Basically, NYU has an optional essay in which they want you to describe how you will add to the diversity of their school. As a white jew living in New York coming straight out of undergrad, I’m not the most diverse person in the world. I’m sure I can think of diverse qualities that I have and make an essay out of them if I have to, but I’m worried it may end up sounding like a stretch.
Are these “optional” essays really optional? Would not writing one be looked down on? What’s worse, writing a subpar essay, or not writing an essay at all?
definitely do not stretch to make up a fit; unless you have something pithy to say or strong EC’s that are appropriate (e.g., you spent 2-3 years of undergrad working w/ underserved populations), better to skip.
-write about being an orthodox, religious jew (maybe this is considered “diverse” despite the large overall number of jews I’m sure they already have in the program?)
-write about how I’m an ecommerce business owner, though I already spent alot of time on this in other parts of the application
-write about some family issues I’ve had, such as divorced parents, my mom remarrying someone who lives out of the country for work reasons, so it’s effectively a long distance marriage, etc.
-write about coming from a small college that isn’t as well known as most other applicants undergrad programs
I’m not a huge fan of any of these ideas, as I think they’re all a bit of a stretch. What do you think?
plenty of Orthodox Jews in NYC schools (other than perhaps Fordham).
Already covered elsewhere, so don’t make the readers waste their time on something to rehash.
Divorce is extremely common. What impact did the LD marriage have on you? (your mom is not applying)
Plenty of small college applicants. Moreover, that will be obvious when they look at your transcript. OTOH, if you milked cows at 4 am to pay for the small college tuition…
It’s not solely a diversity statement - it’s an opportunity for you to talk about aspects of yourself that make you unique and set you apart from other applicants. That could be your racial identity, ethnoreligious identity, gender, sexual orientation, etc.; or it could be other things - community service, activism, income background, disparate interests, bringing together unusual fields, a personal challenge or experience you’d had, etc.
First of all, it’s optional. It’s better not to write an optional essay at all than it is to write a lackluster one. If you can’t think of a good idea for the essay, or if the one you write isn’t great, then it IS better to skip it. Most graduate programs wouldn’t turn down an otherwise outstanding application because they didn’t write an optional essay of this kind.
In fact, I think this kind of essay is most useful for students who may have an uneven academic/professional background that can be explained by some kind of personal experience they’ve had. Think an immigrant student who was learning to speak English while getting their bachelor’s, or a person who survived a violent crime when they were in college, or someone with a B average partially because they were heavily involved in activism and has been recognized for such work.
With that said, I think the most interesting thing you’ve highlighted in your idea list is the e-commerce business owner part. That may be more or less unique depending on what program you’re applying to, but writing about how you got started and what you learned along the way could be relatively interesting. But if it feels like a stretch, don’t write the essay.
The thing is, I already focused alot on the business in the mandatory essay, as well as having a decent sized section of my resume dedicated to it as well. I feel like devoting an entire essay to the topic in addition to the other places I spoke about the business may not come off too well.