5 Tips for a College Admissions Essay on Diversity

As rising seniors start working on their college admissions essays, the first step is figuring out what to write about. For the students using the Common Application, personal essay option #5 might seem daunting:

A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.

Diversity is certainly a challenging topic to handle well, yet diversity is central to the goals of a college admissions office. Key to this essay topic is recognizing that the term "diversity" means much more than race. Every college student adds to campus diversity, and this essay topic asks you to articulate how you would contribute. So what are the secrets to acing this essay option? These 5 tips can help you avoid common pitfalls.

Also be sure to check out these tips for the other Common Application topics: an ethical dilemma | an important issue | an influential person | a fictional character | diversity | the open topic | a supplemental essay