Maryland: Learning and growing through diversity

650 characters (about 100 words)

Because we know that diversity benefits the educational experience of all students, the University of Maryland values diversity in all of its many forms. This includes (but is not limited to) racial, socio-economic, gender, geographical, and sexual orientation. We are interested in hearing about your own individual life experiences. In a few sentences, will you please describe how you have learned, grown, been inspired or developed skills through one or more components of diversity.

What it’s really asking

This is Maryland's signature identity and community prompt. It asks how some component of diversity in your life (which can be your own background or an experience that put you among people unlike you) actually changed how you think, learn, or act. The verbs matter: learned, grown, inspired, developed skills.

Why they ask it

Maryland cares about who will add to its community, not just who will benefit from it. Readers want evidence that you can move through a different perspective and come out changed, because that is what living and learning on a diverse campus demands every day.

Three ways in

Zoom in on one experience

Pick a single specific relationship or moment, not a sweeping statement about valuing differences, so the reader can actually see it.

Move from scene to skill

Anchor the answer in a concrete scene, then name the skill or shift in thinking it produced, matching the prompt's verbs.

Allow honest friction

Be honest about a moment of surprise or discomfort, because growth reads as real when it clearly cost you something.

✕ Weak opening

“I have always believed that diversity is important and that we can all learn from people who are different from us.”

✓ Strong opening

“Mr. Okafor ran the only halal cart on our block, and arguing with him about chess is where I learned to listen.”

✦ Annotated example · Growing through diversity: the kitchen table. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →

I grew up translating for my grandmother at the Vietnamese market, ¹where I learned that "a little" of fish sauce means something different to every aunt within earshot. ²At my majority-Black high school, my friend Dre taught me to cook collard greens, ³and I taught him to fold dumplings without tearing the wrappers. We argued, flour everywhere, about whose grandmother's hands were faster. ⁴I learned that culture is not something you defend, but something you set on the table and share.⁵

1Immediately roots diversity in a concrete relationship and place rather than abstractions, which Maryland's prompt explicitly invites.
2Humor plus a precise cultural detail. It makes the heritage specific and alive instead of a checkbox.
3Shows diversity as exchange, learning and growing from someone different. The reciprocity matters more than the food.
4A warm, true-sounding moment that keeps the voice genuine and unforced.
5Earns a real insight about diversity in one line, fulfilling the prompt's ask about growth while staying near the 650-character cap.

Stuck? Start here

When did you spend real time among people whose background or perspective differed from yours, and what specifically changed in you?
Is there a part of your own identity that shaped how you learn or lead?
What is one habit or skill you developed because of that experience that you still use?

Before you submit

Did I tell one specific story instead of a general statement about valuing diversity?
Did I name what I actually learned or how I grew, using the prompt's verbs?
Is the growth honest, including any friction, rather than a tidy slogan?

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