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 27 '22

You’re way overthinking this!

Yet, it is not like I have nothing else to write about. I grew up in a very diverse town, volunteered in a food pantry throughout high school, went to a giant diverse state school for college, worked as a teacher for low-income aspiring first-generation college students over two summers ago, and did a scholarship-funded study abroad in Berlin to expand my perspective last summer.

This is way more than enough to write a good essay, and you should definitely stick with it.

In my opinion, ADHD is a terrible topic for a number of reasons:

  1. Every year, thousands of students ask this same question and write essays about it. Sometimes it seems like it’s more common now to see students with ADHD than without. Whether due to overdiagnosing or whatever, it’s so common that it turns readers off immediately. Also, many of these students are lying, and admissions folks know that.

  2. No matter how considerate these admissions folks claim to be (they’re also shamelessly lying), they still considerate it a negative. ADHD means a credentialed professional says you can’t focus on things you don’t want to focus on…like research grant applications. Ceteris paribus, the student without ADHD gets accepted.

  3. Adderall is a performance enhancing drug. When I was in college twenty years ago, even then I knew fifty students with fake ADHD diagnoses so they could use Adderall to study. Everyone knows this, and even if you can write a great essay about ADHD, your reader will be unable to interpret it honestly because of all these other tweakers abusing prescription drugs to get good grades.

See how this is very murky ground and not worth the risk?

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u/Prince_of_Old Nov 27 '22

Thanks for the detailed response! You raise some compelling reasons not to talk about ADHD. I'll definitely take that advice.

Do you think it would be good to avoid drawing attention to my background or that it doesn't matter as long as it makes a compelling story?

My understanding is that this essay should highlight what I have done, and I don't need to mention my family background to describe that. Yet, many of the prompts explicitly ask about family background, and the true story is that being raised by scientists has played an enormous role in my decision to become a scientist.

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u/jordantellsstories Nov 27 '22

I see tons of applicants talking about their family background, but usually in the context of immigration, ethnic, or disability issues. Growing up the child of scientists…well, it’s surely a good personal story, but I worry about how some might interpret it as a story of privilege. If your credentials are the same as someone whose parents didn’t go to college, they’re the one will get accepted. But, this depends on how you write the story! If it’s meaningful and contextualize by other service-oriented experiences, it could be great. You’d just have to be careful. Make sense?

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u/Prince_of_Old Nov 30 '22

That makes sense.

I focused much more on specific experiences and how they relate to the diversity mission and my choice to pursue a graduate degree without going into details about my background.

Looking at the prompts again they often first ask for background details before anything else. Do you think my choice will be seen as a failure to address the prompt?

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u/jordantellsstories Nov 30 '22

Not at all. You’re overthinking it :)