<p>I'm just curious if any students make an effort to mention their race within their college essay and whether it makes an impact on whether you get accepted or not.</p>
<p>Assuming you have designated your race on the application, it isn’t necessary to “make an effort” to mention it again in an essay just to hammer home that you are a URM. Some essay prompts will specifically ask you about your diversity, or how your environment has affected you, and those are obvious openings to talk about your race if you would like. Otherwise, what is your personal story, what are your passions and talents, what do you believe in, what do you care about, what is unique, what have you accomplished? The Adcom already knows you are a URM, what else can you tell them about yourself? Some students will have an important story that may center around their race, and that’s fine, but I really don’t believe it should be the go to topic for every URM.</p>
<p>I agree with you 100%. Thanks for your response @planner03. :)</p>
<p>She told wrote about her hair and initially thinking that the teasing was good natured and then finally realizing that this was a form of racism that was impacting her self esteem. It has a positive story arc but it was tough to read as a parent. It wasn’t an effort to call out her race. Instead, it was her writing about something personal to her. We live in a very affluent community and the majority of students do not look like her.</p>
<p>I think the essay is time to talk about who you are and what makes you tick. For some people it’s race, for others it’s something else. I wouldn’t slip it into an essay unless it was actually relevant to the topic of the essay though.</p>
<h1>3 that is excellent and her topic is something personal about her that just happens to identify her race so it was incidental. My D’s essay was about how she overcame stuttering by competing in and winning oratorical contests. It was also very tough for me to read as a parent, but when I read it, I knew that the Adcoms were never going to forget it.</h1>
<p>I agree with what everyone has said. If race is important to you and you think writing about it will help illuminate who you are as an individual, then by all means go for it. If not, don’t force it. It won’t work. </p>