I'm so confused about these...Michigan has a personal statement and this is the prompt:
How have your background and life experiences, including cultural, geographical, financial, educational or other opportunities or challenges, motivated your decision to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Michigan?
For example, if you grew up in a community where educational, cultural, or other opportunities were either especially plentiful or especially lacking, you might discuss the impact this had on your development and interests. This should be a discussion of the journey that has led to your decision to seek a graduate degree.
I have a diversity essay written already, and I copied/pasted it into the "additional information" box. For the personal statement, I have written some experiences I have had that made me want to apply to grad school and join the programs I did in college. Do you think that is fine? Or should I just use my diversity statement? The thing is, my diversity statement is about a specific event that happened only about a year ago... I don't want to use it to talk about how it made me want to apply, just to tell them that I do come from a unique background.
Any thoughts?