Diversity Statement

[clinicalpsyapp]

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A couple of the schools I'm applying to have optional diversity statements. I have the understanding that it is asking about my background, not my experience or commitment to diversity. Here are the two prompts:

School X:

The X Graduate School is strongly committed to attracting qualified students of diverse backgrounds to its community of scholars. Applicants are invited, if they wish, to include with their application, a statement on how their background and life experience would contribute to diversity within the Graduate School community and to the School's commitment to training individuals in an increasingly diverse society.

School Y:

The Graduate School at Y University considers having a diverse student population a key element to the educational experience of its graduate students. Diversity presents itself in many different forms such as: socio-economic status, race or ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality or place of origin, disability, unique work or life experience, etc. We invite you to use this space to tell us how you may contribute to the diversification of, The Graduate School, your program and Y University. (The submission of this statement is optional for all applicants.)
I do have somewhat of a different background because I come from an economically disadvantaged family. I had to drop out of high school and get my GED and start working full-time to help out my family. I then worked full-time all through college and grad school (I am finishing up a master's degree) but still graduated at the top of my class. I am not, however, a first generation college student (my mom has a bachelor's degree). Is this something I could talk about in these essays or does it just sound too "woe is me"?

 

[PhDClinical]

I think you should use that for your diversity statement, but just be careful to write about how it has prepared you for graduate school and influenced your life perspective in positive ways, rather than lingering on the "woe is me" part of it. It seems like your experiences are exactly what they are trying to get at. I have some similar things that I wrote about, and I made sure that I finished up by writing about how my experiences will affect me as a graduate student.

Is that first prompt from Yale?

 

[clinicalpsyapp]

I think you should use that for your diversity statement, but just be careful to write about how it has prepared you for graduate school and influenced your life perspective in positive ways, rather than lingering on the "woe is me" part of it. It seems like your experiences are exactly what they are trying to get at. I have some similar things that I wrote about, and I made sure that I finished up by writing about how my experiences will affect me as a graduate student.

Is that first prompt from Yale?

Thanks for the advice. Yes, the first prompt is from Yale... don't really know why I decided it was necessary to disguise the school names.