Diversity about religion for Northwestern?

blanklaw

I want to submit a diversity statement that is based on how my religion shaped me. Would this be wanted for the Northwestern Admissions team? Is there something I should be aware about before submitting such a statement?

Any thoughts appreciated!
@"Cant Get Right" and anyone else who applied to/attended Northwestern

Cant Get Right

Hard to say. I can kinda speak to the student culture, but I’d be surprised if that translated to the admit office. Generally, I think anything that reflects real diversity would be welcome in the admit office.

As far as the student culture: Mostly, different religious beliefs—and the legal/political opinions informed by those beliefs—are respected and valued. Unfortunately, there are exceptions to this, the major one being for conservative Christians. Most I knew within this group were (or became) quite apprehensive about speaking up on touchier political topics. And to be clear, this isn’t a Northwestern problem, it’s a law school problem. Even the “conservative” T14 schools like UChi and Duke don’t really have a reputation for being any better. There just always seems to be a small group who dominates the dialogue, adopts a zero tolerance policy on many opinions, and is always ready and even eager to go to war. So the expression of one of the forbidden opinions becomes an absolute nightmare that generally isn’t worth it. It’s a huge problem that academic institutions have to figure out how to address. While I was still there, Northwestern took some big, positive steps in the right direction, and there were meaningful improvements in my final year. There’s just only so much any institution can control though. The confidence of youth with power makes it impossible to avoid to some extent.

So in sum: You’re probably good to go in the admit office. If you’re a conservative Christian, the culture of mostly any law school you go to will be hostile to one degree or another. If you’re any other combo of religious/political orientation it probably doesn't much matter.