Leadership as a topic for Secondary Diversity Essay?

[soccerguy974]

I was team captain for my NCAA team, I coached a baseball team for kids with special needs, and I started a company. Would these be unique enough to write about for a diversity secondary?

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[Mr.Smile12]

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• WildWing
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• Forum: Expert Advice Live

What's the prompt you are answering?

 

[soccerguy974]

Read articles about secondaries, and our Expert Advice Live session.

What's the prompt you are answering?

I have no specific prompt in mind, but a lot of the schools I am going to apply to have questions about what makes me diverse. I am ORM, went to private school my whole life, so only things I can think of that make me sound a little diverse compared to others are leadership experiences.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I have no specific prompt in mind, but a lot of the schools I am going to apply to have questions about what makes me diverse. I am ORM, went to private school my whole life, so only things I can think of that make me sound a little diverse compared to others are leadership experiences.

What did you write in Other Impactful Experiences? I also discussed the Personal Characteristics and Optional essays on TMDSAS, so while you might not apply to Texas, you may benefit from reading that prompt.

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• WildWing
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Essays

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I ask what the prompt is because the character/word limits will likely vary by school. You can't write one essay for everyone.

 

[soccerguy974]

What did you write in Other Impactful Experiences? I also discussed the Personal Characteristics and Optional essays on TMDSAS, so while you might not apply to Texas, you may benefit from reading that prompt.

Thread 'Personal Statement Q&A - May 4, 2025 @ 9 PM Eastern'

Apr 28, 2025

In this session, we’ll be diving into the personal statement and its companion essay, Other Impactful Experiences. Learn how to share your unique story.

• WildWing
• Replies: 2
• Forum: Expert Advice Live

Essays

www.tmdsas.com

I ask what the prompt is because the character/word limits will likely vary by school. You can't write one essay for everyone.

What did you write in Other Impactful Experiences?

• My grandma developed Alzheimer's while I was in college, both my parents worked full time jobs so I made it over to care for her while I could during the week and spending weekend with her. Then talking about how it impacted my studies and what I learned from the experience.

I ask what the prompt is because the character/word limits will likely vary by school. You can't write one essay for everyone.

• But can I use the same topic and particular experience for every school that asks me a question dealing with diversity?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I ask what the prompt is because the character/word limits will likely vary by school. You can't write one essay for everyone.

• But can I use the same topic and particular experience for every school that asks me a question dealing with diversity?

I wrote about how to address "diversity essays" in the article about Write Your Secondary Essays First. Here are two example prompts:

• How will your unique background and perspective contribute to the diversity of our learning community?
• How do your meaningful personal or professional activities affirm your own identity and the diversity of your peers and colleagues you are with?

These are slightly different. Do you think your topics answer these questions? From what I can presume, your second choice (coaching baseball for a team of special needs kids) feels like it best addresses the prompt, but it also showcases your persistence and teamwork/leadership skills. I am also sure you're going to have a question on teamwork or leadership, so what would you do?

Starting your own company is initiative, leadership, and entrepreneurship. I need more information to address either of these diversity prompts. Same thing with being team captain.

In short, I'm not a huge fan of any of those prompts. They really highlight leadership than diversity as you have described it.

 

[soccerguy974]

I wrote about how to address "diversity essays" in the article about Write Your Secondary Essays First. Here are two example prompts:

• How will your unique background and perspective contribute to the diversity of our learning community?
• How do your meaningful personal or professional activities affirm your own identity and the diversity of your peers and colleagues you are with?

These are slightly different. Do you think your topics answer these questions? From what I can presume, your second choice (coaching baseball for a team of special needs kids) feels like it best addresses the prompt, but it also showcases your persistence and teamwork/leadership skills. I am also sure you're going to have a question on teamwork or leadership, so what would you do?

Starting your own company is initiative, leadership, and entrepreneurship. I need more information to address either of these diversity prompts. Same thing with being team captain.

In short, I'm not a huge fan of any of those prompts. They really highlight leadership than diversity as you have described it.

I'm not really talking about it in terms of leadership. I am more trying to get at the point that I am diverse compared to other candidates because I have held many leadership positions that not many other applicants have held or have had experience with. Closest I have ever come to diversity is interacting with people from diverse backgrounds.

 

[LindaAccepted]

I'm not really talking about it in terms of leadership. I am more trying to get at the point that I am diverse compared to other candidates because I have held many leadership positions that not many other applicants have held or have had experience with. Closest I have ever come to diversity is interacting with people from diverse backgrounds.

When thinking about diversity, think about it in 3 possible ways, which I call the 3 IDS of Diversity:

1: IDentity, who you are. It could be ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious commitment, non-traditional educational background, a particularly strong political commitment.
2. I Dids or deeds. Do you have some unusual achievements? Overcoming challenges? Military service. Exceptional leadership or community servce experience or unusual hobbies. Concert pianist? Certified pastry chef? Led a group climbing Mt. Kilamanjaro?
3. IDeas. Your distinctive approach to problems or a specific perspective. Are you the problem solver? The connector in a group? Or the one who regularly relieves tension through a well placed bit of humor.

Another point: you can't pre-write one diversity essay that will work for all secondary applications for the following reasons:
1. As Mr.Smile12 points out, the specific questions differ and you want to answer the question posed not the question you think of now or read somewhere or even that you responded to in an earlier application.
2. You want each secondary essay to reveal something additive, something that teaches the reader something about you. You may write about an experience in response to a question about leadership and want to use that same experience in a response about diversity or inclusivity. If you do, you're not revealing as much as if you looked at each application strategically and planned out how to use each writing opportunity to provide more reasons to admit you.

I'm all for pre-writing secondaries, but those pre-written secondaries are supposed to be the basis for customizing your essays, not straight-jackets or a one-size-fits-all approach to secondary applications.

Also if you adapt secondary essays from previous applications, the FIRST thing you should do is change the school name to the school you are now writing for. I'd also put the new prompt at the top of the page/screen.

OK. I'll get off my soapbox.

 

[soccerguy974]

When thinking about diversity, think about it in 3 possible ways, which I call the 3 IDS of Diversity:

1: IDentity, who you are. It could be ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious commitment, non-traditional educational background, a particularly strong political commitment.
2. I Dids or deeds. Do you have some unusual achievements? Overcoming challenges? Military service. Exceptional leadership or community servce experience or unusual hobbies. Concert pianist? Certified pastry chef? Led a group climbing Mt. Kilamanjaro?
3. IDeas. Your distinctive approach to problems or a specific perspective. Are you the problem solver? The connector in a group? Or the one who regularly relieves tension through a well placed bit of humor.

Another point: you can't pre-write one diversity essay that will work for all secondary applications for the following reasons:
1. As Mr.Smile12 points out, the specific questions differ and you want to answer the question posed not the question you think of now or read somewhere or even that you responded to in an earlier application.
2. You want each secondary essay to reveal something additive, something that teaches the reader something about you. You may write about an experience in response to a question about leadership and want to use that same experience in a response about diversity or inclusivity. If you do, you're not revealing as much as if you looked at each application strategically and planned out how to use each writing opportunity to provide more reasons to admit you.

I'm all for pre-writing secondaries, but those pre-written secondaries are supposed to be the basis for customizing your essays, not straight-jackets or a one-size-fits-all approach to secondary applications.

Also if you adapting secondary essays from previous applications, the FIRST thing you should do is change the school name to the school you are now writing for. I'd also put the new prompt at the top of the page/screen.

OK. I'll get off my soapbox.

Sounds like as long as you focus on answering the question, you can use any type of story you want to, it does not have to be anything unique. Do you have any good completed examples I can look at?

 

[LindaAccepted]

Sounds like as long as you focus on answering the question, you can use any type of story you want to, it does not have to be anything unique. Do you have any good completed examples I can look at?

Focusing on answering the question is a great place to start. And yes, you can use any example or story as long as it supports your answer and adds to the readers knowledge of you.

On one hand, all these essays are a lot of work and a pain in the neck. On the other, each one is another opportunity for you to give the readers reason to admit you.

Regarding uniqueness, it should be unique. However, the uniqueness can flow from the story itself AND the analysis and interpretation you give the event or story. You don't have to have climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro; maybe you climbed a local landmark and helped someone who is disabled do the same. Maybe you climbed a local mountain that you had to train to climb and are very proud of having done especially since you convinced a group of out-of-shape colleagues from diverse backgrounds to join you. Now you have some thoughts on teamwork, leadership, andmutual accountability that you can now share. The possibilities are endless.

BUT, it depends on the question and information that isn't provided elsewhere in the app.

 

[polymerization]

My grandma developed Alzheimer's while I was in college, both my parents worked full time jobs so I made it over to care for her while I could during the week and spending weekend with her. Then talking about how it impacted my studies and what I learned from the experience.

Did you take a neuroscience class in college? Are you interested in neurology, palliative, or memory care more broadly as a result of your experience? Or, do you want to work with individuals with profound disabilities as a physiatrist? See if you can't project a forward-facing vision of yourself as a physician using that experience as a lens (maybe only one of many) that can help schools see you as something already in formation.

Maybe it's just my own rhetorical flourish and personal preference, but when I was writing my PS, I felt the insistence on presenting as a sort of blob that is "interested in everything" and fully open to everything made it hard for me to show the interests I did have and how my experiences fed into those interests. For example, in my PS, I essentially position myself as interested in psychiatry, because my experiences gestured in that direction, and it is an interest, so, why not?

At the end of the day, they can't force you to apply into any particular specialty once you get in. At the same time, if you feel you can authentically draw that through-line and it helps tie together your "why," telling your story this way is just strategic, not dishonest or unnecessarily limiting. I think it depends on what you got out of the experiences that you had, and what they meant to you personally.

 

[soccerguy974]

Did you take a neuroscience class in college? Are you interested in neurology, palliative, or memory care more broadly as a result of your experience? Or, do you want to work with individuals with profound disabilities as a physiatrist? See if you can't project a forward-facing vision of yourself as a physician using that experience as a lens (maybe only one of many) that can help schools see you as something already in formation.

Maybe it's just my own rhetorical flourish and personal preference, but when I was writing my PS, I felt the insistence on presenting as a sort of blob that is "interested in everything" and fully open to everything made it hard for me to show the interests I did have and how my experiences fed into those interests. For example, in my PS, I essentially position myself as interested in psychiatry, because my experiences gestured in that direction, and it is an interest, so, why not?

At the end of the day, they can't force you to apply into any particular specialty once you get in. At the same time, if you feel you can authentically draw that through-line and it helps tie together your "why," telling your story this way is just strategic, not dishonest or unnecessarily limiting. I think it depends on what you got out of the experiences that you had, and what they meant to you personally.

I do not really understand what you are trying to get at particularly, I have already written my personal statement. This was my other impactful experience essay, more so just talking about an event in my life that happened that effected my academics and athletics in college since this event wouldn't fit as a "Work/Activity". It is not a story for my motivation or why I want to go into medicine, unless that is what the other impactful experience essay is supposed to be about. But from my understanding the other impactful experience essay , is just about some event in your life that effected you that can't be classified as a "Work/Activity".

 

[polymerization]

I do not really understand what you are trying to get at particularly, I have already written my personal statement. This was my other impactful experience essay, more so just talking about an event in my life that happened that effected my academics and athletics in college since this event wouldn't fit as a "Work/Activity". It is not a story for my motivation or why I want to go into medicine, unless that is what the other impactful experience essay is supposed to be about. But from my understanding the other impactful experience essay , is just about some event in your life that effected you that can't be classified as a "Work/Activity".

I was responding to the following, with regard to secondaries, although I applied it to my PS as well:

I have no specific prompt in mind, but a lot of the schools I am going to apply to have questions about what makes me diverse. I am ORM, went to private school my whole life, so only things I can think of that make me sound a little diverse compared to others are leadership experiences.

Diversity doesn't just mean racial or socioeconomic diversity. Everyone has experienced something that influences them and colors the way they view things. Because we all experience different things and thus perceive things differently as a result, we can all contribute some kind of diversity. It's still your job, respectfully, to show how you are going to contribute your flavor, whatever flavor that may be.

I was trying to help you find a way to market yourself that is literate to schools and respects your experiences, but that's not a requirement at all, just my opinion/style of writing. You can take a strict definition of the term, but then, I agree, it sounds like you don't have many structural obstacles in your way to write about.

 

[soccerguy974]

I was responding to the following, with regard to secondaries, although I applied it to my PS as well:



Diversity doesn't just mean racial or socioeconomic diversity. Everyone has experienced something that influences them and colors the way they view things. Because we all experience different things and thus perceive things differently as a result, we can all contribute some kind of diversity. It's still your job, respectfully, to show how you are going to contribute your flavor, whatever flavor that may be.

I was trying to help you find a way to market yourself that is literate to schools and respects your experiences, but that's not a requirement at all, just my opinion/style of writing. You can take a strict definition of the term, but then, I agree, it sounds like you don't have many structural obstacles in your way to write about.

Yes it definitely has been rough trying to think of experiences.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Yes it definitely has been rough trying to think of experiences.

Another prompt that could help you (again, give us a prompt) includes a question on a time when you were not part of the "in crowd", or that you felt like an outsider or imposter, or "the other"/third wheel/didn't belong.

 

[soccerguy974]

Another prompt that could help you (again, give us a prompt) includes a question on a time when you were not part of the "in crowd", or that you felt like an outsider or imposter, or "the other"/third wheel/didn't belong.

I understand where you are coming from when you ask for a prompt, I am not avoiding the question, but when applying to 30+ schools I can't come up with a new story for each prompt or continuously ask if this experience or that experience fits this specific prompt. If I have a few experiences that exemplify diversity, it would be easier to know that they are good examples of diversity and I can try to adapt them to the specific prompt I am working on.