Statement of Purpose/Personal Statement: How personal can you get?

[SheMadeItEventually]

Hey guys I posted this in a clinical/counseling thread but I wanted to hear people outside of clinical/counseling psych field. 

My big question is: How personal can I get with statement of purpose/personal statement if the school does not require a diversity statement?

Is talking about my experiences of being the only minority in my town + the nature of my mom working in the aligned field too personal?  I also added how living in different countries helped me with seeing things differently and how i grew interested in my population of interest. All of this is in the first short paragraph. I was going to live the minority part out but someone told me to make it more personal to show the connection. FYI, I talked plenty of my activities and research in the paper so I just want to know if talking about this type of personal stuff is considered too be a big no no. 

[PsyZei]

You can get pretty personal. That said, I was very careful on my statement of purpose with what I revealed. There were some things that were personal that I alluded to in every SOP because of the connection to my research and it showing what I overcame (but was worded to do so in a relatively safe manner where I could control the narrative taken away from what I shared). What you are talking about (being the only minority in your town) sounds like an overcoming story that would likely help you in most applications (from my opinion). There were some things about my identity that I left out in most SOPs because I knew it could hurt me more than help me for getting a chance to interview at most programs because of the overwhelming prejudice that exists. So I only included that in the SOPs for the programs that I knew it was safe to do so because of either the program clinical/research focus or because of knowing the views of the PIs in that program on the subject. 

I know that is not the cut and dry answer you were hoping for. I'm sorry that this is something that still has to be navigated in 2020. 

[631055224233145]

Hello, 

I am in a similar boat. The two schools I am applying to don't require the Personal History Statement (the Statement of Purpose is required) and they want me to discuss my diversity and how I would help others with my degree. 

Ideally, I would want to discuss my learning disability but they are so taboo in schools that I worry about how a PI would take this. I would discuss how I ultimately want to work in academia and help formulate course materials that are appropriate for neurodiverse students and how I have worked with students diagnosed with learning disabilities and used skills I've learned for myself to teach these students. 

Overall, I see it as a positive, but I am worried that I'll be stigmatized based on this even though I don't plan on asking for any accommodations. 

I would love anyone's opinions or thoughts on this!

[SocDevMum]

On 11/15/2020 at 4:07 PM, 631055224233145 said:

Overall, I see it as a positive, but I am worried that I'll be stigmatized based on this even though I don't plan on asking for any accommodations. 

You do have to tread carefully, especially as you are also talking about a desire to help design materials for neurodiverse students like yourself.  It's a fine line between "a challenge I overcame" and "I'm neurodiverse so I want to work with neurodiverse people because I already know all about it!" It's important to not be too personal - no one needs the dirty details, after all - and to frame it as something that in the long run made you more successful in some ways. Be sure to emphasize the strengths you have developed out of the need to handle the challenge. What changed inside of you, to help you succeed, since academia wasn't going to change to fit you?