<p>Here's a new one...I was talking to a mom today whose son is a freshman in college. Apparently son was rejected from some schools that mom felt were easy "ins" for him, and she was convinced it was because of his essay about diversity. He wrote about an experience he had that made him realize he would not be happy in a school that was not racially diverse (he is white, but had lived for a year in a very diverse community), and mom felt that some "white bread" (her words) colleges actually rejected him because of this, because they figured he would never want to go to their "not very diverse" college.</p>
<p>I have two thoughts on this – first, it sounds like it’s a way to justify rejections. Essays typically don’t make or break an application. Second, if that’s truly how the applicant felt, then why would he apply to schools that are not diverse?</p>
<p>I think just the opposite. If the college was actively seeking diversity, the mom’s son would be viewed like every other candidate to the college, i.e., unhooked. Plus it sounds like the typical, hackneyed college essay: I grew up in a homogenous community, but traveled overseas or lived for a year in a hetero community, and found the everyone is different and adds something to the experience… snooze.</p>
<p>My son felt very uncomfortable in Ithaca; it was the whitest city he’d ever been in. I think this means he’s unlikely to ever consider attending Cornell!</p>
<p>ttparent:</p>
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<p>Disagree. When I was househunting, I deliberately looked at houses in diverse communities. I knew I didn’t want to live in a homogenous community. My community is racially and economically diverse. Someone else I know looked for a house that was in a neighborhood of all single-family homes; he wouldn’t even consider my community because of the mixed housing.</p>
<p>Why are Whites and Asians writing diversity essays about race? </p>
<p>Diversity is more then race! God damn it, I’m boldening it. DIVERSITY IS MORE THAN RACE!</p>
<p>Colleges have plenty of White and Asian applicants to choose between. If you’re White or Asian, don’t write your diversity essay about your race.</p>
<p>Maybe if he didn’t write about being White, he would have gotten in.</p>
<p>My son’s high school is less than 3% Asian, and about 20% white. </p>
<p>I don’t see diversity, whether it’s racial, economic, religious, whatever, as being the province of any one group. What a weird idea!</p>
<p>bluebayou, </p>
<p>My apologies; I read the OP too quickly. You were right about the one year. Still, though, that can open people’s eyes to what they’ve been missing, and I don’t think it’s bad to write about it!</p>
<p>^Did they apply to colleges which were 3% Asian and 20% White? If so then it is perfectly appropriate. The top colleges as a whole are primarily White and Asian though. </p>
<p>And just as I am typing this I came to some revelation… The diversity essay I had to write was about how you would contribute to the diversity of the university. A slightly different topic while still about diversity may extend itself to different responses.</p>
<p>The OP said that the applicant “had lived for a yearin a very diverse community…” I took that to mean, only for a year, assuming the OP would have otherwise written that the applicant lived in a diverse community for many years.</p>
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<p>No problem, I’ve done the same too many times on cc. While the topic itself is not “bad” it can easily come across as the trite college essays (see Bauld’s book), just like “I traveled to a third world country and I learned people are REALLY different…”. To make it work, it would have to be written on WHY a diverse community is important to the OP, similar to a why college essay.</p>
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<p>Correct. The essay does not HAVE to be about race/ethinicity. It could easily be about personal interests, or hobbies, or a business that the applicant started, any of which would/could add to the diversity of common student body.</p>
<p>Owlice, it’s one thing to want to live in a diverse community, it is another to actually write about your need in a college admission essay. When you meet some stranger, do you start your conversation by talking about race and your need to see diversity?</p>
<p>I am probably overly cynical, but, a couple of years ago diversity was a buzz word on essays that seemed to get lots of acceptances- when D asked current students what they wrote about, that was the answer. So, if each person who successfully wrote about diversity inspires, say, 5 kids to write about the same topic, I imagine it has gone from a hot topic to an over-used one.</p>
<p>I don’t think that kids who truly come from diverse environments write about it. To them it’s just normal. So diversity essays may seem a bit contrived.</p>
<p>Marian, if they have been someplace else that was not diverse, they might then realize what a diverse community they live in. I don’t think it ever occurred to my son that there were places that were so much whiter than where we live until we visited Ithaca.</p>
<p>My son has written about diversity, but more from the standpoint of “Why do people keep talking about it?” He thinks his life experience of living in a very diverse community is normal; he thinks Ithaca is abnormal. Just like I thought it weird when I lived in NYC to pay to visit a museum, because I grew up in DC, the Land of the Smithsonian!</p>
<p>ttparent, </p>
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<p>Well, I don’t know you, and here we are talking about it!</p>
<p>The neighborhood I came from was VERY economically diverse (like professional athletes in some parts of town and trailer parks in others, all attending the same giant high school) and I would say quite racially diverse as well relatively speaking-- especially in my neck of the woods, and now the campus I live on (not necessarily the whole city) is much whiter and much wealthier than I am used to. I just assumed coming in that while many of the students would come from wealthier families than mine, it would be no big deal and I’d hardly notice anyway and that’s not exactly the case. It’s not enough that I am uncomfortable here but now that I realize what I had before I probably would have looked for a similar environment for college. I’m not used to having to worry about my “standing” in society so to speak because I always had company in my neighborhood and everyone was so different there was hardly any point in passing judgment. And never in my life have I ever felt “poor” before now. </p>
<p>I also remember going to my cousin’s prom with her in another city and almost instantly realized there was only one black girl in the whole room and maybe two asians. It was really jarring, I’d never experienced that before. It was just so WEIRD to have EVERYBODY look the same, even before I noticed what it was, something just seemed eerily wrong about the crowd. </p>
<p>I don’t understand why students from diverse backgrounds wouldn’t care about diversity in college. I would think they would want to continue as they are, after all it’s supposed to be what’s “just normal” to them. It’s not as if students from diverse areas aren’t aware that lack of diversity exists in other places. Around here all one must do is drive through Livonia or Detroit to see that.</p>
<p>Cute, but the conversation came up in the context of whether one who is fully comfortable with oneself with diversity should offer as a major first impression his/her need to have diversity. I guess we cannot always be race neutral but for me there is something also not quite right with saying I don’t like Ithaca because it is too white. Take it the other way around, if someone comes out and say I don’t like your neighborhood because it is too black, I bet that raises a lot of eyebrows.</p>