<p>A couple of my applications ask me to write a personal history statement in addition to my statement of purpose. So, for the statement of purpose I'm talking about my research experience for the most part, but what kinds of things should I talk about in the personal history statement? For example, UC Berkeley's app asks you to describe how your "personal background informs you decision to pursue a graduate degree". And they specifically ask about barriers I've faced and how I could understand the barriers others face to have access to higher education. I'm female, and I know that there is a large gender gap between men and women in STEM careers, so I suppose I could talk about that. However, I don't feel like I've been discriminated against for being a girl by my classmates or any of my professors, and there isn't that big a gap between male and female students in the chemistry or biochemistry majors at my school. I've heard of women having issues with this at other schools, but I personally haven't faced any discrimination, so how could I talk about barriers I've never really had to deal with? </p>
<p>Also, some of the prompts ask about how I could add diversity to the university. I'm an athlete at my school, so I was thinking I could discuss that. Would that be unique? I'm not really sure how many college athletes go into STEM careers. I would imagine that there aren't very many, but I can't find any hard evidence of that on the internet.</p>