<p>I'm having some problems writing the personal history statement for UC Berkeley. Statement of purpose, which they also require, is pretty straightforward. Personal history statement, however...
Here's what the school is asking for:</p>
<p>"Please describe how your personal background informs your decision to pursue a graduate degree. Please include information on how you have overcome barriers to access higher education, evidence of how you have come to understand the barriers faced by others, evidence of your academic service to advance equitable access to higher education for women, racial minorities, and individuals from other groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education, evidence of your research focusing on underserved populations or related issues of inequality, or evidence of your leadership among such groups."</p>
<p>First of all, I'm a little confused about the "personal background" thing. In the statement of purpose they already asked me what's my motivation for graduate studies, and they are very specific about PHS should not duplicate the SOP.</p>
<p>Second, I'm completely lost on the whole "evidence of my service/research to advance the underrepresented groups" part. I'm a technical major, so not much potential for research in this area. I haven't been a member of any organizations which have to do with minority advancement; the only thing I can say is the generic "As an immigrant, I struggled financially to pay for college, I know others in even worse situations, etc. etc."</p>
<p>What do I do? Do I specifically write that I understand what others face but haven't done anything to help them? Do I just ignore "evidence of my service" part?
Any advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>In other words, it’s just a diversity statement. There are many different ways to answer it. If you don’t think you fit in any of the list categories, you might start by showing how your personal life influences the way you think about your decision to go to graduate school and conduct research in that area. It’s just a way for the adcoms to know where you’re coming from and how you might contribute to the cohort.</p>
<p>@foxbat87: It looks like the UC Berkeley prompt (unless it’s a generic UC one). I just completed it a few weeks ago. ticklemepink got it right on the nose (as usual). (:</p>
<p>And according to the admissions committee people I talked to about this at Berkeley and UCSF, it doesn’t really matter if you don’t have the most compelling personal history essay. You just have to address the prompt and can’t have poor writing.</p>
<p>Only the first sentence applies to you. The rest is fishing to see if you are a URM or have some other diversity, if so, then they want you to address the rest of the paragraph.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for the responses.
So that’s the backbone of my personal history statement: I described the difficulties I faced which were associated with the immigration, and my struggle to pay for college; I then described how I was a volunteer and how this volunteering experience shaped my interest to particular fields of engineering and affected my choice of internship, and also how it was a great experience of seeing people of different cultural backgrounds, genders, etc. working towards the same goal (hooray diversity). Then I described how my experience in the industry showed me that a practicing engineer needs more education to work on the most interesting projects, and how I understand that grad school is challenging (and how some of my friends struggled financially and had to put grad school on hold) but I am willing to overcome this stuff to be a better engineer.
Does that sound reasonable?</p>
<p>Hi. I am having issues with this as well and I hope you don’t mine my piggybacking on your thread.</p>
<p>I have all the “official” “diversity” markers but I don’t feel they’ve disadvantaged me and also I really don’t want to get points for things I have no control over. I am pretty liberal but I just don’t think it’s fair.</p>
<p>I used to just not check the race box and opt out and they never asked about anything else. Now I’m supposed to come up with 500 words for the UW about opportunities and disadvantages related to how I grew up.</p>
<p>I think it’s really unfair of them to ask us to participate in this kind of affirmative action if we don’t want to. I can’t say I’m rich and white and went to private school because I’m not and I didn’t. I can’t opt out like I did when it was a check box. I wouldn’t mind checking their box for their quotas after being / if accepted. I just want to get in based on merit.</p>
<p>I was thinking of focusing on my family without giving names or specifics… just telling stories about what sort of people they are, and then coming up with an anecdote that connects how I chose my career, with what they did. Do you think that will be okay? The UW is VERY clear that they are using these essays to basically get information about race, economic status, etc. and it will be obvious that I’ve avoided these questions.</p>
<p>Will this basically make my essay count zero points towards my application? At least if I were rich and white I could write an apologetic essay for not having disadvantages, but I can’t even write that. Tips?</p>
<p>MmeZeeZee: While a few programs do set a few slots aside for diversity admits*, I am under the impression that the grad school diversity statements usually have less impact on admission decisions than on funding. Many graduate schools have university-wide diversity fellowships to recruit minority applicants. </p>
<ul>
<li>I heard the following about math at Berkeley: The department makes 90% of its offers without special attention to diversity. The reject pile is then forwarded to a “Math Opportunity Committee” that picks the remaining 10%. Since the diversity statement is mandatory at Berkeley, I wouldn’t be surprised if all departments did something like that.</li>
</ul>
<p>b@r!um-- Thanks. Their website states, “The reason for the statement is to be consistent with our goal of enhancing the intellectual and social enrichment of the University of Washington community, which actively seeks and welcomes students from diverse backgrounds.”</p>
<p>Bleh. I don’t want to be a student from a diverse background. I want to be a student that has demonstrated excellence in her work. But the other essay will cover that.</p>
<p>Don’t think of it as affirmative action. Think of it as a sincere attempt to recruit a student body with a diverse set of experiences so that students can learn from each other. What experiences and circumstances have shaped your life? Write about those. Most people would say that their economic and cultural background have had a huge impact on their development - but if you think there are more important factors, write about those instead.</p>
<p>At my freshman orientation, our dean of intercultural affairs started a speech with the sentence: “Every one of you contributes to diversity. Even the white middle-class students from Connecticut.”</p>
<p>b@r!um-- Thanks. That’s a good point. I will continue to work on the essay I started about my family.</p>
<p>I do think it’s affirmative action because the assumption is that non-European descent students and women etc. would not be proportionally represented based on merit alone, which is based on the assumption of discrimination.</p>
<p>I know discrimination exists but I think it’s much more an economic discrimination, and they could get that information by asking about tax records of the parents for the past five years, or adults over 25 for the past five years, if they choose to disclose it. But that’s another discussion entirely!</p>