lucky that day; in other circumstances we might have finished last, failing to reach our goal. But it’s one thing to fail and another thing entirely to give up. I prefer the former.

Life Event Essay Analysis

This essay can be about almost anything, and we recommend you cross apply another essay you have written which fits within the prompt. This is also a good place to explore one of your extracurricular activities you have not had an opportunity to discuss yet. Whatever you write about, it should demonstrate how you are prepared for the rigors of collegiate life.

In the example above, the author discusses adversity and perseverance during a race. While this topic is a bit cliched, that does not mean you can’t write about it, merely that you have to approach such topics with care. Cliches are used so often because they are so widely applicable; they are tools like any other.

The main value expressed by the author is perseverance, especially in the face of their own mistakes. Mistakes happen; that’s a part of life. What matters is how you react to them, and what you do next. In this essay, the author shows their willingness to work to rectify their own mistakes, and to accept the responsibility for their errors.

These are both traits which colleges like to see, as this attitude indicates maturity, and a willingness to self-evaluate honestly. Perseverance in the face of adversity is also important for college, where the classes will likely be far more challenging than what you had to deal with in high school.

When you answer this prompt, you can choose any of your values to focus on. We recommend discussing values that did not get covered in your other essays, so that you give admissions officers the most complete picture of who you are possible. You should also talk about an event or experience that your other essays did not cover, for the same reason. Admissions officers only know what you tell them, so you should try to tell them as much as possible.

Final Thoughts

While the new essay requirements from Texas A&M feel jarring, they are not altogether surprising. College admissions have been changed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and now colleges are beginning to respond and react. Texas A&M is no longer able to rely as heavily on standardized test scores, and so now they have introduced mandatory essays as a metric by which to evaluate students.

Preparing for tests and writing essays are different demands, but it is entirely possible to succeed at both. If you feel overwhelmed, or want advice on writing your own Texas A&M essays, don’t hesitate to schedule a free consultation . We have a depth of experience helping students with every aspect of college admissions, and are always happy to hear from you.

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May 11, 2023

Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay

What is the diversity question in a school application, and why does it matter when applying to leading programs and universities? Most importantly, how should you respond?

Diversity is of supreme value in higher education, and schools want to know how every student will contribute to it in their community. A diversity essay is an essay that encourages applicants with disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds, an unusual education, a distinctive experience, or a unique family history to write about how these elements of their background have prepared them to play a useful role in increasing and encouraging diversity among their target program’s student body and broader community.

In this post, we’ll cover the following topics: 

How to show you can add to diversity

Why diversity matters at school, seven examples that reveal diversity, how to write about your diversity, diversity essay example, want to ensure your application demonstrates the diversity that your dream school is seeking.

If you are an immigrant to the United States, the child of immigrants, or someone whose ethnicity is underrepresented in the States, your response to “How will you add to the diversity of our class/community?” and similar questions might help your application efforts. Why? Because you can use it to show how your background will add a distinctive perspective to the program you are applying to.

Download this sample personal background essay, and see how one candidate won over the adcom and got accepted into their top-choice MBA program.

Of course, if you’re not from a group that is underrepresented in your field or a disadvantaged group, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything to write about in a diversity essay.

For example, you might have an unusual or special experience to share, such as serving in the military, being a member of a dance troupe, or caring for a disabled relative. These and other distinctive experiences can convey how you will contribute to the diversity of the school’s campus.

You could be the first member of your family to apply to college or the first to learn English in your household. Perhaps you have worked your way through college or helped raise your siblings. You might also have been an ally to those who are underrepresented, disadvantaged, or marginalized in your community, at your previous school, or in an earlier work experience. 

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.

Admissions officers believe diversity in the classroom improves the educational experience of all the students involved. They also believe that having a diverse workforce better serves society as a whole.

The more diverse perspectives found in the classroom, throughout the dorms, in the dining halls, and mixed into study groups, the richer the discussions will be.

Plus, learning and growing in this kind of multicultural environment will prepare students for working in our increasingly multicultural and global world.

In medicine, for example, a heterogeneous workforce benefits people from previously underrepresented cultures. Businesses realize they will market more effectively if they can speak to different audiences and markets, which is possible when members of their workforce come from different backgrounds and cultures. Schools simply want to prepare graduates for the 21st century job market.

Adcoms want to know about your personal 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.

Here are seven examples an applicant could write about:

• They grew up with a strong insistence on respecting elders, attending family events, or learning their parents’ native language and culture.
• They are close to grandparents and extended family members who have taught them how teamwork can help everyone thrive.
• They have had to face difficulties that stem from their parents’ values being in conflict with theirs or those of their peers.
• Teachers have not always understood the elements of their culture or lifestyle and how those elements influence their performance.
• They suffered from discrimination and succeeded despite it because of their grit, values, and character.
• They learned 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).
• They’ve encountered racism or other prejudice (either toward themselves or others) and responded by actively promoting diverse, tolerant values.

And remember, it’s not just about who your parents are. It’s about who you are – at the core.

Your background, influences, religious observances, language, ideas, work environment, 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.

Your answer to the diversity 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 well ask 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 by highlighting distinctive elements of your profile that will add 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, well, diversely:

• 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.
• Deeds : What have you done? What have you accomplished? This could include any of the following: achievements inside and/or outside your field of study, leadership opportunities, community service, , internship or professional 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?
• 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 meeting with some well-timed humor? Are you the one who intuitively sees how to bring people together? 

Learn more about this three-part framework in this podcast episode.

Think about each question within this framework 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.

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 pass the diversity test!

And please remember, the examples I have listed are not exhaustive. There are many other ways to show diversity!

All you need to write successfully about how you will contribute to the rich diversity of your target school’s community is to examine your identity, deeds, and ideas, with an eye toward your personal distinctiveness and individuality. There is only one you .

Want our advice on how you can best show diversity?

Click here to sign up for a free consultation.

Take a look at this sample diversity essay, and pay attention to how the writer underscores their appreciation for and experience with diversity. 

When I was starting 11 th 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 wonderful experience contained a personal challenge. Blond and blue-eyed, I became “the other” for the first time. Except for my dad, I saw no Westerner 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.

Unlike the organic Niigata community, work teams, and the workplace itself, have externally driven purposes. Within this different environment, I will strive to exemplify the ongoing mutual awareness that fueled the community life in Niigata. Does it benefit the bottom line, improve the results? I don’t know. But it helps me be the mature, engaged person I want to be, and to appreciate the individuals who are my colleagues and who comprise my professional community. 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 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 own background might not be ethnically, racially, or in other ways 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 learned about the meaning of community are what broaden and deepen the writer’s perspective about life, about a purpose-driven life, and about 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.

Working on your diversity essay?

Want to ensure that your application demonstrates the diversity that your dream school is seeking? Work with one of our admissions experts and . This checklist includes more than 30 different ways to think about diversity to jump-start your creative engines.

Related Resources:

•  Different Dimensions of Diversity , a podcast episode • What to Do if You Belong to an Overrepresented Applicant Group • Med School Admissions Advice for Nontraditional Applicants: The Experts Speak

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Closure of the Office for Diversity

As Texas A&M University prepares to comply with Texas Senate Bill 17 (S.B. 17) regarding diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public universities, staff members previously supporting the Office for Diversity have been reassigned, and this office is closed. The university is transitioning S.B. 17-compliant programs and resources previously offered by the Office for Diversity to other areas of the university and discontinuing programs that are not compliant. S.B. 17 takes effect on Jan. 1, 2024, and Texas A&M will ensure compliance with the new law prior to its effective date.

Read Interim President Welsh's message »

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Washington Examiner

Texas A&M nursing school required 'commitment to diversity and inclusion' for faculty hires

Posted: November 1, 2023 | Last updated: November 1, 2023

Texas A &M University's School of Nursing set a threshold for showing a " commitment to diversity and inclusion " to hire faculty, documents show.

A "Handbook for Faculty Search Committee Members" revised in February set diversity, equity, and inclusion standards for recruiting and hiring new faculty members.

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The guidelines encourage having applicants write essays on their "personal commitment to diversity and inclusion" and how it "informs their past and future professional contributions."

According to the document, which was obtained through a public records request, this shows potential applicants that "diversity and inclusion are core values for your department and college," adding that hiring committees can set their own standards as to how to weigh commitment to DEI in hiring but to "consider setting a minimally acceptable score for the DEI commitment statement."

It added that "strong statements" would "demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the key DEI issues in academia as experienced by members of underrepresented groups and provide detailed descriptions of activities and plans," while "weak statements" would only "demonstrate a simplistic understanding."

"This is a perfect example of the importance of Gov. [Greg] Abbott [R-TX] signing Senate Bill 17 into law, which contains critical reforms for the restoration of merit and educational standards in higher education in Texas," Laura Morgan, Do No Harm program manager and nurse of 39 years, told the Washington Examiner . "My concern is that the Texas A&M School of Nursing is racing against the clock to firmly entrench pro-DEI foot soldiers into the faculty prior to the Jan. 1 cutoff date."

Guidance also suggested that the members of hiring committees be "advocates for diversity, not just women and faculty of color," adding that "it can be emotionally challenging for women faculty and faculty from historically underrepresented groups to point out bias and discrimination to other committee members."

For advertising job openings, the guidance also recommends using family-neutral language to be more appealing to "those who identify as LGBT."

The handbook was published just before Abbott signed a ban on DEI initiatives at colleges, which is set to take effect in January 2024. Texas A&M took early action to come into compliance with the new law by closing its DEI office and discontinuing programs that are not compliant but also said it is transferring resources formerly available in the DEI office to "other areas of the university."

"I certainly hope that the School of Nursing is equally on board rather than attempting to fortify an ideological perspective that doesn’t comport with producing quality nurses," Morgan said.

Some faculty members still appear focused on DEI-related issues despite the forthcoming ban.

One such member is assistant professor Arica Brandford, of whom some emails were included in the records request. Brandford has a history of advocating DEI initiatives, and her research is primarily focused on DEI and racism in nursing.

As the Washington Examiner reported , before joining Texas A&M, Brandford also helped create a racially divisive "implicit bias" training for the Kentucky Nurses Association, which appears to have been a source for Kentucky to ax "implicit bias" training as a requirement.

Morgan said Brandford was one such "pro-DEI foot soldier" and that her work for the KNA should have been a "huge red flag" for Texas A&M before her hire but that its hiring practices clouded its judgment.

A Feb. 9 conversation with another faculty member showed her planning a "black history month" theme of "back resistance" in healthcare, while a Feb. 10 email to a redacted recipient showed her getting angry that the Texas A&M nursing school had waited too long to plan a proper black history month.

"Honestly, the [School of Nursing] needs to take a step back, reflect, and do a true need analysis to address the problem not just treat the symptoms," she wrote. "Black History Month should not be an afterthought, it should be well planned out specially to accomplish the [School of Nursing] vision, mission, values, and strategic plan."

She added that even though "black history month" is a designated month in the calendar, action must go beyond February, stating, "We should continually be activating change and implementing a multicultural advocacy process."

She offered some starting points, including "define black resistance" and its application to nursing. "Black resistance recognizes the history of racism in nursing perpetrated against black nurses," she stated.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

"It is disappointing that the Texas A&M School of Nursing would hire a professor with the ideological beliefs that Arica Brandford has demonstrated she holds," Morgan said. "It appears that they pursued hiring practices that undermine quality applicants who do not subscribe to concepts that place individuals into groups of 'oppressed' and 'oppressors.'"

Neither the School of Nursing nor Brandford responded to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner .

Tags: DEI , Critical Race Theory , Texas , Greg Abbott , Health , News

Original Author: Breccan F. Thies

Original Location: Texas A&M nursing school required 'commitment to diversity and inclusion' for faculty hires

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The Diversity Essay

Most institutions of higher education celebrate diversity. What does this word mean to you? And what role will diversity play in your undergraduate life? 

The diversity essay can take many different forms, but at the core of this type of supplemental essay is one important question: How do you engage with people whose lived experiences differ from yours? 

Whatever your background, we suggest you focus largely on your own personal growth or address a social issue that matters to you. Colleges want to know about your life beyond the classroom and how you will contribute to diversity, equity, and inclusion on their campus. 

If the prompt is more community-oriented, first focus on a community that means something to you, and the diversity narrative will fall into place. No matter your starting point, be sure to tell a clear story with a beginning, middle, and end. It might be tempting to pen a vivid description of your Irish dance troupe’s show-stopping performances and leave it at that, but the point of an essay like this is to tell a story about you and your personal growth.

Some Examples for Community-Oriented Diversity Essays:

• Maybe you are the president of your school’s Black Student Union, where you discuss issues affecting the black community with your peers and empower each other to take action. Perhaps you’re hoping to continue leading discussions on marginalized identities and black culture through clubs and organizations next year on campus. 
• Perhaps friends you made in jiu-jitsu class have introduced you to a new art form and culture, influencing your desire to pursue study abroad opportunities in college. 
• Maybe your Midwestern high school is incredibly homogenous and isolated, and you helped your Spanish class organize Skype chats with high school students in Guatemala.
• Is your family one of the only Muslim families in your small, coastal town? Is that an important part of who you are or how you grew up? 
• How have you been shaped by your Indian heritage? Are you glad that your parents made Hindi lessons a part of your weekend routine for years?
• Did you grow up in a Mormon household, only recently discovering how people outside of your tight-knit community think about relationships, gender roles, and worship?
• Did you join a cross-stitching club in your county? Did the elder members teach you the value in moving on from small mistakes?

If the prompt is geared more toward your experience engaging with others on topics that are important to you, think about times when you’ve taken a stand or challenged someone. How do you converse with people who have very different worldviews and perspectives? How do you show up to have the hard uncomfortable conversations, and how do you add a seat to the table for those who have been historically excluded?

Some examples for Engagement-Oriented Diversity Essays:

• After your friend called you out for an insensitive remark you made in passing, did you read articles to better understand his perspective? Did you apologize for offending him? How would you handle the situation differently if it happened again?
• When politics came up at Cousin Wyatt’s wedding last year, did you advocate for the issues that are important to you? How did you engage your relatives in a meaningful way in the midst of celebration?
• When confronted by counter-protesters at a march or rally, how did you respond? Would you react differently or the same next time? Why?

A word of caution (which applies to any diversity-related essay): remember that people who are different from you were not put on this earth to educate you. Push yourself to consider the value of being around people who are fundamentally different from you and what you have done to self-educate and contribute to your community.

And don’t be afraid to share your response with a trusted friend or teacher to get a fresh perspective!

About Kat Stubing

View all posts by Kat Stubing »

Our Supplemental Essay Guide is an excellent resource.

Written by Kat Stubing

Category: Essay Resources , Essay Tips , Essay Writing

Tags: diversity , diversity essay

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Texas A&M University’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts

Impactful person short response.

Tell us about the person who has most impacted your life and why.

Opportunities and Challenges Essay

Tell us your story. What unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today?

Life Even Short Response

Describe a life event which you feel has prepared you to be successful in college.

Overcoming Challenges Short Response

If there are additional personal challenges, hardships, or opportunities (including COVID related experiences) that have shaped or impacted your abilities or academic credentials, which you have not already written about, please note them in the space below.

College of Engineering Essay

Describe your academic and career goals in the broad field of engineering (including computer science, industrial distribution, and engineering technology). What and/or who has influenced you either inside or outside the classroom that contributed to these goals? It is important to spend time addressing this question as it will be considered as part of engineering review process.

ApplyTexas Essays

Schools using ApplyTexas will have specific guidelines for how many of the following essays are required, if any. Some schools are also on the Common App, so you may respond to those prompts instead in that case.

Most students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. Tell us about yourself.

You’ve got a ticket in your hand – Where will you go? What will you do? What will happen when you get there?

(specific to majors in architecture, art history, design, studio art, visual art studies/art education): Personal interaction with objects, images and spaces can be so powerful as to change the way one thinks about particular issues or topics. For your intended area of study (architecture, art history, design, studio art, visual art studies/art education), describe an experience where instruction in that area or your personal interaction with an object, image or space effected this type of change in your thinking. What did you do to act upon your new thinking and what have you done to prepare yourself for further study in this area?

What will first-time readers think of your college essay?

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Make The Diversity Statement Optional

America’s raging culture war has opened yet another front against the ivory tower — this time targeting universities’ diversity statements.

Diversity statements — essays academics often write when applying for university posts or seeking tenure that detail how their teaching and research contributes to diversity — have become increasingly commonplace in higher education, including recently at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences . Now, a number of mostly Republican-led legal efforts have prohibited the use of diversity statements in states across the country, including Florida, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Texas.

These essays face criticism ranging from the charge that they can serve as a political litmus test to the accusation that they are overly hubristic and a poor tool to actually measure an applicant’s commitment to diversity.

We agree with this latter criticism. Given enough time, an academic can easily craft a well-written essay highlighting their commitment to diversity, even if the sentiment is disingenuous.

Yet diversity in teaching and research are incredibly important. The ability to teach effectively is not merely dependent on a professor’s extensive knowledge and experience; the capacity to interact with and instruct a diverse student body is essential, too. Schools ought to make clear that the ability to teach diverse students is a valued competency for prospective applicants — a signal that will hopefully incentivize the next generation of academics to demonstrate a genuine commitment to diversity as well.

Because faculty approaches to diversity are important, and diversity statements may fail to capture these hires’ true feelings, we propose using interviews to ask academics about how they feel about diversity instead.

In the hot seat, applicants will be hard-pressed to falsely inflate their feelings about diversity, and interviewers can carefully examine academics on how their instruction and research contribute to diversity beyond a pre-written statement. Although applicants should be informed in advance that interviewers will press them on diversity, giving them time to think about their responses, interview answers will be naturally more dynamic than a stale essay emailed to a department.

Banning diversity statements in full, however, is the wrong approach. Diversity statements can provide a useful forum for applicants deeply dedicated to diversity to explain their record and elaborate on how diversity has been a guiding principle in their career. Governments should not remove this opportunity for academics who want to highlight their experience cultivating diversity — an ideal that must remain an enduring commitment of higher education institutions.

For this reason, diversity statements should be an optional component of teaching and research applications. Rather than being wholly banned or required, an optional diversity statement is the right middle path forward, allowing academics passionate about diversity initiatives to showcase their valued experience without forcing others to halfheartedly pay lip service to a cause they have not proactively embraced.

It does not surprise us to hear lawmakers are curtailing how academics can be evaluated on the basis of their commitment to diversity, and we have our own critiques of these statements too. But we must not let politics interfere with academics’ ability to express themselves and their devotion to diversity if they so choose.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

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6 Diversity College Essay Examples

What’s covered:, what is the diversity essay.

• Essay 1: Jewish Identity
• Essay 2: Being Bangladeshi-American
• Essay 3: Marvel vs DC
• Essay 4: Leadership as a First-Gen American
• Essay 5: Protecting the Earth
• Essay 6: Music and Accents
• Where to Get Your Essay Edited for Free

While working on your college applications, you may come across essays that focus on diversity , culture, or values. The purpose of these essays is to highlight any diverse views or opinions that you may bring to campus. Colleges want a diverse student body that’s made up of different backgrounds, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and interests. These essay prompts are a way for them to see what students can bring to their school.

In this post, we will share six essays written by real students that cover the topic of culture and diversity. We’ll also include what each essay did well and where there is room for improvement. Hopefully, this will be a useful resource to inspire your diversity essay. 

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Diversity Essay Examples

Essay #1: jewish identity, what the essay did well.

Writing about discrimination can be difficult, but if you are comfortable doing it, it can make for a powerful story. Although this essay is short and focused on one small interaction, it represents a much larger struggle for this student, and for that reason it makes it very impactful. 

The author takes their time at the beginning of the essay to build the scene for the audience, which allows us to feel like we are there with them, making the hateful comments even more jarring later on. If they just told us their classmate teased them with harmful stereotypes, we wouldn’t feel the same sense of anger as we do knowing that they were just trying to get a drink and instead were harassed.

This essay does another important thing: it includes self-reflection on the experience and the student’s identity. Without elaborating on the emotional impact of a situation, an essay about discrimination would make admission officers feel bad for the student, but they wouldn’t be compelled to admit them. By describing how experiences like these drive them and make them more determined to embody positive values, this student reveals their character to the readers.

What Could Be Improved

While including emotional reflection in the latter half of the essay is important, the actual sentences could be tightened up a bit to leave a stronger impression. The student does a nice job of showing us their experience with antisemitism, but they just tell us about the impact it has on them. If they showed us what the impact looked like though, the essay would be even better.

For example, rather than telling us “ Continuing to wear the Star-of-David connects me to my history and my family,”  they could have shown that connection: “ My Star-of-David necklace thumps against my heart with every step I take, reminding me of my great-grandparents who had to hide their stars, my grandma’s spindly fingers lighting the menorah each Hannukah, and my uncle’s homemade challah bread.”  This new sentence reveals so much more about the student and the deep connection they feel with their family and religion than the existing one.

Table of Contents

Essay #2: Being Bangladeshi-American

Life before was good: verdant forests, sumptuous curries, and a devoted family.

Then, my family abandoned our comfortable life in Bangladesh for a chance at the American dream in Los Angeles. Within our first year, my father was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. He lost his battle three weeks before my sixth birthday. Facing a new country without the steady presence of my father, we were vulnerable — prisoners of hardship in the land of the free. We resettled in the Bronx, in my uncle’s renovated basement. It was meant to be our refuge, but I felt more displaced than ever. Gone were the high-rise condos of West L.A.; instead, government projects towered over the neighborhood. Pedestrians no longer smiled and greeted me; the atmosphere was hostile, even toxic. Schoolkids were quick to pick on those they saw as weak or foreign, hurling harsh words I’d never heard before.

Meanwhile, my family began integrating into the local Bangladeshi community. I struggled to understand those who shared my heritage. Bangladeshi mothers stayed home while fathers drove cabs and sold fruit by the roadside — painful societal positions. Riding on crosstown buses or walking home from school, I began to internalize these disparities. During my fleeting encounters with affluent Upper East Siders, I saw kids my age with nannies, parents who wore suits to work, and luxurious apartments with spectacular views. Most took cabs to their destinations: cabs that Bangladeshis drove. I watched the mundane moments of their lives with longing, aching to plant myself in their shoes. Shame prickled down my spine. I distanced myself from my heritage, rejecting the traditional  panjabis  worn on Eid and refusing the  torkari  we ate for dinner every day. 

As I grappled with my relationship with the Bangladeshi community, I turned my attention to helping my Bronx community by pursuing an internship with Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda. I handled desk work and took calls, spending the bulk of my time actively listening to the hardships constituents faced — everything from a veteran stripped of his benefits to a grandmother unable to support her bedridden grandchild.

I’d never exposed myself to stories like these, and now I was the first to hear them. As an intern, I could only assist in what felt like the small ways — pointing out local job offerings, printing information on free ESL classes, reaching out to non-profits. But to a community facing an onslaught of intense struggles, I realized that something as small as these actions could have vast impacts. Seeing the immediate consequences of my actions inspired me. Throughout that summer, I internalized my community’s daily challenges in a new light. I began to stop seeing the prevalent underemployment and cramped living quarters less as sources of shame. Instead, I saw them as realities that had to be acknowledged, but could ultimately be remedied. I also realized the benefits of the Bangladeshi culture I had been so ashamed of. My Bangla language skills were an asset to the office, and my understanding of Bangladeshi etiquette allowed for smooth communication between office staff and its constituents. As I helped my neighbors navigate city services, I saw my heritage with pride — a perspective I never expected to have.

I can now appreciate the value of my unique culture and background, and of living with less. This perspective offers room for progress, community integration, and a future worth fighting for. My time with Assemblyman Sepulveda’s office taught me that I can be a change agent in enabling this progression. Far from being ashamed of my community, I want to someday return to local politics in the Bronx to continue helping others access the American Dream. I hope to help my community appreciate the opportunity to make progress together. By embracing reality, I learned to live it. Along the way, I discovered one thing: life is good, but we can make it better.

This student’s passion for social justice and civic duty shines through in this essay because of how honest it is. Sharing their personal experience with immigrating, moving around, being an outsider, and finding a community allows us to see the hardships this student has faced and builds empathy towards their situation. However, what really makes it strong is that they go beyond describing the difficulties they faced and explain the mental impact it had on them as a child: Shame prickled down my spine. I distanced myself from my heritage, rejecting the traditional panjabis worn on Eid and refusing the torkari we ate for dinner every day. 

The rejection of their culture presented at the beginning of the essay creates a nice juxtaposition with the student’s view in the latter half of the essay and helps demonstrate how they have matured. They use their experience interning as a way to delve into a change in their thought process about their culture and show how their passion for social justice began. Using this experience as a mechanism to explore their thoughts and feelings is an excellent example of how items that are included elsewhere on your application should be incorporated into your essay.

This essay prioritizes emotions and personal views over specific anecdotes. Although there are details and certain moments incorporated throughout to emphasize the author’s points, the main focus remains on the student and how they grapple with their culture and identity.  

One area for improvement is the conclusion. Although the forward-looking approach is a nice way to end an essay focused on social justice, it would be nice to include more details and imagery in the conclusion. How does the student want to help their community? What government position do they see themselves holding one day? 

A more impactful ending might look like the student walking into their office at the New York City Housing Authority in 15 years and looking at the plans to build a new development in the Bronx just blocks away from where the grew up that would provide quality housing to people in their Bangladeshi community. They would smile while thinking about how far they have come from that young kid who used to be ashamed of their culture. 

Essay #3: Marvel vs DC

Superhero cinema is an oligopoly consisting of two prominent, towering brands: Marvel and DC. I’m a religious supporter of Marvel, but last year, I discovered my friend, Tom, was a DC fan. After a 20-minute vociferous quarrel about which was better, we decided to allocate one day to assemble coherent arguments and have a professional debate.

One week later, we both brought pages of notes, evidence cards, and I had my Iron-Man bobblehead for moral support. Our moderator – a Disney fan – sat in the middle with a stopwatch – open-policy style. I began the debate by discussing how Marvel accentuated the humanity of the storyline – such as Tony Stark’s transformation from an egotistical billionaire to a compassionate father – which drew in a broader audience because more people resonated with certain aspects of the characters. Tom rebutted this by capitalizing on how Deadpool was a duplicate of Deathstroke, Vision copied Red Tornado, and DC sold more comics than Marvel. 

40 minutes later, we reached an impasse. We were out of cards, and we both made excellent points, so our moderator failed to declare a winner. Difficult conversations aren’t necessarily always the ones that make political headlines. Instead, a difficult discussion involves any topic with which we share an emotional connection. Over the years, I became so emotionally invested in Marvel that my mind erected an impenetrable shield, blocking out all other possibilities. Even today, we haven’t decided which franchise was better, but I realized that I was undermining DC for no reason apart from ignorance. 

The inevitability of diversity suggests that it is our responsibility to understand the other person and what they believe. We may not always experience a change in opinions, but we can grant ourselves the opportunity to expand our global perspective. I strive to continue this adventure to increase my awareness as a superhero aficionado, activist, and student by engaging in conversations that require me to think beyond what I believe and viewing the world from others’ perspectives. 

And yes, Tom is still my friend.

Diversity doesn’t always have to be about culture or heritage; diversity exists all around us, even in comics. The genius of this essay lies in the way the student flipped the traditional diversity prompt on its head and instead discussed their diverse perspective on a topic they are passionate about. If you don’t have a cultural connection you are compelled to write about, this is a clever approach to a diversity prompt—if it is handled appropriately.

While this student has a non-traditional topic, they still present it in a way that pays respect to the key aspects of a diversity essay: depicting their perspective and recognizing the importance of diverse views. Just as someone who is writing about a culture that is possibly unfamiliar to the reader, the student describes what makes Marvel and DC unique and important to them and their friend. They also expand on how a lack of diversity in superhero consumption led to them feeling ignorant and now makes them appreciate the need for diversity in all aspects of their life.

This student is unapologetically themselves in this essay which is ultimately why this unorthodox topic is able to work. They committed to their passion for Marvel by sharing analytical takes on characters and demonstrating how the franchise was so important to their identity it momentarily threatened a friendship. The inclusion of humor through their personal voice—referring to the argument as a professional debate and telling us the friendship lived on—contributes to the essay feeling deeply personal.

Choosing a nonconventional topic for a diversity essay requires extra care and attention to ensure you are still addressing the core of the prompt, but if you accomplish it successfully, it makes for an incredibly memorable essay that could easily set you apart!

While this is a great essay as is, the idea of diversity could have been addressed a little bit earlier in the piece to make it absolutely clear the student is writing about their diverse perspective. They position Marvel and DC as two behemoths in the superhero movie industry, but in the event their reader is unfamiliar with these two brands, there is little elaboration on the cultural impact each has on its fans. 

To this student, Marvel is more than just a movie franchise; it’s a crucial part of their identity, just as someone’s race or religion might be. In order for the reader to fully understand the weight of their perspective, there should be further elaboration, towards the beginning, on how important Marvel is to this student.

Essay #4: Leadership as a First-Gen American

Leadership was thrust upon me at a young age. When I was six years old, my abusive father abandoned my family, leaving me to step up as the “man” of the house. From having to watch over my little sister to cooking dinner three nights a week, I never lived an ideal suburban life. I didn’t enjoy the luxuries of joining after-school activities, getting driven to school or friends’ houses, or taking weekend trips to the movies or bowling alley. Instead, I spent my childhood navigating legal hurdles, shouldering family responsibilities, and begrudgingly attending court-mandated therapy sessions. At the same time, I tried to get decent grades and maintain my Colombian roots and Spanish fluency enough to at least partially communicate with my grandparents, both of whom speak little English. Although my childhood had its bright and joyful moments, much of it was weighty and would have been exhausting for any child to bear. I grew up fast. However, the responsibilities I took on at home prepared me to lead and to work diligently, setting me up to later use them in life.

I didn’t have much time to explore my interests until high school, where I developed my knack for government and serving others. However, being cast in a lead role in my school’s fall production as a freshman gave me the confidence to pursue other activities: namely, student government. Shortly after being cast, I was elected as Freshman Vice-President, a role that put me in charge of promoting events, delegating daily office tasks, collaborating with the administration on new school initiatives, and planning trips and fundraisers. While it demanded a significant amount of responsibility, my childhood of helping my mom manage our household prepared me to be successful in the role. When I saw the happy faces of my classmates after a big event, I felt proud to know that I had made a small difference for them. Seeing projects through to a successful outcome was thrilling. I enjoyed my time and responsibilities so much that I served all four years of high school, going on to become Executive Vice-President.

As I found success in high school, my mother and grandparents began speaking more about the life they faced prior to emigrating from Colombia. To better connect with them, I took a series of Spanish language classes to regain my fluency. After a practice run through my presentation on Bendiceme Ultima ( Bless me, Ultima, by Rudolofo Anaya) with my grandmother, she squeezed my hand and told me the story of how my family was forced from their home in order to live free of religious persecution. Though my grandparents have often expressed how much better their lives and their children’s lives have been in America, I have often struggled with my identity. I felt that much of it was erased with my loss of our native language. In elementary school, I learned English best because in class I was surrounded by it. Spanish was more difficult to grasp without a formal education, and my family urged me to become fluent in English so I could be of better help to them in places as disparate as government agencies and grocery stores. When I was old enough to recognize the large part of my identity still rooted in being Colombian, it was challenging to connect these two sides of who I was. Over time I have been able to reconcile the two in the context of my aspirations. I found purpose and fulfillment through student council, and I knew that I could help other families like my own if I worked in local government. By working through city offices that address housing, education, and support for survivors of childhood abuse, I could give others the same liberties and opportunities my family has enjoyed in this country. Doing so would also help me honor my roots as a first-generation American.

I have been a leader for my whole life. Both at Harvard and after graduation, I want to continue that trend. I hope to volunteer with organizations that share my goals. I want to advise politicians on policy-making that will make children and new immigrants safer and more secure. When my family was at their worst, my community gave back. I hope to give that gift to future generations. A career in local, city-based public service is not a rashly made decision; it is a reflection of where I’ve been in life and where I want to be in the future.

Although this essay begins on a somber note, it goes on to show this student’s determination and joy they found and ends with a positive, forward-looking perspective. This is a great example of how including your hardship can bolster an essay as long as it is not the main focus.

Explaining the challenges this student faced from a young age—becoming the man of the house, dealing with legal matters, maintaining good grades, etc—builds sympathy for his situation. However, the first paragraph is even more impactful because he explains the emotional toll these actions had on him. We understand how he lost the innocence of his childhood and how he struggled to remain connected to his Colombian heritage with all his other responsibilities. Including these details truly allows the reader to see this student’s struggle, making us all the more joyful when he comes out stronger.

Pivoting to discuss positive experiences with student government and Spanish classes for the rest of the essay demonstrates that this student has a positive approach to life and is willing to push through challenges. The tone of the essay shifts from heavy to uplifting. He explains the joy he got out of helping his classmates and connecting with his grandparents, once again providing emotional reflection to make the reader care more.

Overall, this essay does a nice job of demonstrating how this student approaches challenges and negative experiences. Admitting that the responsibilities of his childhood had a silver lining shows his maturity and how he will be able to succeed in government one day. The essay strikes a healthy balance between challenge and hope, leaving us with a positive view of a student with such emotional maturity.

Although the content of this essay is very strong, it struggles with redundancy and disorganized information. He mentions his passion for government at the beginning of the student government paragraph, then again addresses government in the paragraph focused on his Colombian heritage, and concludes by talking about how he wants to get into government once more. Similarly, in the first paragraph he discusses the struggle of maintaining his Colombian identity and then fully delves into that topic in the third paragraph.

The repetition of ideas and lack of a streamlined organization of this student’s thoughts diminishes some of the emotional impact of the story. The reader is left trying to piece together a swirling mass of information on their own, rather than having a focused, sequential order to follow.

This could be fixed if the student rearranged details to make each paragraph focused on a singular idea. For example, the first paragraph could be about his childhood, the second about how student government sparked his interest in government and what he hopes to do one day, the third about how he reconnected with his Colombian roots through his Spanish classes after years of struggling with his identity, and the final paragraph could tie everything together by explaining how everything led to him wanting to pursue a future serving others, particularly immigrants like his family.

Alternatively, the essay could follow a sequential order that would start with his childhood, then explain his struggle with his identity, then show how student government and Spanish classes helped him find himself, and finally conclude with what he hopes to accomplish by pursuing government.

Essay #5: Protecting the Earth

I never understood the power of community until I left home to join seven strangers in the Ecuadorian rainforest. Although we flew in from distant corners of the U.S., we shared a common purpose: immersing ourselves in our passion for protecting the natural world.

Back home in my predominantly conservative suburb, my neighbors had brushed off environmental concerns. My classmates debated the feasibility of Trump’s wall, not the deteriorating state of our planet. Contrastingly, these seven strangers delighted in bird-watching, brightened at the mention of medicinal tree sap, and understood why I once ran across a four-lane highway to retrieve discarded beer cans. Their histories barely resembled mine, yet our values aligned intimately. We did not hesitate to joke about bullet ants, gush about the versatility of tree bark, or discuss the destructive consequences of materialism. Together, we let our inner tree huggers run free.

In the short life of our little community, we did what we thought was impossible. By feeding on each other’s infectious tenacity, we cultivated an atmosphere that deepened our commitment to our values and empowered us to speak out on behalf of the environment. After a week of stimulating conversations and introspective revelations about engaging people from our hometowns in environmental advocacy, we developed a shared determination to devote our lives to this cause.

As we shared a goodbye hug, my new friend whispered, “The world needs saving. Someone’s gotta do it.” For the first time, I believed that someone could be me.

This student is expressing their diversity through their involvement in a particular community—another nice approach if you don’t want to write about culture or ethnicity. We all have unique things that we geek out over and this student expresses the joy that came when they found a community where they could express their love for the environment. Passion is fundamental to university life and should find its way into successful applications.

The essay finds strength in the fact that readers feel for the student. We get a little bit of backstory about where they come from and how they felt silenced—“ Back home in my predominantly conservative suburb, my neighbors had brushed off environmental concerns ”—, so it’s easy to feel joy for them when they get set free and finally find their community.

This student displays clear values: community, ecoconsciousness, dedication, and compassion. An admissions officer who reads a diversity essay is looking for students with strong values who will enrich the university community with their unique perspective—sounds like this student!

One area of weakness in this essay is the introduction. The opening line—” I never understood the power of community until I left home to join seven strangers in the Ecuadorian rainforest “—is a bit cliche. Introductions should be captivating and build excitement and suspense for what is to come. Simply telling the reader about how your experience made you understand the power of community reveals the main takeaway of your essay without the reader needing to go any further. 

Instead of starting this essay with a summary of what the essay is about, the student should have made their hook part of the story. Whether that looks like them being exasperated with comments their classmates made about politics or them looking around apprehensively at the seven strangers on their program as they all boarded their flight, they should start off in the action.

Essay #6: Music and Accents

India holds a curious place in my heart and ears. Whenever I returned on a trip or vacation, I would show my grandmother how to play Monopoly and she would let me tie her sari. I would teach my grandfather English idioms, which he would repeat to random people and fishmongers on the streets, and he would teach me Telugu phrases. 

It was a curious exchange of worlds and I’m reminded of this every time I listen to Indian music. It was these tunes that helped me reconnect with my heritage and ground my meandering identity. Indian music, unlike the stereotype I’d been imbued with, was not just a one-and-done Bollywood dance number! Each region and language was like an island with its own, unique sonic identity. I’m grateful for my discovery of Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil tunes, for it has opened me up to the incredible smorgasbord of diversity, depth, and complexity within the subcontinent I was born in.

Here’s an entirely-different sonic identity for you: Texan slang. “Couldya pass the Mango seltzer, please hon?” said my Houstonian neighbor, Rae Ann, her syllables melding together like the sticky cake batter we were making. 

Rae Ann and her twang were real curiosities to me. Once, she invited my family to a traditional Texan barbecue with the rest of our neighbors. As Hindus, we didn’t eat beef, so we showed up with chicken kebabs instead. Rather than looking at us bizarrely, she gladly accepted the dish, lining it up beside grilled loins and hamburger patties. Her gesture was a small but very well accepted one and I quickly became convinced she was the human manifestation of “Southern hospitality” – something reflected in each of her viscous, honey-dripping phrases. “Watch out for the skeeters!” was an excellent example. It was always funny at first, but conveyed a simple message. We’ve got each other’s backs and, together, we can overcome the blood-sucking mosquitoes of the Houstonian summer! I began to see how her words built bridges, not boundaries.

I believe that sounds – whether it’s music or accents – can make a difference in the ways we perceive and accept individuals from other backgrounds. But sound is about listening too. In Rice’s residential college, I would be the type of person to strike up a conversation with an international student and ask for one of their Airpods (you’d be surprised how many different genres and languages of music I’ve picked up in this way!). As both an international student and Houstonian-at-heart, I hope to bridge the gap between Rice’s domestic and international populations. Whether it’s organizing cultural events or simply taking the time to get to know a student whose first language isn’t English, I look forward to listening to the stories that only a fellow wanderer can tell.

This essay does an excellent job of addressing two aspects of this student’s identity. Looking at diversity through sound is a creative way to descriptively depict their Indian and Texan culture. Essays are always more successful when they stimulate the senses, so framing the entire response around sound automatically opens the door for vivid imagery.

The quotes from this student’s quirky neighbor bring a sense of realism to the essay. We can feel ourselves at the barbecue and hear her thick Texan accent coming through. The way people communicate is a huge part of their culture and identity, so the ability of this student to perfectly capture the essence of their Texan identity with accented phrases is skillfully done.

This essay does such a great job of making the sounds of Texas jump off the page, so it is disappointing it wasn’t able to accomplish the same for India. The student describes the different Indian languages and music styles, but doesn’t bring them to life with quotes or onomatopoeia in the manner that they did for the sounds of Texas.

They could have described the buzz of the sitar or the lyrical pattern of the Telugu phrases their grandfather taught them. Telling us about the diversity of sounds in Indian music is fine, but if the reader can’t appreciate what those sounds resemble, it makes it harder to understand the Indian half of their identity. Especially since this student emulated the sounds and essence of Texas so well, it is important that India is given the same treatment so we can fully appreciate both sides of this essay.

More Supplemental Essay Tips

How to Write the “Why This College” Essay

How to Write a Stellar Extracurricular Activity College Essay

Where to Get Your Diversity  Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your Diversity essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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A look into changes in Duke Law School's admissions process in response to affirmative action ruling

The Duke Law School.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning race-based affirmative action, law schools across the country, including Duke, have made several changes to their application components for the 2023-24 admissions cycle.

The court’s June decision came only two months before Sept. 1, the most popular date to open applications for law schools. Some of the essay prompt changes were therefore announced on short notice. 

Duke Law School previously required a personal statement and offered applicants two optional essay prompts: a diversity statement and a statement of interest. After the Supreme Court’s decision, Duke Law School kept the personal statement and the optional statement of interest, but replaced the diversity statement with short essays.

Applicants are now required to submit one or two essays from a list of six prompts. Some of the new essay prompts invite applicants to share their “exposure to a diversity of perspectives and experiences” or their “special background,” while others center on applicants’ thoughts on equal justice, interest in public service, commitment to free expression and understanding of ethical leadership.

In previous years, many law schools required a personal statement and offered an optional diversity statement. For the 2023-24 admissions cycle, Harvard Law School has replaced the prompts with two new required essays, a statement of purpose and a statement of perspective. Several other law schools have also changed their application essay prompts, including Yale Law School .

“What they have out of this cycle is kind of testing the waters, if you will, to see if it's going to produce the kind of information they want with applicants,” pre-law advisor Patrice Barley said.

According to Barley, the lack of uniformity among law school essay prompts means applicants will have to spend more time tailoring their essays to every law school they apply to. 

“Since the pivot was so late in the application cycle, I think that law schools will be granting quite a bit of grace in the essay reading process this year, because applicants didn't have a lot of time to grapple with them,” Barley said.

Revamped essay prompts are not the only change coming to law school admissions. The logic games section of the Law School Admission Test will be replaced by either a reading comprehension or logical reasoning section beginning in August 2024. The changes will not affect the current admissions cycle.

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Center for Teaching

Developing and writing a diversity statement.

What is a diversity statement, and what purpose does it serve?

What topics might be included in a diversity statement.

• Getting Started

Writing Prompts

Adapting your statement for a job application, additional resources.

Increasingly, institutions of higher education are becoming more intentional and programmatic about their efforts to embrace principles of inclusion, equity, justice, and diversity throughout campus life. As they do so, they are more focused on finding faculty who have experiences and competencies that can contribute to these efforts. Consequently, universities and colleges frequently are requesting that job applicants address how they can contribute to a culture of inclusion and equity within the campus community in the form of a “diversity statement.”

Sometimes, a job ad will request that applicants address diversity in the cover letter or the teaching statement, but a request for a separate diversity statement is becoming more common. From the perspective of some universities, the purpose of such documents is to demonstrate that the applicant has commitments and capacities to contribute to the institution’s projects of inclusion and equity via their work, including scholarship, teaching, service, mentoring, and advising. Asking faculty applicants to speak to inclusive excellence in their application materials or during the interview process shows a university’s commitment to inclusion and ensures that new faculty share that commitment (2018). The document is also an opportunity for applicants to highlight their understanding of the barriers faced by under-represented or marginalized groups, as well as their own experiences meeting the needs of a diverse population of students, staff, and peers. For example, The University of California at San Diego requests a separate “Contributions to Diversity” statement from all faculty applicants, and its published guidelines suggest describing “your past efforts, as well as future plans to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.” (2.1.18, https://facultydiversity.ucsd.edu/_files/c2d-guidelines.pdf ).

The wording that universities and colleges use in framing the request for a diversity statement varies widely. Below are a few examples from job ads posted in the 2017-2018 academic year.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland (public liberal arts college, faculty posting in Psychology):

Applicants should submit a statement explaining how their teaching at the College will contribute to a culture of inclusion and campus diversity .

Denison University (private liberal arts university in Ohio, faculty posting in Anthropology):

A description of how the applicant would contribute to the development of a diverse and inclusive learning community at Denison through her/his teaching, research, and/or service .

Angelo State (public university in Texas, faculty posting in Engineering):

The required Other Document should be no longer than 2 pages and should discuss how the candidate would help achieve Angelo State University’s goal to attract and graduate more women, Hispanic, and students from other underrepresented groups .

Georgia College and State University (public liberal arts college, faculty posting in Psychology)

Qualified candidates should submit a research statement, and a diversity statement (describing how you incorporate diversity into your teaching, research, and/or service). Teaching, research, and diversity statements should be limited to two single-spaced pages.

Franklin & Marshall College (private liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, Visiting Assistant Professor Position in Psychology)

Pursuant to the college’s vision for cultivating a diverse and inclusive community, the search committee will ask all applicants to address how their past and/or potential contributions might serve to advance F&M’s commitment to teaching and mentoring young people from a variety of personal experiences, values, and worldviews th at arise from differences of culture and circumstance.

Since the diversity statement is an emerging genre in the context of faculty job applications, there are few set guidelines on what must be included. Keeping in mind that the purpose of the statement is to demonstrate a commitment to fostering diversity, the following elements may be appropriate:

• Statement of values as they relate to your understanding and commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and/or justice in higher education.
• Examples of experiences that demonstrate your commitment to fostering the success of underrepresented students, staff, and peers, and supporting a diversity of perspectives in the classroom, lab, campus, or community.
• Future plans for continuing to advance inclusive excellence, diversity, or equity in your research, teaching, and service.

Getting started

• What are your values regarding diversity, inclusion, and equity in your professional life? Why do you think diversity is valuable in higher education settings? How about in your discipline specifically?
• What kinds of student, staff, or faculty diversity are you thinking of as you answer this question, and are there other ways in which diversity manifests in campus communities that might be valuable to consider?
• What elements of your own identity inform your teaching, research, or scholarship in a tangible way?

It is worth noting that diversity statements are fundamentally about your values, commitments, and capabilities, and not necessarily your identity and the ways it shapes your work. If you choose to disclose your identity in a diversity statement, you should be aware of some issues.

Should You Self-Disclose Elements of Your Personal Identity?

Note that some people wish to share elements of their personal background in their actual statement, and many do not. Reflecting on your own frame of reference can be useful regardless. Some degree of transparency may help readers contextualize the experiences and approaches you detail in your statement. For example, you may wish to share that you grew up in a bilingual household or that you attended graduate school as an international student, if either has influenced your approach to mentorship or teaching. A 2014 study investigated the content of 191 cover letters for faculty positions in which applicants were specifically asked to address diversity and inclusion; less than a quarter of applicants self-disclosed some aspect of their personal identity (Schmaling, Trevino, Lind, Blume, & Baker, 2014). Despite the low percentage of applicants who chose to self-disclose and despite the authors’ note that they could not determine which applications advanced as a function of the applicants’ choice to self-disclose, they write that “self-disclosing one’s diversity may reconceptualize membership in a previously stigmatized group as an advantage, particularly if the self-identification reinforces a coherent academic and professional identity (Schmaling et al., 2014, p. 10)..”

However, be advised that there is risk in disclosing details that may carry stigma or induce subtle biases on the part of readers. For example, some research confirms that biases toward African Americans and women influence evaluation of written application materials (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000; Moss-Racusin, Dovidio, Brescoll, Graham, & Handelsman, 2012), specifically when the application is not exceptionally weak or exceptionally strong (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000). The potential benefit of self-disclosing one’s mental health history or sexual orientation, for example, should be carefully weighed against the risk. To be sure, an excellent statement can be written without sharing elements of personal identity, and some universities that request statements are beginning to highlight this. The University of San Diego’s published guidelines to writing a diversity statement, for example, emphasize their desire to identify candidates who share the institution’s commitment to inclusive excellence, “regardless of personal demographic characteristics.”

The following prompts are meant to help you identify areas of strength to highlight in your diversity statement. For each of the following areas, think about your past experience and what you plan to do in the future. You don’t need to answer every question, as all may not apply.

Research and Scholarship

• Does your research/scholarship directly address issues of diversity, inclusion, or equity? If so, how?
• Does your research/scholarship address issues specific to marginalized groups? If so, describe the connection.
• Has your research/scholarship been shared with the community or public in a way that promotes access to scholarship?
• Has your scholarship involved collaboration with diverse groups of colleagues or commentators?

Mentorship and Advising

• Have you worked with any students in a mentorship or advisory capacity who are from marginalized groups? If so, how did you help them identify and overcome barriers to success? Think about your experience with research mentorship, teaching or tutoring, academic advising, and community mentorship.
• If you plan to train undergraduates and/or graduate students in your future role, what efforts will you make to recruit and retain students from marginalized and underrepresented groups?
• How do you plan to serve a student body that is diverse in a multitude of ways? Think not just race, ethnicity, and SES, but about age, religion, academic preparedness, disability, gender expression, or other differences.
• How does your approach to course design take into account considerations of diversity? You may wish to reflect on using a range of assessments, preventing bias in grading, diversifying course content, using inclusive language in the syllabus and classroom, or utilizing student feedback to improve classroom culture or tone. Try to generate at least one specific example of how your decision affects student’s learning in your course. (Note: One prominent example of inclusive syllabus language is diversity statements within syllabi; see examples from Brown University , Yale Center for Teaching and Learning , and The Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon University )
• What do you do as a teacher that creates a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere? How do you ensure that students in your class feel a sense of belonging?
• How does your approach to facilitating discussion (and/or structuring active learning activities) take into account considerations of positionality, power, and/or diversity? You may wish to reflect on using semi-structured discussion techniques, online access points for student participation, classroom seating arrangements, or other ways in which you create opportunities for student engagement. Try to generate at least one specific example of how your pedagogical choice facilitates student engagement in a particular course.
• Does your discipline lend itself to dialogue about diversity? If so, how do you incorporate this dialogue into your courses? Describe the impact of doing so on student learning and engagement.
• How do you ensure that your course readings and sources reflect diverse perspectives? Have you had any experience diversifying/decolonizing content for your courses, and if so, what has been the impact on student learning?
• Have you participated in any service activities (e.g. university committees, symposiums, workshops, volunteer work in the community) whose goals relate to diversity, inclusion, and equity? If so, describe your experience. What did you accomplish? What did you learn? What skills did you build in the process?
• If you have engaged in diversity-related service, how will you incorporate your experience into the job for which you are applying? (Note: here is where – having done your research on the school to which you are applying – you might consider referencing an existing diversity-related initiative to which you could contribute or which you could expand)

After you have developed a statement that reflects your strengths and experiences related to diversity, inclusion, and equity, you may wish to tailor it for individual job applications. Be sure to do your homework about diversity-related programs and resources at the schools to which you are applying, and consider including how you plan to contribute to or expand existing programs at that institution. For example, if you have been particularly active in social justice initiatives and are applying to a school with no existing programs addressing race, power and privilege in higher education, it may be appropriate to propose a program modelled on something you’ve already done. However, you do not need to propose a new diversity-related program to write an effective diversity statement. Perhaps you envision your contribution as serving on faculty committees related to diversifying curriculum in your department or advising LGBT-student groups or research initiatives. Be honest about where you are and how you can contribute.

• Golash-Boza, T. (2016). “ The Effective Diversity Statement .” Inside Higher Ed.
• University of California: Contributions to Diversity
• Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (2000). Aversive racism and selection decisions: 1989 and 1999.   Psychological Science, 11 (4), 315-319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00262
• Schmaling, K. B., Trevino, A. Y., Lind, J. R., Blume, A. W., & Baker, D. L. (2015). Diversity statements: How faculty applicants address diversity.   Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 8 (4), 213-224. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0038549
• Moss-Racusin, C., Dovidio, J. F., Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M. J., & Handelsman, J. (2012). Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students.   PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109 (41), 16474-16479. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1211286109

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Diversity Essay Examples 2023 See How to Write an Effective Essay

This type of essay is a little different from your typical “Why this college?” essay. Here, you’ll write about your background and experiences. Here are diversity essay examples for you.

In this guide, I explain what a diversity college essay is, what schools are looking for in this essay, what you can do to ensure your diversity essay stands out and some of the Diversity essay examples .

What is a Diversity Essay for College?

A diversity essay is a college admissions essay that focuses on you as an individual and your relationship with a specific community.

The purpose of this essay is to reveal what makes you different from other applicants, including what unique challenges or barriers you’ve faced and how you’ve contributed to or learned from a specific community of people.

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:

• Cultural group
• Race or ethnicity
• Extended family
• Socioeconomic background (such as your family’s income)
• Sex or gender
• Sexual orientation
• Gender identity
• Values or opinions
• Experiences
• Home country or hometown
• The area you live in/your neighborhood
• A club or organization of which you’re an active member

More Facts about this Essay Examples

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.

At some schools, the diversity essay is simply your personal statement, whereas at others it’s a supplemental essay or short answer.

It’s also important to note that the diversity essay is  not limited to undergraduate programs. Many graduate programs also require diverse essays from applicants.

So if you’re planning to eventually apply to graduate school, be aware that you might have to write yet another diversity statement!

What Do Colleges Look for in a Diversity Essay?

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.

But what kinds of specific qualities do schools look for in a diversity essay?

To answer this, let’s look at what schools themselves have said about college essays. Although not many colleges give advice specific to diversity essay, many provide tips for how to write an effective college essay in general.

How to Write an Effective Diversity Essay

Here are some tips to help you write a great diversity college essay and increase your chances of admission to college.

1: Think About What Makes You Unique

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 the school as a whole.

Therefore, for your essay, be sure to choose a topic that will help you stand apart from other applicants.

For example, instead of writing about your ability to play the piano (which a lot of applicants can do, no doubt), it’d be far more interesting to elaborate on how your experience growing up in Austria led you to become interested in classical music.

Try to think of defining experiences in your life. These don’t have to be obvious life-altering events, but they should have had a lasting impact on you and helped shape your identity.

2: Be Honest and Authentic

While it’s important to showcase how unique you are, you also want to make sure you’re staying true to who you are. What experiences have made you the person you are today?

What kind of impact did these have on your identity, accomplishments, and future goals?

Being honest also means not exaggerating (or lying about) your experiences or views. It’s okay if you don’t remember every little detail of an event or conversation. Just try to be as honest about your feelings as possible.

Don’t say something changed your life if it really had zero impact on you.

Ultimately, you want to write in a way that’s true to your voice. Don’t be afraid to throw in a little humor or a personal anecdote.

What matters most is that your diversity essay accurately represents you and your intellectual potential.

  3: Write Clearly, Correctly, and Cogently

This next tip is of a more mechanical nature. As is the case with any college essay, it’s critical that your diversity essay is well-written.

After all, the purpose of this essay is not only to help schools get to know you better but also to demonstrate a refined writing ability—a skill that’s necessary for doing well in college, regardless of your major.

A diverse essay that’s littered with typos and grammatical errors will fail to tell a smooth, compelling, and coherent story about you.

It will also make you look unprofessional and won’t convince admissions committees that you’re serious about college and your future.

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.

Diversity Essay Examples

Below are some Diversity Essay Examples:

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. That is during our city’s booming methamphetamine trade.

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. Many of my peers criticized me and called me stuck up or “whitewashed” because of the choices I made.

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.

It was the small acts of support and encouragement that ultimately got me to overcome my inhibitions and fears of the unknown and pursue a bachelor’s degree; a friend who told me what the SAT was, a teacher who explained the FAFSA, and college deadlines.

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. Eventually, my mother remarried and we were able to move out of my grandparents’ house.

But I still know what it’s like to feel insecure about where you come from and what you lack—it is something I will carry with me throughout my life and career.

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.

My mother arrived in the United States from the Dominican Republic at a young age, and although she was unfamiliar with the language, she made a fervent effort to forge a new and better life for herself.

My father arrived in the U.S., from Ghana, under similar pretenses and worked hard to take advantage of the plethora of opportunities he found here.

With their heavily accented English and menial jobs, my parents fostered an environment of love and support that allowed me to construct an identity that truly reflects the social, economic, and ethnic histories that have formed me.

Because they were new to the area and struggling financially, my parents decided to settle in the most affordable area they could find, the South Bronx.

The South Bronx is everything the media portrays it to be; dangerous, destitute, and adverse. Nevertheless, it is still home, and as much as I have resisted it, growing up in the South Bronx has also had an undeniable impact on me.

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As a college freshman, the many layers of my diversity unfolded in an inharmonious manner. It took me some time to integrate my experiences as a first-generation Latino and African American and a South Bronx native.

I did not find many other students who shared my background when I began my undergraduate studies at the College of the Holy Cross.

Along with standing out as one of the few persons of color, I also was an outlier socioeconomically. I soon began to feel inferior about my life and background.

I avoided conversations that involved my home life and began wishing for another. Also, I longed for affluent, American parents with professional careers.

I wanted to live the lives of the other Holy Cross students. Soon these longings festered into embarrassment toward my parents.

I silently accused them of being lazy, choosing to be uneducated, and thus forcing us to live in the South Bronx. I essentially blamed them for making me different in every possible sense.

Over time, I began to grasp that although I had a different racial and socioeconomic background than the majority of my classmates, these differences were not negative or adverse.

My distinct experiences allowed me to stand out from many other students at my college; these experiences became sources of pride and strength.

My background brought a fresh voice to the classroom setting, something that my professors greatly valued.

As I fostered my perspective, I learned to develop and utilize this voice by speaking up and adding my diverse experiences to class discussions.

I identified with the experiences of authors like Junot Diaz and Esmeralda

Santiago, who both lived in impoverished ghettos and faced the difficulties of having immigrant parents unaccustomed to the American way of life.

I frequently contributed to discussions examining the social and academic difficulties Black students face on predominantly White college campuses.

I began to understand that I needed to embrace my diversity rather than suppress it. Consequently, I began to value my multifaceted identity and came to trust in the significance of my diversity.

As I embark on legal education, my experiences, not just as a person of color. But as a biracial and bicultural son of low-income African and Latino immigrants.

This can help me contribute to the law school environment as well as the legal field.

Diversity of thought and perspective is paramount in the study of law, and my; unique voice can serve as an asset, allowing me to represent and bring forth the experiences of those who may not have a platform from which to do so.

If you have any other questions regarding diversity essay examples , kindly drop your comment in the comment box below.

Also, do well to share this article (Diversity Essay Examples) with all your friends and loved ones. That is on all your social media platforms.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Discrimination and Prejudice — Diversity

Essays on Diversity

Promoting unity through diversity in the military, embracing diversity through cultural perspectives, made-to-order essay as fast as you need it.

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Multicultural Education: Fostering Diversity and Inclusion

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The Importance of Diversity in The Classroom

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1. Hébert, Y. (2001). Identity, diversity and education: A critical review of the literature. Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal, 33(3), 155-187. (https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA89970655&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00083496&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7Ea755c7fe) 2. Civitillo, S., Juang, L. P., & Schachner, M. K. (2018). Challenging beliefs about cultural diversity in education: A synthesis and critical review of trainings with pre-service teachers. Educational Research Review, 24, 67-83. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1747938X18300629) 3. Cushner, K. (1992). Human Diversity in Education: An Integrative Approach. McGraw-Hill, Princeton Road, Hightstown, NJ 08520.. (https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED364623) 4. Banks, J. A. (2015). Cultural diversity and education: Foundations, curriculum, and teaching. Routledge. (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781315622255/cultural-diversity-education-james-banks) 5. Gurin, P., Nagda, B. R. A., & Lopez, G. E. (2004). The benefits of diversity in education for democratic citizenship. Journal of social issues, 60(1), 17-34. (https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0022-4537.2004.00097.x) 6. Roberson, Q. M. (2019). Diversity in the workplace: A review, synthesis, and future research agenda. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6, 69-88. (https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012218-015243) 7. Morgan, J., & Várdy, F. (2009). Diversity in the Workplace. American Economic Review, 99(1), 472-485. (https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.99.1.472) 8. Ilmakunnas, P., & Ilmakunnas, S. (2011). Diversity at the workplace: Whom does it benefit?. De Economist, 159, 223-255. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10645-011-9161-x) 9. Bell, N. S., & Narz, M. (2007). Meeting the challenges of age diversity in the workplace. The CPA journal, 77(2), 56. (https://www.proquest.com/openview/c5280f7eb57eddee19b967b72cc0b06a/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41798) 10. Gross-Gołacka, E., Kupczyk, T., & Wiktorowicz, J. (2022). Towards a Better Workplace Environment—Empirical Measurement to Manage Diversity in the Workplace. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(23), 15851. (https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15851)

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Opinion It’s good to remember: We are all on borrowed time

Anne Lamott is an American novelist and nonfiction writer. Her latest book, “Somehow: Thoughts on Love,” will be published in April 2024.

Getting older is almost like changing species, from cute middle-aged, white-tailed deer, to yak. We are both grass eaters, but that’s about the only similarity. At the Safeway sushi bar during lunchtime, I look at the teenage girls in their crop tops with their stupid flat tummies and I feel bad about what lies beneath my big, forgiving shirts but — and this is one of the blessings of aging — not for long. Aging has brought a modicum of self-compassion, and acceptance of what my husband and I call “the Sitch”: the bodily and cognitive decline that we all face sooner or later. Still, at Safeway, I can’t help but avert my eyes. Why push my luck?

Twenty years ago, when I turned 50, I showed the dark age spots on my arms and the backs of my hands to my wonderful dermatologist.

“They used to call these liver spots,” I said, laughing.

There was silence. “They still call them liver spots,” he replied.

My mother died of Alzheimer’s disease when I was 50; my father had died of brain cancer 25 years before, so I have always been a bit more tense than the average bear about increasing holes in my memory, and more egregious moments of dither. I thought of my 50s as late middle age.

At 60, I tried to get this same dermatologist to authorize surgery to remove the pile of skin of my upper eyelid that gathered like a broken Roman shade at the eyelash line. “Look,” I said, “the eyelid has consumed my eyeball. I will not be able to see soon.”

I pulled out an inch of skin to demonstrate my infirmity.

He pulled out three inches of his own. “Ticktock,” he said. And he was right. All things skin had gone to hell, from the crepe of my forearms to lots of new precancerous lesions that he routinely froze off or biopsied, once making me use a horrible burning cream all over my face that turned me into Peeling Tomato Girl.

So many indignities are involved in aging, and yet so many graces, too. The perfectionism that had run me ragged and has kept me scared and wired my whole life has abated. The idea of perfectionism at 60 is comical when, like me, you’ve worn non-matching black flats out on stage. In my experience, most of us age away from brain and ambition toward heart and soul, and we bathe in relief that things are not worse. When I was younger, I was fixated on looking good and impressing people and being so big in the world. By 60, I didn’t care nearly as much what people thought of me, mostly.

And anyway, you know by 60 that people are rarely thinking of you. They are thinking about their own finances, family problems and upper arms.

I have no idea of the process that released some of that clench and self-consciousness, except that by a certain age some people beloved to me had died. And then you seriously get real about how short and precious life is. You have bigger fish to fry than your saggy butt. Also, what more can you lose, and what more can people do to you that age has not already done? You thought you could physically do this or that — i.e., lift the dog into the back seat — but two weeks later your back is still complaining. You thought that your mind was thrilling to others, but it turns out that not everyone noticed, and now they’re just worried because your shoes don’t match.

Anyway, as my dermatologist hinted, the tock did tick, and one day he was gone. He retired. Then last year, I heard he died.

Which brings us to death, deathly old death. At a few months shy of 70, with eyeballs squinting through the folds, I now face the possibility that I might die someday. My dad said after his cancer diagnosis that we are all on borrowed time, and it is good to be reminded of this now and again. It’s a great line, and the third-most-popular conversation we oldies have with each other, after the decline of our bodies and the latest senior moments: how many memorial services we go to these days.

Some weeks, it feels as though there is a sniper in the trees, picking off people we have loved for years. It breaks your heart, but as Carly Simon sang, there is more room in a broken heart. My heart is the roomiest it has ever been.

I do live in my heart more, which is hard in its own ways, but the blessing is that the yammer in my head is quieter, the endless questioning: What am I supposed to be doing? Is this the right thing? What do you think of that? What does he think of that?

My parents and the culture told me that I would be happier if I did a certain thing, or stopped doing that, or tried harder and did better. But as my great friend Father Terry Richey said, it’s not about trying harder; it’s about resisting less. This is right up aging’s alley. Some days are sweet, some are just too long.

A lot of us thought when we were younger that we might want to stretch ourselves into other areas, master new realms. Now, I know better. I’m happy with the little nesty areas that are mine. For some reason, I love my softer, welcoming tummy. I laugh gently more often at darling confused me’s spaced-outed ness, although I’m often glad no one was around to witness my lapses.

Especially my son, who frequently and jovially brings up APlaceForMom.com . He’ll say, “I found you a really nice place nearby, where they’ll let you have a little dog!” Recently, I was graciously driving him and his teenage son somewhere and made a tiny driving mistake hardly worth mentioning — I did not hit anyone, nor did I leave the filling station with the nozzle still in the gas tank — and he said to his boy just loud enough so that I could hear, “I’m glad we live so close to town, so it won’t be as hard for her when we have to take away her keys.”

I roared with laughter, and with love, and with an ache in my heart for something I can’t name.

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Winners announced: Hogan Lovells Equality and Diversity Essay Competition 2023

Associated people

Antonia Layard Professor of Law

Jonathan Herring Professor of Law

For the third year running, the Faculty held a summer essay competition for undergraduate students focusing on equality, diversity and inclusion topics.

This year's panel was composed of The Rt. Hon. Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury , Antonia Layard and Jonathan Herring, all of whom were impressed by the standard of the competition.

Participants were asked to answer the following question:  ' How does, and should, the law ensure accessible spaces for learning in universities?'

The winner of the competition was Zahra Lahrie , BA Jurisprudence, and the runner-up was Anastasia Okoyeozor-Dundure , BA Jurisprudence with Law in Europe. You can read their contributions below.

When asked about his participation in judging the competition, The Rt. Hon. Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury said:

The panel thanks each person who entered and warmly congratulates those marked out for a prize. They also thank  Hogan Lovells  for kindly sponsoring the prize and making this competition a reality.

Read Zahra Lahrie' essay

Read Anastasia Okoyeozor-Dundure's essay

Equality and Diversity

Announced: hogan lovells equality and diversity essay competition 2023, olba changemakers interview with mindy chen-wishart.

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