How are these ideas for the Diversity Essay question?

[TheBossDoctor]

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I know there's a couple threads about this, but I wanted to know about my ideas in particular for the diversity essay question ("how can you contribute to the diversity of this school" or "how can you enrich our community").

1. I have traveled quite a bit, including a study abroad experience in Europe and a medical mission trip to Panama. This has obviously exposed me to a lot of other cultures, and I could talk about my interactions with people different from me. I could also talk about how those experiences gave me traits such as adaptability, confidence, independence, and decision-making

2. Growing up, I was a minority who grew up in an all-white town. I could talk about the clash between my traditional family values with the way of life in the town (and how I had to decide between following old values or fitting in with the crowd in my town). Also, I did again have to interact with people that were much different from me.

3. I am considering talking about my fraternity experience. I've gained a lot of leadership and teamwork skills through this, and I have worked extensively with all types of people to help build the house. Definitely learned a lot of skills and gained some new perspectives which will hopefully help me out a lot in the medical field.

4. If the fraternity is too touchy of a subject, I could instead talk about my leadership role in my community service club, where I pretty much learned similar traits and saw some of the same perspectives (plus more service related concepts as well). Of course, the downside here is that this is probably a more common experience.

Let me know which of these might be good to talk about in the diversity essay. Definitely struggling with this D:

 

[dkpremed]

Just anther pre-med but I think if you could tie 1 and 2 together in an essay it would be a pretty good one.

 

[circulus vitios]

I talked about my non-clinical work experience, and how I had to get along with coworkers and customers from different races, religions, moral values, cultures, socioeconomic statuses, etc. Nothing amazing, but these diversity essays are all bull**** anyways.

 

[Tots]

They could all work. What is going to make or break you(and everyone else) is how you talk about these experiences and not what experiences you choose to talk about.

General advice for people in this situation: The word diversity seems to throw a lot of people for a loop. I promise you, no matter how cookie cutter you are, you view the world through a fairly unique lens. Sometime it's easier to start with experiences and identify how you grew or changed in these experiences. Ask you self if the experience changed your perspective on any. If yes, you have both an answer to the diversity question and supporting examples. String a few sentences together and you are good to go.

 

[psswrd]

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[TheBossDoctor]

Ah I see. The only thing I have against writing about my fraternity experience is whether or not it might be frowned upon by ADCOMs due to the stereotypes.

Any other opinions?

 

[rudziutki]

I have read about ten diversity essays offered through school, SDN, medical school guide books, etc. They all had extremely generic themes - certainly nothing that made me think "golly, that will definitely benefit a medical school class!". Mine are admittedly similar. I bet adcoms read 99% of these and forget them two minutes later.

I would LOVE to see an example of a diversity essay which most of SDN can agree is a good essay. I am tempted to say that such a thing does nto exist.

 

[pyrrion89]

I did something similar to 2, but I am basically white but grew up in a nearly 100% Hispanic community, so it's the reverse but with the same theme. I also discussed growing up blue collar with both my parents dropping out of high school and how I tutored my mom so she could pass her math tests to get her HS diploma.

EDIT: 1 seems like a landmine field. Some adcoms are touchy about medical missions and Europe travel gives off a privilege aura, when diversity essays tend to be about the opposite.

 

[psswrd]

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[TheBossDoctor]

I see.

Well as far as #1, it was a study abroad thing in Europe, and I would talk more about how I interacted with other cultures and people different from me for an extended period of time. That extended interaction, along with flexibility/adaptability/resiliency will help me out as a doctor.

I really want to talk about #4 since I am very passionate about everything I did in that community service club. I learned a ton from it. Would it be OK to talk about that one? I do also talk about it a little in my personal statement and most meaningful experience sections of AMCAS so that is also why I am hesitant.

 

[psswrd]

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[Jennyfishy]

I also like the #2 and #4 discussion a bit more than the #1 and #2 (I've been seeing a lot of people discuss the #1 topic, and it seems overdone). I think the second one is something interesting to talk about. If you dealt with a lot of discrimination because of the demographics, that would be important to note if it affect your self-perception or how you view the world, as well as influence what kind of community projects you became involved in 😀

 

[TheBossDoctor]

Hmm I'm having trouble working on writing about #2. Anyone have ideas for different directions that can be taken?

I find that I have a lot of stuff (500+ words) to say about #4, so I'm wondering if I could just write about that?

 

[TheBossDoctor]

Hmm I'm having trouble working on writing about #2. Anyone have ideas for different directions that can be taken?

I find that I have a lot of stuff (500+ words) to say about #4, so I'm wondering if I could just write about that?