Diversity Statement as a professional cellist/cello teacher

andrew.rsn

Help

I graduated from Undergrad in '15 and Graduate school in '17. Receiving degrees in Cello Performance. I have been spending the last 4 years working as a Suzuki Cello teacher with young children and as a professional freelance cellist. I write in my personal statement about my journey through music and teaching it, and how that led me to want to pursue law school. I'm quite happy with how my statement has turned out.

I'm wondering if my untraditional background as a professional musician and especially as a Suzuki cello teacher (a specific type of teaching that requires specialized training) warrants a diversity statement. I have already written a version of a statement where I use two fairly specific anecdotes to help illustrate the unique skills that I have acquired which affect the perspective that I believe I will bring to the classroom and the legal profession. I think it helps to provide additional context to my personal statement.

If a school defines diversity broadly and doesn't limit it to traditional diversity factors, should I submit my statement? Or will it be redundant since my personal statement is also about music to an extant. My identity for the last 20 years has been as a musician.

Thank you all so much!
Andrew

Mike_Ross

Hey Andrew, I think this is a really interesting take. Diversity statements are an opportunity to share more of your story beyond the numbers. That said, if your schools give you the opportunity to do so because they define it broadly, you should take advantage of it, provided you do have something interesting to say. The danger with these things is when someone submits something totally tone-deaf, which doesn’t appear to be the case with you.

Personally, I made my personal statement a more general overview of my story and how law school fits into the plan. I used my diversity statement to to write a more personal story and it turned out just fine.

Good luck!

Granger Danger

Hey Andrew,

So excellent to hear about a fellow classical musician! I have two degrees in historical voice and I was recently thinking about writing a diversity statement myself. However, my personal statement states in depth why I am a non-traditional and diverse applicant based on my musical identity. I decided that a diversity statement would be a little redundant since I described why I wanted to go to law school based on my past musical experiences.

Hope this helps.

andrew.rsn

@Mike_Ross Thanks so much for your comment, it certainly helps with my confidence in regards to the Diversity Statement. Also I wanted to say I really appreciated the post you made awhile back about your reflections on your 1L year at Harvard, I'm sure I'll read it a few more times a year from now haha!

Selene Steelman

Former admissions officer (and classical musician!) here.

"I'm wondering if my untraditional background as a professional musician and especially as a Suzuki cello teacher (a specific type of teaching that requires specialized training) warrants a diversity statement. I have already written a version of a statement where I use two fairly specific anecdotes to help illustrate the unique skills that I have acquired which affect the perspective that I believe I will bring to the classroom and the legal profession."

For law schools whose diversity statement prompts are broad, you could write about your background as a professional musician as something that not only makes you unique but also gives you a different and valuable perspective of the world and the law.

"If a school defines diversity broadly and doesn't limit it to traditional diversity factors, should I submit my statement? Or will it be redundant since my personal statement is also about music to an extant."

The admissions committee will be reading your essays back to back in a giant PDF. You will want to make sure that the diversity statement is clearly distinct from the personal statement. Otherwise it could appear that you were unable to follow the directions and keep your PS to the appropriate length and decided to have it overflow into your DS. So hypothetically speaking, you could write a PS about your experience as a performing artist and running into legal issues when it comes to representation, appearances, and recording contracts. In your DS, you could write about the unique requirements of being a Suzuki instructor and how you have unique qualities to offer a law school and the legal profession having trained and taught a particular method for many years to XX students. Good luck!

andrew.rsn

@"Selene Steelman" Thank you so much for your response!