I was talking to someone who attended Berkeley and they were saying that certain schools (like Berkeley) put weight on certain types of backgrounds, mostly diverse backgrounds that include hardships. This person thought I should highlight these things, but I don't know. I hate focusing on these type of things and it would feel like whining or an attempt at manipulation, but I'm not objective. If I just look at my sorry background then I'm a multi-racial (white, asian, native hawaiian) female, first person to graduate from college in my family, daughter of an immigrant/veteran/laborer, grew up in a barrio with gang violence/shootings, and had a violent home with mental illness...yeah. But do I really want to talk about these things? Not really. I guess I overcame some stuff, but like most people my life has not been so one-sided. There were good things, too. My biggest hurdle has really been being the first person to navigate college. My parents thought it was great that I was going to college so they had no advice and no insights. And no one else ever told me anything. If I knew then what I know now, I would have done things differently (but who wouldn't?). Anyhow, thoughts about this? Any experience with this kind of thing?