ethnicity in essay

Colleges & Universities Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>ok… i’ve heard that its not really a good thing to emphasize being an asian in MIT admissions… but </p>

<p>I was born in Bangladesh… moved to Australia when I was 2, lived there for 7 years, and now I have lived in the US for ~7 years… (I have also travelled to MANY other places in the world) - Yes, I know I only lived in Bangladesh for two years as an infant and it isn’t huge, but I still maintain a huge part of that culture in my life and have been back there many times over the years</p>

<p>should I emphasize my culture and diversity in my essay (it is the world I came from… which is what the essay wants)???.. I’ve settled on an essay that I think I will turn in emphasizing my Bangladeshi roots… but if my ‘asianness’ will hurt me, I think I’ll rework it</p>

2

<p>really? don’t emphasize being an asian? why?</p>

<p>they said they won’t count ethnicity against you in the admission process though, didn’t they?</p>

<p>plus people can’t serious believe that they get rejected just because they’re asian or just because they’re male -_-</p>

3

<p>no but by the same tune they could get accepted if they were URMs or females.</p>

4

<p>I think you’ll be fine. This is a big part of who you are. It answers the essay question, and really, a good essay is going to be more important than any edge-in-a-tossup-between-similar-applicants that you might have gotten for being a URM (and it’s clear that you’re Asian anyway, I would imagine, from the box or whatever it is that you checked off about race/ethnicity). Using something that is already known to write a really good and sincere essay is not going to hurt you.</p>