Diversity Statement Help - Should I write one based on my situation?

martinxi679martinxi679 Member
in Law School Admissions 281 karma

Hi 7Sagers,

I was born in China, adopted and raised by my uncle and aunt (one of my parents passed away when I was three), and immigrated to the US by the end of middle school. I was strongly influenced by Chinese culture: although relocating to the US tied me into many aspects of US customs, I kept a long-lasting interest in Chinese culture. With my CS background, I joined an oversea game production team in college and participated in an RPG production about Chinese martial arts for years. Combining with some other events which occurred during this process, this experience served as one motivation for me to switch from CS into patent law.

As what the title stated, my question is whether my experience above qualify as a decent diversity statement topic. I know that Asians, especially Chinese, are nowhere close to being minorities in law school, so I am really wondering if I should write a diversity statement based on these factors. None of the above was mentioned in my personal statement, and only the RPG production part is briefly mentioned in my resume. Any insight would be deeply appreciated!

Comments

  • VerdantZephyrVerdantZephyr Member ⭐
    2054 karma

    @martinxi679 ABSOLUTELY write a diversity statement. While oftentimes in other contexts diversity is seen as or portrayed as having a protected class or being disadvantaged by one's background in some way law schools are really looking for a much broader definition of diversity. They want a large diversity of view points and backgrounds of all sorts. Being adopted, being an immigrant, being Chinese, having a parent die, even potentially working cross culturally oversees in game design are factors that could be considered diverse. The last one is a proceed with caution but the others are all definitely green lights.

    If you have not done so yet I encourage you to purchase the admissions course. It is ten bucks and can help answer questions like these. There is a great section on what too include or not in diversity statements.

  • legallytiredlegallytired Member
    442 karma

    i agree with the above ^ i think you should definitely write it, i've seen in many diversity statement descriptions that it can be more than just culture or race and those experiences would make for a great diversity statement

  • LOWERCASE EVERYTHINGLOWERCASE EVERYTHING Member ⭐
    1952 karma

    definitely write it. i think you have a compelling story to share. good luck!

  • ChloeeeeChloeeee Member
    135 karma

    You have wonderful and diverse stories for sure! Just out of curiosity, why not write them in your PS?

  • martinxi679martinxi679 Member
    281 karma

    @VerdantZephyr said:
    @martinxi679 ABSOLUTELY write a diversity statement. While oftentimes in other contexts diversity is seen as or portrayed as having a protected class or being disadvantaged by one's background in some way law schools are really looking for a much broader definition of diversity. They want a large diversity of view points and backgrounds of all sorts. Being adopted, being an immigrant, being Chinese, having a parent die, even potentially working cross culturally oversees in game design are factors that could be considered diverse. The last one is a proceed with caution but the others are all definitely green lights.

    If you have not done so yet I encourage you to purchase the admissions course. It is ten bucks and can help answer questions like these. There is a great section on what too include or not in diversity statements.

    Thanks for the suggestion! Just out of curiosity, I was going to write a diversity statement based on all the facts I listed above. However, based on your suggestion, is it better if I only talk about cross-cultural experience without stating motivation to pursue patent law? (Last one like you just mentioned)

  • martinxi679martinxi679 Member
    281 karma

    @legallytired said:
    i agree with the above ^ i think you should definitely write it, i've seen in many diversity statement descriptions that it can be more than just culture or race and those experiences would make for a great diversity statement

    Thanks for the insight! I will go ahead and start writing about it as I am waiting for my last LOR.

  • martinxi679martinxi679 Member
    281 karma

    @"LOWERCASE EVERYTHING" said:
    definitely write it. i think you have a compelling story to share. good luck!

    Thanks for the insight and good luck to you too!

  • martinxi679martinxi679 Member
    281 karma

    @Chloeeee said:
    You have wonderful and diverse stories for sure! Just out of curiosity, why not write them in your PS?

    Thanks! Well for your question, first of all I was curious about my Asian/Chinese background being an ORM status which will potentially hurt my admission chance, and this entire process was not my central motivation to move from a CS/MATH background to patent law. I wrote about something else in my PS which I believe is more related to why I wanted this switch.

  • VerdantZephyrVerdantZephyr Member ⭐
    2054 karma

    @martinxi679 said:

    @VerdantZephyr said:
    @martinxi679 ABSOLUTELY write a diversity statement. While oftentimes in other contexts diversity is seen as or portrayed as having a protected class or being disadvantaged by one's background in some way law schools are really looking for a much broader definition of diversity. They want a large diversity of view points and backgrounds of all sorts. Being adopted, being an immigrant, being Chinese, having a parent die, even potentially working cross culturally oversees in game design are factors that could be considered diverse. The last one is a proceed with caution but the others are all definitely green lights.

    If you have not done so yet I encourage you to purchase the admissions course. It is ten bucks and can help answer questions like these. There is a great section on what too include or not in diversity statements.

    Thanks for the suggestion! Just out of curiosity, I was going to write a diversity statement based on all the facts I listed above. However, based on your suggestion, is it better if I only talk about cross-cultural experience without stating motivation to pursue patent law? (Last one like you just mentioned)

    I may have been unclear. I would advise you to proceed with caution regarding the cross cultural experiences in game design as a diversity factor. It is probably better suited to the personal statement if it works there. It is something you could use as a diversity factor but would need to be done more carefully than the others. However, if it absolutely does not fit into your PS and you feel that it provides you a valuable and different perspective than anyone else who might enroll in the class it could be used in the DS instead. The immigrant, loss of parent, adopted, non-US cultural background is all very safe. Work and education background stuff is generally potentially useable but is something with which discretion is highly advised.

    I also want to say that, if your experiences in game design are what is motivating you to pursue patent law that really should be in your personal statement. A PS should always give readers an idea of why you are pursuing law school.

  • martinxi679martinxi679 Member
    281 karma

    @VerdantZephyr said:

    @martinxi679 said:

    @VerdantZephyr said:
    @martinxi679 ABSOLUTELY write a diversity statement. While oftentimes in other contexts diversity is seen as or portrayed as having a protected class or being disadvantaged by one's background in some way law schools are really looking for a much broader definition of diversity. They want a large diversity of view points and backgrounds of all sorts. Being adopted, being an immigrant, being Chinese, having a parent die, even potentially working cross culturally oversees in game design are factors that could be considered diverse. The last one is a proceed with caution but the others are all definitely green lights.

    If you have not done so yet I encourage you to purchase the admissions course. It is ten bucks and can help answer questions like these. There is a great section on what too include or not in diversity statements.

    Thanks for the suggestion! Just out of curiosity, I was going to write a diversity statement based on all the facts I listed above. However, based on your suggestion, is it better if I only talk about cross-cultural experience without stating motivation to pursue patent law? (Last one like you just mentioned)

    I may have been unclear. I would advise you to proceed with caution regarding the cross cultural experiences in game design as a diversity factor. It is probably better suited to the personal statement if it works there. It is something you could use as a diversity factor but would need to be done more carefully than the others. However, if it absolutely does not fit into your PS and you feel that it provides you a valuable and different perspective than anyone else who might enroll in the class it could be used in the DS instead. The immigrant, loss of parent, adopted, non-US cultural background is all very safe. Work and education background stuff is generally potentially useable but is something with which discretion is highly advised.

    I also want to say that, if your experiences in game design are what is motivating you to pursue patent law that really should be in your personal statement. A PS should always give readers an idea of why you are pursuing law school.

    Thanks again for the advice. PS wise, I had a different story which I believed to be more related to why I wanted the switch from CS to patent law.

    I always thought that diversity statement should conclude with how these factors motivated me even slightly to pursue law. (For example, immigrants going for immigration law.) This is why I wanted to tie in the cross-cultural work experience, which was a small motivator for my switch. Like what you said, I know that my cultural background and childhood experience are very safe to talk about, but they are not really that much related to patent law. So based on your opinion, is it fine to only talk about these cultural factors, while not including reasons for why these factors promote my decision to go to law school?

  • VerdantZephyrVerdantZephyr Member ⭐
    2054 karma

    @martinxi679 I do not think that your diversity statement has to talk about why you want to pursue law. If it does impact that that great, but don't force it. I would go over the admissions curriculum to learn more.

  • martinxi679martinxi679 Member
    281 karma

    @VerdantZephyr said:
    @martinxi679 I do not think that your diversity statement has to talk about why you want to pursue law. If it does impact that that great, but don't force it. I would go over the admissions curriculum to learn more.

    Got it, thanks for the help!

Sign In or Register to comment.