Questionable immigrant diversity essay topic?

[Jaigantic]

I am conflicted between two ideas for my diversity essay. The one I'm leaning towards is about how my family and I have been international students in the US for nearly 16 years, receiving financial support from my dad from overseas. I can talk about how this has caused me to never feel like I belong to any group as I was born in a culture that I am removed from and raised in a culture whose norms and habits I have learned but still feel some sort of rejection from since I'm not an american citizen or permanent resident despite living here for so long. Although this has been a pretty significant roadblock in my life it has also taught me many lessons.

I am hesitant to write about it since I feel like some readers may have biases against immigrants or even because highlighting the fact that I am international student may be a detriment to my app in general since some schools prefer citizens and residents. My point with this one is that despite being an international student, I have learned and live American norms and am American in everything but name.

On the other hand, I am also considering writing about how a legitimate hobby of mine is studying and learning languages and how I use this as an opportunity to expose myself to different cultures since they all have so much to offer and teach. I love being able to communicate with whoever I'd like and learning all sorts of new things you can't learn by confining yourself to one culture. Through learning about so many cultures, I have learned to adopt the greatest values and beliefs of each while keeping away from the negatives associated with them, creating my own unique "culture" which is a conglomeration of different cultures

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[gyngyn]

The immigrant experience is a perfectly legitimate topic.

 

[Jaigantic]

The immigrant experience is a perfectly legitimate topic.

Do you think it's stronger than the language learning one? My app has aspects that support both topics (mention of the struggles of the immigrant situation in my PS and ECs such as language learning as a hobby and multiple volunteering experiences working with latino communities partly as a means to improve my language skills)

 

[gyngyn]

Do you think it's stronger than the language learning one? My app has aspects that support both topics (mention of the struggles of the immigrant situation in my PS and ECs such as language learning as a hobby and multiple volunteering experiences working with latino communities partly as a means to improve my language skills)

All languages are valuable, but the immigrant experience is at the heart of America.

 

[UBLI-EINSTEIN]

I am conflicted between two ideas for my diversity essay. The one I'm leaning towards is about how my family and I have been international students in the US for nearly 16 years, receiving financial support from my dad from overseas. I can talk about how this has caused me to never feel like I belong to any group as I was born in a culture that I am removed from and raised in a culture whose norms and habits I have learned but still feel some sort of rejection from since I'm not an american citizen or permanent resident despite living here for so long. Although this has been a pretty significant roadblock in my life it has also taught me many lessons.

I am hesitant to write about it since I feel like some readers may have biases against immigrants or even because highlighting the fact that I am international student may be a detriment to my app in general since some schools prefer citizens and residents. My point with this one is that despite being an international student, I have learned and live American norms and am American in everything but name.

On the other hand, I am also considering writing about how a legitimate hobby of mine is studying and learning languages and how I use this as an opportunity to expose myself to different cultures since they all have so much to offer and teach. I love being able to communicate with whoever I'd like and learning all sorts of new things you can't learn by confining yourself to one culture. Through learning about so many cultures, I have learned to adopt the greatest values and beliefs of each while keeping away from the negatives associated with them, creating my own unique "culture" which is a conglomeration of different cultures

I don't understand your point. They will know your status through AMCAS. Hiding your visa status at this stage will not help you anyway.
Let's say if all the schools you applied to prefer US citizens and residents, you may even get rejected prior to getting a secondary application. So why do you bother?
If you think it's a good topic, then just write that down.

 

[Jaigantic]

I don't understand your point. They will know your status through AMCAS. Hiding your visa status at this stage will not help you anyway.
Let's say if all the schools you applied to prefer US citizens and residents, you may even get rejected prior to getting a secondary application. So why do you bother?
If you think it's a good topic, then just write that down.

Of course they'll know my status but I just wasn't sure if parading it around and constantly reminding them that I'm not a citizen would be harmful or neutral towards my chances.

 

[UBLI-EINSTEIN]

Of course they'll know my status but I just wasn't sure if parading it around and constantly reminding them that I'm not a citizen would be harmful or neutral towards my chances.

Come on, they will not forget your visa status even if you don't emphasize them.
As I said, if they really had a bias to you, you wouldn't even get a secondary from them. So why do you bother?
Here's a chance for you to use your visa status, which you think is a disadvantage, as an advantage.
Then over concerning this thing seem to be meaningless and not helpful at all.

By the way, no one here could absolutely guarantee mentioning your visa status won't be a problem at all.
It totally depends on the adcom in the schools you're applying and other factors like your stats.
By the end you would either be accepted or rejected. This is your call.
If you really concern your visa status, then just don't mention them at all, although I don't think this is a good idea anyway.

 

[lickerwhicker]

I think your immigrant status topic is valid and perfect to write about, but I also think that a lot of students will also write stuff about their immigration experience, language barriers, etc. If you're asking if this topic is unique/rare, then I don't know about that. But I think that topic is awesome, especially if it really impacted/shaped you. 🙂

 

[Jaigantic]

I want to make clear that my topic isn't necessarily a typical immigrant family struggling to succeed in America despite language barriers and culture shock. I personally didn't experience any culture shock or anything like that since I lived here since I was a toddler. What I'm asking about is more of an identity crisis type thing where I have internalized and live the American lifestyle but I still can't call myself an American after nearly 2 decades of living here b/c I'm not a citizen or resident. Nor could I identify with the values of my country of citizenship b/c I have been removed from it since a young age. And then I plan to tie it all together by saying I realized that placing a label on oneself as "American" or "Polish" or anything else was detrimental to me because it closed my mind to the virtues of other cultures and that rather than feeling conflicted about my immigration/citizenship status, I have adopted a more worldly view; try to expose myself to all cultures and lifestyles without thinking "yep, this is the culture that I belong to" since all cultures have something great to offer.

Does that make sense? What do you all think of that approach?

 

[lickerwhicker]

okay i see. but from what it sounds like, your experience only seemed to shape/impact you by making you more worldly and culturally aware. i feel like you could definitely go beyond that

 

[Jaigantic]

okay i see. but from what it sounds like, your experience only seemed to shape/impact you by making you more worldly and culturally aware. i feel like you could definitely go beyond that

How so?

 

[lickerwhicker]

How so?

Like, did you learn anything else? In other words, how does your experience as someone living a multicultural life make you more worldly and culturally knowledgeable? What makes your experience different from gaining cultural awareness via traveling around the world or doing missionary work in other countries? Basically, you don't want adcoms to read your essay and be like, "okay so...then what?" if that makes sense

 

[Jaigantic]

Like, did you learn anything else? In other words, how does your experience as someone living a multicultural life make you more worldly and culturally knowledgeable? What makes your experience different from gaining cultural awareness via traveling around the world or doing missionary work in other countries? Basically, you don't want adcoms to read your essay and be like, "okay so...then what?" if that makes sense

I get ya. It's hard to encapsulate how this experience has reflected on me since there's so many facets to it but I know it's very uncommon and I'll try to dig deeper through the surface. Thanks!

 

[lickerwhicker]

I get ya. It's hard to encapsulate how this experience has reflected on me since there's so many facets to it but I know it's very uncommon and I'll try to dig deeper through the surface. Thanks!

yeah i totally understand. my diversity topic is actually happens to be very similar to yours and i found that doing a lot of introspection helped me find a good answer. good luck 🙂

 

[artist27]

All languages are valuable, but the immigrant experience is at the heart of America.

I am a bit confused because I have seen adcoms respond to these types of questions saying that being an immigrant doesn't make a person "cool" and to pick something other than ethnic background/being an immigrant

 

[gyngyn]

I am a bit confused because I have seen adcoms respond to these types of questions saying that being an immigrant doesn't make a person "cool" and to pick something other than ethnic background/being an immigrant

A thoughtful reflection on the immigrant experience is hard to beat.
Similarly, the experience of a being seen as "different" in the US can be powerful.
Merely stating your ethnicity or country of origin... not so much. Perhaps this is what they were referring to.

 

[lickerwhicker]

I am a bit confused because I have seen adcoms respond to these types of questions saying that being an immigrant doesn't make a person "cool" and to pick something other than ethnic background/being an immigrant

being an immigrant doesn't make you cool necessarily, but if you can talk about how your immigrant experience shaped you to become the person you are today, then you should write about it.