<p>Hey, i wrote my commonapp essay on an anti-drug movie and how it affected me deeply and how it made me change etc etc.
and i remembered how being culturally diverse helps, right? so i am an indian but an american citizen and i've been living in india for the last 8 years. I added stuff about this to my essay, but it doesn't look as strong anymore.
how relevant is diversity to applications anyway? does it give me a great advantage? should i keep it or revert to the original essay?</p>
<p>Very important choice. Diversity has it’s own place on the app. In the US, GC’s will usually mention it. Your transcript will show you are now studying in India. Etc. You can make your ethnic background work in the essay if you discuss cultural differences related to your topic. However you handle it, it needs to be made relevant to your essay topic.</p>
<p>oh okay. then i’ll have to fit itin. my essay’s on how Requiem for a Dream impacted me, by the way. If you have any ideas to link it. 
but i’ll get down to it, essays are my strong point.
also, my high school curriculum rigor is SO HARD. what we do here in india is like 102 courses in college. or higher, especially in math. that fact helps right?
but most of my classmates take the same thing, does that make it less extraordinary?</p>
<p>If you really want to make your essay about Requiem for a Dream (this movie greatly influenced me too!), then maybe you should switch over to either the essay topic about a character influencing you or just “create your own topic” and discuss the film as a whole. I’d be biased in saying that it’s a good essay topic because I personally want to read it. :P</p>
<p>No, no i first wrote an essay and went thru multiple proofread cycles about this essay on requiem for a dream and it’s influence on me. It was almost done when i remembered the diversity card. now i don’t know how to incorporate it. 
cause Requiem for a Dream is a strong influence.</p>
<p>How much of the essay do you consider to be about diversity? Because if there isn’t much, then it’s probably better to just change the essay topic and use what you have. I think that, at this point, if there isn’t much diversity in the essay, then whatever you do put in now will seem forced. I had a similar issue with my issue since I planned to do the diversity essay but then my essay turned into a bunch of other stuff with diversity as a minor point.</p>
<p>not really much. the diversity part seems very minor and forced, which is why i raised this topic.
at first, my essay was about how the portrayal of obsession influenced me. i wrote about how it showed me to think clearly, never get into drugs etc. i wrote about how it made me a hard worker cause it deterred me from doing things ‘the easy way’ like how they try to make easy money with all the drugs. and then i wrote about it making sure i say no to drugs. and then the influences it had on me yada yada.
then in the second one, i connected diversity to mindsets and how experiencing diversity makes you less narrow minded and stuff. i said that the characters in requiem for a dream were narrow minded or something to that effect.
sounds weak. :P</p>
<p>I’m also doing the diversity question as well (for the Common Application), but I think it’s so easy to not talk about yourself, or to let your character develop in your response because of the prompt. The prompt pretty much asks you to describe an experience that showed the important of diversity of you (or at least, that’s the part I’m answering). It’s tough to balance saying how diverse my experience was, and to show me in it as well.</p>
<p>oh no no no, i’m doing the question on the influence of a work of art. the work of art being requiem for a Dream. I jsut want to use the diversity card, cause it’s true and it’s a nice advantage to show.</p>
<p>Ohh, I assumed that you were doing the diversity essay about Requiem. If you can find a way to put it into your essay without it seeming forced, then I would go for it. But if it seems forced, then leave it out.</p>
<p>hmm that’s why i’m stuck.
on the forms, i say i’m an american citizen and racially an indian. and then it also tells them that i’ve been living in in India for a number of years and that i’ve been educated here. isn’t that diversity enough? or it’s better if they know how the diversity has influenced me, right?</p>
<p>I don’t think that as an Indian you are diverse. Here in the Washington DC area, the info sessions for the Ivies and other top schools are overwhelmingly filled with Asians of all types. I remember similar outcomes when we lived in California. SO for some schools it may add diversity if the school is over 90% European ancestry, but for many of the top schools, that isn’t the case.</p>
<p>no no i think you must’ve misunderstood me. I didn’t say i was diverse ONLY because i’m racially an indian. i was talking about the fact that i;ve been living here for the psat 7 years. so i get to experience the cultural diversity, religious diversity/conflict, poverty ass well as the good things first hand.
think it’s valid? or not?</p>