Diversity for "is there anything else?" Q

[mmcoffee]

I have heard it is acceptable to submit the diversity essay for the "is there anything else you want to share with the admissions committee?" secondary.

I don't know how fitting this would be since, to me, this seems kind of a random thing to put in for that specific prompt.

Does anyone have any opinions on this?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[gannicus89]

I did that... Everything important I want them to know is already in my primary or was answered through the secondaries. I did a mash-up of diversity + about me for a few of these vague questions.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Here are two responses that I would share with you.

One is from @gonnif

What everyone should use to fill the space asking for additional information is your judgement

Unless you have something else in your academic, personal, or other arenas that you have not discussed or mentioned elsewhere in your application and that you think the adcom should know in order to understand you as an applicant, there is no reason to put any information down. This is the place where you may want to mention any truly extenuating circumstances or mitigating factors that might have affected academic performance that were not discussed elsewhere, such as illness, death of a parent, etc. There is no reason to add an additional essay of some sort that was not previously asked. There is no reason to put down something that is just done to fill an empty space. There is no reason to have written a piece of fluff so that the last thing a reader sees is useless. The worse thing than no information is garbage information.

The other is from myself in response to the question "why leave these particular optional essays blank?"

Because you have enormous potential to harm your app by

1) answering a question that wasn't asked and is entirely unnecessary to answer

2) force a reader to read something they don't care about

3) bore a reader

4) end up writing something that will reflect poorly on you

If your app is otherwise solid, let it speak for itself. Don't add unsolicited information that isn't really useful. The only time I can recommend writing something here is if there is something so defining about your application that is absolutely necessary for context when evaluating the whole app that isn't given space for anywhere else. Most applicants don't have these.

Think about it from the adcom's perspective - do you think they asked this question so they can hear about how cool your art is?

 

[ChillDawg]

What about new stuff like getting a new job, and other things the applicant is doing over the gap year, for instance.

 

[nRomaleos]

Here are two responses that I would share with you.

One is from @gonnif
The other is from myself in response to the question "why leave these particular optional essays blank?"

Even with most meaningful, I could only talk about one of my activities for a limited length. Is expounding on one particular aspect of the experience not useful for these optional sections?

 

[WedgeDawg]

Even with most meaningful, I could only talk about one of my activities for a limited length. Is expounding on one particular aspect of the experience not useful for these optional sections?

That's what the interview is for!

 

[nRomaleos]

That's what the interview is for!

Hmm.

Does this change if the secondary application doesn't have any questions other than "Anything else?"

 

[tea guzzling traveler]

I'm currently debating a similar question (JHU's last question). It is a little bit more expansive than the anything else prompts, but less than a direct question of what qualities would you bring to X school. Where do you fall down on a question like this @WedgeDawg @gonnif

For reference, prompt is below
"The Admissions Committee values hearing about each candidate for admission, including what qualities the candidate might bring to the School of Medicine if admitted. If you feel there is information not already addressed in the application that will enable the Committee to know more about you and this has influenced your desire to be a physician, feel free to write a brief statement in the space below. You may address any subject you wish, such as being a first generation college student, or being a part of a minority group (whether because of your sexual orientation, religion, economic status, gender identity, ethnicity), or being the child of undocumented immigrants or being undocumented yourself, etc. Please note that this question is optional and that you will not be penalized should you choose not to answer it."

 

[md-2020]

"is there anything else you want to share with the admissions committee?"

"You'll have to interview me to find out"

 

[GrapesofRath]

Here are two responses that I would share with you.

One is from @gonnif



The other is from myself in response to the question "why leave these particular optional essays blank?"

It's incredibly basic and grade school esque but I feel like there are still a decent number of people who think that not answering the "anything else" question comes across as disinterested/lazy and is akin to not "answering the bonus question on the test". This is not the way you should look at this prompt at all. Extraneous information that doesn't add to your application at best does absolutely nothing for you except waste time and it is not unrealistic to see a situation where it has a negative effect on your app at all. Nobody is playing games with you here checking to see if you can catch their hidden motive; if you really have nothing else to say don't.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Oops!