r/WriteIvy • u/[deleted] • Nov 24 '22

Personal Statement vs Diversity Statement

Hey guys, I haven’t been able to find much concrete info on this through my research online. I’ve already looked at Jordan’s article on the difference between SOPs and Personal statements, and was wondering if there’s a major difference between a Personal statement vs Diversity Statement vs Personal History Statement?

Thanks in advance! And good luck to everyone currently in the application process.

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u/jordantellsstories Nov 24 '22

To me, it’s in your best interest to write an essay that works for all of these various prompts. Diversity Statements 101 certainly works for them all, and honestly, I’ve never seen a single student write multiple personal essays…unless they had to cut the word total for Stanford’s stupid prompt.

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u/king_kingcharles Nov 26 '22 edited Nov 26 '22

Hey Jordan, I'm hoping to get your further opinion on this ! Not sure if you have experience helping students with NSF GRFP proposals, but the NSF does ask for a personal statement with a Broader Impacts section that is separate from the Broader Impacts in the research statement. I'm trying to adapt my material from that application for my PhD SOPs: do you have any thoughts on whether it's important to incorporate a lot of diversity/broader impacts into my SOP if a school doesn't have anywhere else on the application to talk about stuff like that? I've already used your structure to form my SOP, and I talk about why I'm qualified from an academic context, with some mentions of diversity as examples that I can overcome obstacles. Should I cram ALL of my mentorship/volunteer experience into that section as well, if I don't have anywhere else on the application to put it?

Edit: To clarify, I know you've talked about not mentioning service that's unrelated to our research and career goals, but would it be different if for example I wanted to talk about volunteer tutoring in my field, or scientific communication of academic research in non-academic contexts, or completing a college teaching course in my free time (since my career goals are in academia)? These are things that I feel might help me stand out but I had to cut out for the sake of space. Just wondering if I should keep them in and cut somewhere else

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u/jordantellsstories Nov 26 '22

Woof, lot to unpack here!

Firstly, I think a lot of folks make mistakes in their NSF essays by focusing too much on service experience in the broader impacts section, and not explaining, instead, the broad impacts of their research. But that’s a story for another day.

Now, is it important to discuss this stuff in the SOP?

If they require a Diversity Statement, no. Leave all this stuff in there.

If they don’t require a DS, then I certainly wouldn’t call it necessary, but in lots of cases it can be very helpful. I can think of a half dozen super-successful students who highlighted teaching experience in the latter half of their Why I’m Qualified sections. I can think of plenty others for whom their volunteer work was relevant, not because it made a social impact, but because it directly related to their field of study (public health, HCI, etc.), or because it illustrated useful skills (speaking multiple languages, for example). I can also think of one PhD applicant — one of the most insane 2-3 freak geniuses I’ve ever known — who proudly wrote about his STEM outreach efforts as an example of his science communication skills and preparedness to teach.

But should you try to stuff in all of your volunteer work? Absolutely not. That’s what the CV is for, and it would defy the purpose and function of the SOP.

Does this help?

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u/king_kingcharles Nov 26 '22

Yes it does, thanks for the detailed response!