Should I answer this question about diversity?
There is an optional prompt on my PhD application:
censoredSchoolName University regards the diversity of its graduate student body as an important factor in serving the educational mission of the university. We encourage you to share unique, personally important, and/or challenging factors in your background, such as work and life experiences, special interests, culture, socioeconomic status, the quality of your early educational environment, gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity. Please discuss how such factors would contribute to the diversity of the entering class, and hence to the experience of your censoredSchoolName classmates.
If I were to answer, what I would write is something about how I grew up in a large family with five siblings all attending college around the same time, so though I come from a middle-class family, I have had to handle much of the financial responsibility of my education. In addition to this, neither of my parents have attained higher than a non-scientific Bachelor's degree, and I have mostly blazed this path under my own independence and ambition.
But I feel that this might not be what the question is really looking for? What I've written above does not make me diverse in the way that I think the University probably wants. I'm a middle-class white male, I will say, which my application has of course already reflected. I'm wondering if I might be better off leaving it blank rather than coming off as forcing a hollow answer, or even pitying myself when there are certainly other applicants with serious disadvantages.
3 Answers
Leave it blank
You don't have to play along with the diversity people, but that doesn't mean there won't be any consequences.
Throughout my time in undergrad, the US military, and now grad school, I have steadfastly refused to answer questions about my race. And why should I? My father is from Mexico and is still a dual citizen. As far as I can tell, that gives me a pretty good claim to be Hispanic. I am born in Boston, I don't speak Spanish, and I don't particularly like anything Mexican. Am I hispanic? What is my hispanic blood quantum? Am I white? Who cares?
What ought to matter is the content of your character, or so I've heard.
Just don't be surprised when people don't want to let you go. I have been called into a senior officer's office (in the military) and forced to answer a question about my race. When I told him it was 'American', he filled out the forms in question for me as white. I haven't always got off easy, but I've done alright in life, and without participating in such racist activities as classifying people based on their skin color.
PS: The original form of your question was just fine. If you have sneering contempt for this kind of diversity question, then you do. Don't let people bully you into thinking your opinion isn't valid.
First of all, nobody is discriminating against middle-class white men. This prompt is an opportunity for applicants who feel they are stronger than the standard academic metrics might suggest to make a case for that by highlighting other unique contributions that they would make to a program. Not coincidentally, people from underrepresented groups or who have had to overcome other difficulties generally fall into this category. If you feel you fall into this category, then by all means answer this question with your story. If you don't feel you fall into this category, then one possibility is to try explaining your own personal commitment to enhancing diversity and giving opportunities to others who might not have had them earlier on.
Thank you Anonymous for appreciating my comment. I suppose that makes it good enough to be a succinct answer.
The admissions committee is made up of people. I would suggest showing them your humanity and social intelligence in the best way that paints the most professional picture of yourself.
Did we apply to the same school? That looks like the prompt I received. Hopefully you're not applying to the same program as me. Anyway, you don't have to say that your race is what makes you special. You could talk about what makes you intellectually diverse. How do you handle when you get an unexpected result in your experiments? How do you work with others? What have you learned from collaborating with others and what have they learned from you? What are your views on mental health? I knew an intelligent student who committed suicide last month. Some professors talked fondly of him at his memorial.
Some people might be applying to a program because they like how collaborative it is, and that you are allowed to be a TA in another department or something. The point is mental health and a good work environment is important to a university's reputation and production. Of course you can leave it blank, but you don't have to emphasize that you are a white middle class person. The admissions committee is made up of people. I would suggest showing them your humanity and social intelligence in the best way that paints the most professional picture of yourself.
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