Diversity Statement or no?

[dallinpackard]

I am at BYU and like most BYU students served a two year mission. Mine was in the Philippines. I wasn't going to write a diversity statement about my mission until I spoke with someone on the UVA admissions council, who said that she wants to hear about my mission. At BYU the advice is: DON'T write about your mission, because it isn't diverse enough. But if I'm applying to schools outside of Utah, wouldn't it be diverse? Is it worth writing about? The point I have drawn in my diversity statement is: "Because I lived in a foreign culture for two years, I learned how to see things from another perspective. In law school I will have my own ideas and opinions as an LDS student, but will also know how to accept other points of view."

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Dallin,

In this case, I would agree with the UVa adcomm and suggest for non-Utah schools you write about it. However, I wouldn't use the angle you are planning on taking (and I say that without having read what you wrote already, so I acknowledge that your current statement might be amazing ). Instead, I'd try a different angle.

As it stands, you'd be using your mission trip in a way that is similar to students who travel abroad or a do a semester abroad. That approach, which typically reduces to "I broadened my horizons while travelling," is done enough to make it a sort of cliche. So instead, I'd use your Mormonism and the fact that you committed two years of your life to others as the point of diversity. In other words, the diversity doesn't come from the effects gained from the mission, but rather from the reasons why you took the mission in the first place. I think that would be more powerful and certainly more unique.

Please let me know if that makes sense. Thanks!

[dallinpackard]

That definitely makes sense. I'll do that!