How to Write The Diversity Essay... When You Are Not "Diverse" (With Examples)

Exploring the University of Tampa with my loyal assistant.

College application essays can be so awkward. Even if you're an excellent writer when it comes to historical or literary analysis, chances are you have never had to sit down and write about how amazing and unique you are -- and how you deserve a spot at this school more than the 40 people who won't get in if you do. 

​This awkwardness gets compounded when a "non-diverse" student has to write about their diversity or oppression for a supplemental essay.

It doesn't have to be awkward! Contact me! I'll guide you through the process!

One of the most common questions I get from my students who come from over-represented groups is, "How am I supposed to write the diversity essay??!!"

"I'm an Indian girl who likes computer science. There are literally millions of girls just like me."

"I'm a Chinese American with immigrant parents -- but I thought I was supposed to AVOID the immigrant essay!" 

"I'm white."

Here's the thing. 

​First of all, there are no bad essay topics. Only bad essays. If you've got an immigrant or immigrant parent essay that you think adds context and depth to your story, TELL IT. Just be sure to do so in a way that is insightful and surprising. There is a LOT to be said about a student who can have the same experience as thousands of other people... but take something greater or more or different from it. 

Not sure how to do that? I'm an expert at it. Contact me.

Second, admissions officers know that "diversity" encapsulates more than just skin color and gender identity. The admissions officers I have spoken to on this topic have told me about dozens of unexpected essay topics and strategies that "non-diverse" students have used successfully. 

I'll review some of them here, and provide examples. 

1. If you can't talk about diversity, you can talk about inclusion.

Just because you don't look or identify a certain way, doesn't mean you can't have been an important ally in your community. It doesn't mean you can't have made your school a safer, more welcoming place for marginalized or disadvantaged students. 

Approach this essay by being self-aware of the fact that while you are "oppressed" in some ways because of your identity (a girl who loves robotics; a Muslim student in a Christian community; dyslexic; etc.), you recognize that there are others for whom inclusion has been a daily or lifelong struggle. 

This is a great place to talk about volunteer work with immigrant or refugee groups; tutoring or teaching you've done in disadvantaged communities; decisions you've made as a captain, founder, president, or leader to create a more inclusive space; etc. 

I'm not going to give an example of this, because I think it's pretty straightforward. But, of course, you can contact me if you need help brainstorming and crafting this essay.

2. If you come from a homogenous culture and have not experience much diversity or thought much about inclusion, you can write about why you'd like to be part of a diverse and inclusive community.

Why haven't you been exposed to diversity? 

Why do you want to be part of a community that values and cultivates that? 

Oppression/diversity essays are typically pretty short -- I can't think of any schools off the top of my head that ask for more than 250 words. Talking about things you hope to learn and causes or groups you would want to get involved with at this school to bring you up to speed and expose you to new perspectives and ideas will likely take up a lot of the allotted space -- while showing that you've done your research about the school.

​Here's an example:

Stomps and frenzied cheers filled the gymnasium. Swaying, screaming bodies completely covered the bleachers as I approached the microphone.

As a member of the debate team, I’d had three years of public speaking experience — but always to a panel of judges, and never in front of my entire school. I needed to grab their attention.

“We ARE,” I chanted slowly into the mic, “E-X-......E-T-E-RRRRRR!”

I repeated the phrase, picking up volume and speed as classmates joined in.

“We ARE E-X-E-T-E-RRRR! WE ARE E-X-E-T-E-R!”

Our pace quickened with each iteration, until our lips could no longer keep pace and the chant crescendoed into a cacophonous battle cry. 

Seizing the energy, I launched into a recap of the women’s basketball season thus far: Aly’s 22-point game, Sarah’s oof-inducing rebounds, and the team’s epic fourth quarter comeback from a 15-point deficit. 

By this point, everyone was on their feet, and it was time to introduce my teammates. Ally! Becca! Sarah! And Kav--

Kav--

I turned to the only black member of our team, realizing in horror, before the entire school, that I wasn’t sure how to pronounce the next vowel in her name. 

If this was the most embarrassing moment of my life, I can’t imagine how humiliating and unwelcoming it was for my teammate -- and I vowed never to make anyone I live, study, or play with ever feel that way again. 

This is a recent revelation for me; coming from a homogenous community, “inclusion” hasn’t been something I had to think about. However, reflecting on this experience, I know the direction I want to grow. It will be a journey, and there will be mistakes, but I know the only way to become the person I hope to be is by immersing myself in a diverse and inclusive community, eager to listen and ready to learn.

​

Contact me to learn more about how your lack of diversity can make you diverse.

3. Location is a type of diversity.

On the one hand, the person who reads your essay is the same person who reads every application from your school. 

On the other, the admissions team is working to build a community rich in experiences, insights, and perspectives. 

I've spoken with several admissions officers who all independently told me that some of their favorite diversity essays have been about location.

Maybe being a white boy from a mostly white community doesn't seem overtly or obviously diverse to you.

But where we're from absolutely shapes what we know about the world around us -- and it may even shape our potential academic and professional interests.  

​Here's an example:

You’d never guess it if you saw me dining among ice sculptures and US Poet Laureates in one of Phillips Exeter’s ivy-covered dining halls…

But I grew up an Iowa farm girl.

Throughout middle school, I was out of bed an hour before any of my peers, collecting eggs, milking goats, and doing the morning feed of my family’s sheep, horses, chickens, and ducks. After dinner each night, I was back at it, this time doing the night feed -- often in the dark, bundled against Iowa’s snow and infamous 20-below wind chills.

Sounds grueling, no? 

But one of the hardest parts of being surrounded by astounding resources these last four years — 100,000-volume libraries, scanning electron microscopes, photo labs, and whale skeletons — was being away from my chores. 

Here at Exeter, there’s been no limit on what I can learn or do intellectually. However, I’ve missed not only the “character-building” aspects of manual labor, but also the opportunity to connect directly with animals in my care. 

At Pomona, I hope to balance this disconnect between upbringing and opportunity by getting involved with the Equestrian Team and  5C Animal Shelter. Having already read Pomona’s Pre-Vet Planning Guide, I look forward to exploring some of the vet school pre-reqs throughout the Claremont Colleges to see if this is the correct course for me, while working with the Career Development Office to find internships and shadowing opportunities at zoos, working farms, and wildlife rescues. 

I don’t know, yet, whether or how my background connects with my academic future. But I know that Pomona’s liberal arts curriculum is the best way to find out.

​

Another thing that can be very interesting about your location is when you find a passion, resource, or opportunity that is not local to your location. This shows curiosity and determination that drives you to chase an opportunity that does not exist where you live. 

For example: 
​

Scuba Farmer. 

That’s my nickname -- and I worked hard for it! 

Because I grew up in Iowa, my first job was, of course, detasseling corn. This is grueling labor that requires walking the cornfields, sunup to sundown, ripping the tassels (the male parts) off of cornstalks and throwing them onto the ground (you must throw them -- you can’t simply drop them, because if they get caught in the plants’ leaves, they can still self-pollinate, which defeats the entire purpose of detasseling). It’s never less than 90 degrees, but you’re always wearing long pants and long sleeves; corn leaves are sharp enough to cut your skin and rough enough to give you a rash, and that’s not to mention the spiders and other creepy crawlies that live in the fields. 

When I started detasseling, I had no particular goal for money I earned. But after a family trip to Hawaii, I discovered a love of snorkeling…

Which turned into researching ways to become scuba certified…

Which turned into me discovering Action Quest, a sailing and scuba diving camp in the Virgin Islands. The experience came with a hefty price tag, and one that I was able to help my family pay for with my detasseling money. 

Endless hours toiling in the Iowa sun paved the way for endless hours in the Caribbean sun. But it wasn’t just fun and games -- I worked hard over the next two summers not only to complete my Open Water certification, but also my Advanced Open Water, Underwater Navigator, Underwater Naturalist, Search and Recovery Specialist, and Rescue Diver certifications.

While wildly different in geography and ecology, both experiences that made me Scuba Farmer shaped my perspective on conservation, environmentalism, and sustainability, and I look forward to further exploring them through Occidental’s liberal arts curriculum.

​

What's special about where you live? I can help you figure it out.

4. You are more diverse than you think.

Again, just because other people are more oppressed than you, doesn't mean you experiences are not valid. Doesn't mean your pain isn't worth talking about. Doesn't mean your stories aren't worth sharing. 

And, again again, there are tens of thousands of students applying to the same schools as you. Odds are, you are not going to have a one-of-a-kind experience. Girls face sexism. People of color face racism. Religious minorities face religious discrimination. 

Your experience is not going to make you unique. Your identity isn't going to make you unique. 

Your uniqueness relies entirely on your insights about your identity and lived experience. 

Here's an example:

While women make up just over 50% of the population, and I’m not sure my membership in this sex class would constitute diversity per se…

I am often referred to as, “The only girl who ___.”

The only girl who plays pickup basketball. 

The only girl in the rock band. 

The only girl in Mountain Biking Club. 

Have I struggled as significantly as students born in marginalized communities? Probably not. But being The Only Girl Who has forced me to develop assertiveness, toughness, and directness that contradicts what society says nice girls “should” be…

And I’ve learned to do it in ways that my male teammates, bandmates, and opponents won’t socially punish -- which is completely ridiculous, really, because why should I, the only female on the court, also have to be the only person on the court worried that I’ll be excluded from group texts, not passed to, and ostracized, just for saying, “No, I don’t want to guard him. He’s a guard and I’m a center. That’s why I already said I wanted to guard the other center,” in a way that was deemed too… well… female dog-like. 

To put it politely. 

As The Only Girl in these recreational pursuits, I understand how even the activities I love most can be stressful and exclusive. Instead of “just having fun,” I’ve had to learn, for example, to shroud my assertiveness in humor, so as not to make the dominant group too uncomfortable when I express my preferences and ideas. I’m sure these skills will be useful in my career; nevertheless, I want to help build a world in which underrepresented people do not have to endure extra stress and face higher, more stringent social expectations to succeed in, or even just enjoy, every part of their lives. 
​​

Need help figuring out what makes your perspective unique? Contact me!

5. Just because you're from an overrepresented ethnic or religious group, doesn't mean you can't engage with your identities more deeply or interestingly than other applicants like you.

You can't control what identities you're born into. 

You can control the depth with which you engage with your identities. 

Remember: admissions officers don't expect you to have engaged with your identity in a way no one like you ever has before. They understand that many experiences are pretty universal for people in your group, and they try not to hold it against you. 

However, you can knock their socks off with your depth and commitment to exploring yourself, your identities, inclusion, or diversity. For example, you may think that your arangetram is boring, because so many girls in your community also did one... but in reality, very few teenagers in the world commit to the intense training and time commitment required to showcase their talent in this way. (In psychology, we call this a representation bias.)

And, again, the fact that others have had the experience means that you can stand out by having the same experience... but getting more or different insights from it.

Here's an example:

Ahh -- Pizza Napoletana! The essence of Italian cooking! Prior to our meal, Giulia, the chef, had explained that the tomatoes must be grown in the volcanic soil of San Marzano sul Sarno, while the dough must be crowned only with D.O.C. (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) Mozzarella di Bufala Campana. She’d shown us her traditional wood-fired oven while her two daughters giggled by her side.

After an explosion of history and flavor, my Teen Travel group erupted into conversation… but I slipped away. My goal was to connect with my Italian heritage through conversations with locals, so I found Giulia tidying her kitchen.

“Thank you for dinner. It was delicious,” I said in slow survival Italian I’d self-studied before the trip.

She smiled. Soon, we were discussing the joys and challenges of her work. When I asked if she'd ever considered expanding her business, she thumbed a stain on her apron.

“No. In Italy, family-run business can’t get credit.”

This sparked my interest in the most basic of financial products: the bank loan. Is this something that could be profitable in Italy -- or is it still too risky? Is this a problem that is ripe for innovation? I emailed my FBLA advisor to find out. “Why don’t you collect some data during your trip so you have something to analyze in AP Stats this fall?”

So began my senior project, “The Case for Small Business Lending in Italy,” which has become a major focus of my year. It’s a project I’m incredibly proud of, not only because of my findings, but because of how my effort has driven me to connect so deeply with my family’s culture. 

More than anything, this experience has highlighted the importance of diversity and identity. I’m asking questions I never would have considered before, all because I had an opportunity to explore my culture. 

Imagine the progress and innovation we could see in the world if experiences like this were possible for everyone of every background.

​

Let's turn your "boring" story into a unique perspective!

***

As you can see, there are many ways for "not diverse" and overrepresented applicants to approach the diversity essay. 

I hope this helped. If you're still struggling, check out my rates and services and contact me through this form or at PavedWithVerbs at gmail.