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Diversity essays are not supposed to be at about ethnicity. They're supposed to be about what's cool about you? About what do you bring to the class that will benefit it?
I honestly love the "what's cool about you?" Prompt. Honestly, I think schools should just ask that.
Exactly. Everything does not need to be about race/ethnicity. From someone that is NOT an AdCom, this is my opinion. Medical schools are not looking at your race as the sole diversity factor. They look at underrepresented races because they can provide, in many situations, unique experiences, outlooks, and knowledge that others may not have. This is valuable! Just like literally everything else, they want UNIQUE. What makes you stand out? It's why a lot of qualified individuals with average stats (still good in the grand scheme of course) and average ECs go under the radar. Not to say that low stats will make you stand out in a good way, of course not. But uniqueness is what gets an AdCom to read your app. They're a human after all, they want excitement and they get bored too, just like we do. If everyone in their matriculating class was the same background due to the same race, from the same area in the country, had the same stats, had the same ECs, the class would be close to robotic. Different people with different backgrounds and different experiences contribute in unique ways. Medicine is a collaborative career, and the more you can bring that others cannot, the more desirable you are. Race contributes to this based on explanations above, but race alone is not enough. I honestly don't think much will change, as selecting based on race was already not allowed. And honestly, it's a good thing as both of the extreme possibilities relating to that are bad (choosing all ORM and choosing all URM). A healthy mix is desirable. The applicant pool by race is also something to consider. The racial makeup of a class definitely depends on the % of each applying. Same with gender; we've seen that trend change in the past 5-10 years. If anything, it would be better to focus on providing URMs equal chance. But then again, the MCAT exists. We see the average scores by race. The MCAT is equal chance, but not all have the same access to education or study resources. A conversation for another time.
