On Medium (a blogging site, just like Blogger), Deena ElGinaidi claims that college applications pressures "people of color" ( I hate that term, I prefer the term "people with non-European ancestries") to relive their traumas in the essay portion of the application.
Read her post at
https://electricliterature.com/how-applying-to-grad-school-becomes-a-display-of-trauma-for-people-of-color-7bccd68103bb
As a person with some non-European ancestries, I have some thoughts on Deena ElGinaidi post.
Here is my response to her post
Reminds me of the movie “Dope” where an African-American teenage boy talked to a counselor about a personal essay for college placement. The counselor advised him to write about his life as a inner city kid living with a single parent. The student rebelled against that idea, calling it “cliche”. Apparently, he already understood that the college admissions staff probably heard similar stories a million times already.As for me, when I applied for a master’s degree program in Library & Information Science, I did have to write a personal statement. My personal statement said ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about being a part-Latino student growing up in Hawaii because it was totally irrelevant to why I wanted to a career in the libraries. I just focused on why I wanted to work in the libraries, because after all, I applied to become a future librarian not a token to fulfill a quota. Even with that focus on my personal statement, I was still admitted to the program. Programs want students interested in their subjects, and if you express sincere interest, they will select you!So if you don’t want to play up your ethnicities or your personal struggles, then DON’T!
Now, mentioning traumatic past might help in certain college applications if it's relevant.
For example, if you were applying to a master's program in Social Work because you've been saved from an abusive situation growing up, and you want to do the same for others who have been in the same situation, then yes, you can write about your traumatic past in your college application.
But if you're applying to a PhD program in Physics because you are fascinated by Physics, I don't think you have to mention your traumatic past or emphasize your under-represented ethnicities.
