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<p>yes, also: if you have some interest in communicating with others who are different than yourself </p>
<p>Just “being” a Muslim, Christian or Jewish individual doesn’t add to diversity all by itself. But if you have some interest in participating and communicating with others through campus activities, or extending some of your interests from high school days, this might be seen as adding to the campus. </p>
<p>I think you need to ask yourself if you care a lot about this, and it shapes a lot of your thinking and values as a student. If so, you might consider writing it into an essay or mentioning it casually there. Just be careful not to sound parochial, exclusive, closed-minded towards students of other faiths. I’d advise this to any student with a strong religious identity, by the way.</p>
<p>College is the place where you’re expected to be “you” but stretch that “you” by meeting and interacting with others who think differently than yourself.</p>
<p>Being from a minority religion won’t boost your admission chances the same way being from an URM background would, however. </p>
<p>If the essay is good, you will be appealing. If you can’t think of what to write about being Muslim, you are just as good to write about skateboarding, collecting butterflies, or anything else that is the real you. </p>
<p>You probably need to reflect on what role your religion plays in who you are today…since the colleges want to meet the real you in the essay.</p>
<p>My kids all have strong religious identities but chose not to write about them at all, because they were afraid of sounding narrow in what they had to offer their campus. It was already apparent from their lists of EC’s, however, that they had a strong education and identity in their religion. You couldn’t miss it.</p>
<p>When it came time for essay-writing, they didn’t want to be so one-dimensional or obvious. Instead, they choose other topics and hobbies to discuss. I think they didn’t want to be stereotyped as “only” caring about their religion.</p>
<p>One of my kids did devote a main essay to his leadership role in a religious youth group, but didn’t write about the religious aspects at all. Instead, he described how the elected office gave him a chance to travel, host others, lead and organize activities, speak in front of others, develop confidence. If you’re active in a Muslim Youth association, that could be a way to approach it. Or, if the teachings of your faith cause you to devote significant time to charitable works in the community, you might mention the faith as a motivating force but then go on to describe what you actually DO with those teachings in practical application, and how you might do similar kinds of charitable works in college. </p>
<p>Another dimension would be if you are so involved in the faith teachings that you might want to take courses or even major in Comparative Religion, Philosophy, Islamic or Near East Studies, or Arabic. Your Muslim background might be a springboard to explore and extend these ideas further in your academic studies. If the religion lives in your thoughts and you might want to study it in college coursework, that’s interesting to mention and adds to diversity within the classroom discussion. If you discover that a school has a new department or is expanding its offerings in these classes, then you are wise to mention you might be interested in studying with a certain professor or name the kinds of courses that you could imagine taking. That’s not a promise; it’s just describing your academic interests and what you might take.</p>