Diversity Statments

[polscimajor]

Hey all,

I am COMPLETELY at loss as to what I should write in my "diversity" statement.

Have I had any unusual educational, social, cultural, economic barriers to my education? No, not really. Have I ever worked as an activitist for minority groups? Not really. Am I the only one lacking this experience? Or is there another way to write this statement?

I don't know what I should be writing in that one page, and while I've seen many examples of SOPs in the Grad Cafe, I haven't seen diversity statement examples yet.

Can anyone please help me out?

Thanks in advance.

[resDQ]

Haven't seen examples. Have seen comments of people already in programs to not worry about this. I have no idea how to fix your problem. Sorry.

[correlatesoftheory]

I'm in a similar boat. I have had some experience with helping others overcome barriers to education, but I'm going to have to stretch it. I talked to one retired faculty member from the Sociology department at my university, and he said if this part of your application is unremarkable then it shouldn't hurt you; however, if you do have experiences you can talk about or came from a "rough" background, then that might help. I think other parts of the app (statement, letters, grades, GRE scores, etc.) should weigh more, but this is mere speculation. 

[krapp]

I'm really curious about this too. I have one program asking for a diversity statement and while I have some rough ideas of what I could discuss (international work/travel experience, socioeconomic background) I'm really not sure what is considered appropriate/typical for this sort of thing. While I am glad to hear that it sounds like it's considered well after the other parts of the application, it's still something I would like to have as strong as possible. Every bit helps, right?

[Triangular]

I'm in the same boat, one school is asking for a diversity statement but I don't really have anything I would call diversity experience. Can anyone comment on how appropriate (or not) it might be to talk about coming from a low SES background, first gen college student, etc. as a form of diversity? I certainly see it that way but I'm worried the admin committee might see it as forced or irrelevant.

[resDQ]

2 hours ago, Triangular said:

I'm in the same boat, one school is asking for a diversity statement but I don't really have anything I would call diversity experience. Can anyone comment on how appropriate (or not) it might be to talk about coming from a low SES background, first gen college student, etc. as a form of diversity? I certainly see it that way but I'm worried the admin committee might see it as forced or irrelevant.

Not forced or irrelevant. Go for it.

[CarefreeWritingsontheWall]

When I could submit one, I did. I grew up in an area that, even in a developed country, had visible inequality. As a white, native English speaker, my family lived in an incredibly diverse community to the point where were were far from the visible majority. My public school was poorly funded and as a girl, there were no after school sports programs organized. There simply wasn't any money for it (or interest on the part of teachers). At 13 I moved and the school district was the complete reverse, as was the demographic of people attending (strong white majority, all upper middle class/upper class) and it was pretty startling. I transitioned to a high school that then had a huge disparity in income across students - a lot of people were wealthy, and a lot were poorer, with very few in the middle. All of this impacted how I viewed social policy, as well as economic issues. This experience inspired me to pursue a university education - something I wouldn't have ever considered had I never moved when I was 13 (where I grew up, people rarely went to university, let alone reputable competitive programs). I didn't exactly have it rough myself (my parents were very fortunate that when money was tight, nothing bad happened and my Dad secured a very stable job) but I was very aware of what was going on around me, as well as my position as a girl throughout it all. I faced a lot of sexual harassment while working in high school so I also reflected on that, as well as my general desire to give back to communities and demographics like the one I grew up in. Gender is usually the only bit of 'diversity' I can contribute as a girl, but I focused on my socio-economic experience as a whole and surprisingly had a lot to say. I was also applying as an international student to US programs.

This experience, is of course, very personal. But if you reflect on how you grew up, and how that influenced you, you might have more to provide than you would expect (as I did). I think it was helpful when I could articulate it, because it provided my application with a bit more depth than would otherwise have been the case (none of my mentors knew anything about my background before university).

[polscimajor]

48 minutes ago, CarefreeWritingsontheWall said:

When I could submit one, I did. I grew up in an area that, even in a developed country, had visible inequality. As a white, native English speaker, my family lived in an incredibly diverse community to the point where were were far from the visible majority. My public school was poorly funded and as a girl, there were no after school sports programs organized. There simply wasn't any money for it (or interest on the part of teachers). At 13 I moved and the school district was the complete reverse, as was the demographic of people attending (strong white majority, all upper middle class/upper class) and it was pretty startling. I transitioned to a high school that then had a huge disparity in income across students - a lot of people were wealthy, and a lot were poorer, with very few in the middle. All of this impacted how I viewed social policy, as well as economic issues. This experience inspired me to pursue a university education - something I wouldn't have ever considered had I never moved when I was 13 (where I grew up, people rarely went to university, let alone reputable competitive programs). I didn't exactly have it rough myself (my parents were very fortunate that when money was tight, nothing bad happened and my Dad secured a very stable job) but I was very aware of what was going on around me, as well as my position as a girl throughout it all. I faced a lot of sexual harassment while working in high school so I also reflected on that, as well as my general desire to give back to communities and demographics like the one I grew up in. Gender is usually the only bit of 'diversity' I can contribute as a girl, but I focused on my socio-economic experience as a whole and surprisingly had a lot to say. I was also applying as an international student to US programs.

This experience, is of course, very personal. But if you reflect on how you grew up, and how that influenced you, you might have more to provide than you would expect (as I did). I think it was helpful when I could articulate it, because it provided my application with a bit more depth than would otherwise have been the case (none of my mentors knew anything about my background before university).

Wow. Thank you so much! this is really helpful