Thursday, September 25, 2008

Diversity Statement

A question from C about a Diversity Statement... -- Tom

Hey Tom, I've got another question that I'd appreciate being posted to the site, to get input from as many people as possible. It may be a sensitive topic, but whatever.

My question is regarding funding requests. I'm planning to submit an extra letter with my application, titled as a "Diversity Statement". This 3 paragraph letter simply elaborates more on my racial and economic background, and how I plan to work towards increasing the diversity of the program and the school, and then directly requests heightened consideration for specific minority/diversity awards, both school-specific and University-wide.

I know that my race will be made known to the committee automatically once the access the grad app submitted online and that I will be automatically considered for many awards, but there are also many that require direct nomination from the school/program to which you are applying. Funding is, obviously, extremely important for me.

So, my question is this: Do you think the selection committee would be bothered/offended by this?

6 comments:

Mike Valente said...

I think that the "application committee" is a group of 3-4 creative writing profs who are handed printed copies of your writing sample. Each prof has about two weeks to read through a batch of 50-100 manuscripts, after the manuscript pile has been divided up.

They don't see anything else from your application before they make their decision -- grades, recs, statement letters, general applications.

Each school might be slightly different with timing and how they distribute the manuscripts, but that's the gist of it.

Emily A. Benton said...

I don't see how this will make a difference in getting an acceptance. Once you get an acceptance (based on your writing sample), then you can negotiate funding with the graduate school (maybe).

Julianna Baggott said...

This is interesting. At Florida State, we'd certainly look at this.

Julianna Baggott, Asst Director

Laurie Lynn said...

At the University of Oregon, the committee consists of all three profs in each genre and we get the whole file--personal statement, transcripts, application, letters of rec. So we know a student's ethnic background if the writing sample is strong enough for us to consider the rest of the file.

Earline Mock said...

If your writing is good enough to impress the committee members than there are higher chances to move towards funding campaign. Your writing can play a key part in this regard. sample diversity statement

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