<p>…in the toe? See, for many colleges I answered the diversity question as suggested by a counselor/teacher. But I’m in an entirely hispanic neighborhood, my school is literally 97.3% mexican-american and to be honest I’ve never felt very much like a minority. So I mention this in my essays, how while I’m a girl into engineering that I’ve never felt like that part of myself brought much diversity. But I was born with an extra toe and I bring that up, bring up some teasing about it as a kid, very serious reflection on it all at the end of how though I got a surgery to remove the toe (still have a scar and webbed little toe to its neighbor) I’m still the same person so who I am is not defined by my toe and no change in surgery will change that. Something of that sort, I use polydactyl. </p>
<p>Did I just screw myself? I sent this to Cornell and other very high up schools and also the Gates Scholarship (yet I’m a finalist for the latter, oddly).</p>
<p>I feel like an idiot but at the time I had no clue what else to write about and still be honest. Everyone at my school who answered that question (and most did) made up some little story about facing racism and I didn’t want to make up a story but maybe I should have. Plus I figured essays weren’t too big a deal since the word limit was so small and I put more into the second questions of “Why this school?”.</p>