Quick Input on Diversity Essay Ideas

[EileenX]

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[OfMiceAndWomen]

I really like #3 for your diversity essay, bringing in perspective as a minority/female volunteer firefighter is really cool!

Maybe you could use #1 for adversity essay? Have you experienced sexism in academia/research? You could take it from that angle. Even though there are good numbers of women matriculating to med/grad school, men definitely still dominate positions of power (PIs, department chairs, deans, etc.), and that certainly influences how women pursue (or not) careers in academia.

 

[Goro]

Like many others, having trouble nailing down a diversity essay topic. Here are a few ideas if anyone would be willing to provide some quick input! Applying only to MSTP programs, but checking the consider for MD option for schools that have that.

1) Talking about my immigrant parents and how in the Asian community, women are expected to take on "easy," secure jobs and find a charismatic husband in school. Disapprove of my plans to become a PI and hold a professorship position in academia -> general negative attitude toward women in academia. I've seen two women PIs in academia, and both them and every male PI I've talked to discouraged me from an MSTP (something about having to have kids), and the females talked about rampant sexism. This topic is something I probably resonate more with but kind of sounds like I'm complaining, especially as women are doing pretty well lately in numbers in graduate and medical school (though less in tenured positions).

2) Talking about how I am very open-minded, and I like bringing together multiple perspectives in looking at problems. Main example is the fact that I minored in English despite being very science and research heavy, and I took a class and joined a club where we used computer programming to analyze Shakespeare and stuff like that.

3) Overcoming physical barriers and being a minority/female as a volunteer firefighter but how I ended up learning a lot through perseverance (probably using this for adversity essay for the schools that have that though)

Thank you ahead of time for your thoughts.

One is supposed to be open minded, and using that as a prompt implies that your future classmates are not.

Both 1 and 3 are good.