TONE in Diversity Statement?

[cokitty]

I'm trying to scrape together my diversity statement for UC schools and I'm really struggling (as I think many would).  To that end, my personal sense of humor is definitely coming out a bit more – somewhat self-deprecating, dry humor, etc.  I'm wondering if a humorous tone is appropriate or acceptable?  I wouldn't say I'm making a joke out of it, but I definitely don't take myself too seriously.  I've had a bit of a charmed life educationally but come from a strange family background (parents with a 20 year age gap, autistic/ID younger sibling, poor, etc).  

Any advice when it comes to this?  My SOP is definitely very serious and, honestly, the diversity statement sounds more like "me", but it's not as serious in tone.  Is this appropriate?  Do I need to rework so that I have a less sarcastic/humorous tone?

[fuzzylogician]

Try giving it to a trusted professor to read. If that's not possible, give it to a friend or two. There is always a danger that tone doesn't come across as you hope when it's in writing, and you don't want to alienate people because of that. For the same reason, I always advise against having jokes in your statements. They are rarely as successful as you might think. I would personally tone it down, or at least pay very close attention to what your readers are telling you about how successful the language is. If anyone expresses any doubt, take that as a reason to be careful. 

[cokitty]

Thanks so much.  I think that because I feel totally lost in writing this I've kind of defaulted to my personality instead of perhaps discovering the best things to write about.

[fuzzylogician]

These UC diversity statements are there to identify students who might qualify for special scholarships; it's not even entirely clear that they are read by the departments. At least when I was looking into this, the programs I was applying to said it wasn't an important component in the decision. I can't promise you that that's also true in your case, but I do think it's safe to think that this is one of the less important documents, so don't stress about it too much (but of course you should still aim to write a good statement, just don't worry about your entire future resting on this, because it really doesn't). 

[cokitty]

You always know what's up, Fuzzy.  Thanks for all of your contributions to the forums here.