How to Write the Context Essay (a.k.a. the Identity Essay)
If you’re applying to college right now, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of schools are asking about your lived experiences—who you are, where you come from, and what kind of community member you’ll be on campus. It’s not just about grades and test scores anymore (thankfully). Colleges want to know what makes you unique.
Let’s talk about how to tackle that kind of question.
First, What Is the “Context Essay”?
You might’ve seen prompts like these:
Columbia University: “A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. Tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint, or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to Columbia’s diverse and collaborative community.”
Students entering Brown often find that making their home on College Hill naturally invites reflection on where they came from. Share how an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you, and what unique contributions this might allow you to make to the Brown community.
Harvard has long recognized the importance of enrolling a diverse student body. How will the life experiences that shape who you are today enable you to contribute to Harvard?
Princeton values community and encourages students, faculty, staff, and leadership to engage in respectful conversations that can expand their perspectives and challenge their ideas and beliefs. As a prospective member of this community, reflect on how your lived experiences will impact the conversations you will have in the classroom, the dining hall, or other campus spaces. What lessons have you learned in life thus far? What will your classmates learn from you? In short, how has your lived experience shaped you?
All of these are basically asking the same thing: What is your story, and how will it shape what you bring to campus?
We like to call this the Context Essay. You might also hear it called the “community essay,” “diversity essay,” or “life experiences essay.” Whatever the name, the goal is to help admissions officers understand where you come from, who you are, and how you see the world—in short, they want to understand your identity.
Let’s cover what this means:
Firstly, identity doesn’t just have to be about race, though race and ethnicity is something students should feel free to discuss if they feel that it is relevant to their lived experience! Colleges want to understand how you will contribute to their community and add to a diversity of perspectives on campus. There are plenty of ways to show this in your essay:
Where you were raised
Your family’s culture and how it shaped you
The languages you speak at home
Your heritage
Your gender or gender expression
Your class and economic background
Your religion or faith
Your sexual orientation
Anything that was a constant in your upbringing that would be different from your peers
Before you say that nothing is interesting or different about you, you just need to dig deeper. A past student swore this was true about herself, and after some brainstorming, she let it slip that both of her parents are Marines. Growing up, she was forced to move from place to place and make new friends. She attributes this to why she’s able to speak to strangers so easily—she had years of experience breaking the ice.
Another student wrote about cinnamon sugar toast—a staple, he discovered, in lower-income households. He used this to explore other signifiers of poverty that he didn’t notice growing up because his parents tried very hard to shield him from the reality of their financial situation.
You probably have something about your background or identity that you don’t realize is unique because you have just grown up believing it was the norm.
So… What Should the Essay Do?
This essay is your chance to show three key things:
Self-awareness – You’ve reflected on your past and what it’s taught you.
Perspective – You understand that not everyone has your experience, and you’re open to learning from others.
Contribution – You can bring something real to a diverse college campus—whether that’s curiosity, compassion, boldness, or a new perspective.
Let’s check out some examples.
Real Essay Example #1
Prompt (Duke): We believe a wide range of personal perspectives, beliefs, and lived experiences are essential to making Duke a vibrant and meaningful living and learning community. Feel free to share with us anything in this context that might help us better understand you and what you might bring to our community. 250 words
“I always agree with the majority.”
“What?” I struggled with what my Japanese roommate Risa said. Disagreeing is bad?
We were at High School Diplomats (HSD), a Japanese and American student exchange program. In discussing cultural differences, I was surprised to learn that independent opinions weren’t valued in Japanese society, as contrasted with America’s emphasis on individualism.
I was reminded that I’ve always been encouraged to forge my own path and state my beliefs. Although individuality is valued in America, I understand now that it’s not always beneficial. For example, while many people in the U.S. refused to get vaccinated, which led to difficulties in containing COVID, Japan’s traditions of harmony helped them to quickly control the outbreak.
During the program, Risa’s and my late-night discussions ranged from tea ceremonies to boyfriends. At HSD, I discovered how the nuances of our cultures contributed to different perspectives. But this required that I embrace her “broken” English and she embrace my “brutally broken” Japanese. If not for our dedicated efforts to communicate, I would never have gained an accurate understanding.
In our polarized society, it’s easy to shut out those with different views. HSD taught me to see honest communication as a source of strength – it takes work, yet it often leads to meaningful relationships with others, especially those from different backgrounds. At Duke, I want to apply those skills in conversations, no matter how difficult, with students and professors and to be enriched by their perspectives.
Why it works: In this essay, we get a glimpse into a moment. The student tells us more about herself through her analysis of the event in real time. She is able to recognize her own culture from an outside perspective, too—since the prompt asks what she will bring to Duke’s community, and we understand that she will bring her openness to perspectives different than her own.
Real Essay Example #2
Prompt (Princeton): At Princeton, we value diverse perspectives and the ability to have respectful dialogue about difficult issues. Share a time when you had a conversation with a person or a group of people about a difficult topic. What insight did you gain, and how would you incorporate that knowledge into your thinking in the future? (250)
I applied for Princeton’s James Madison Program on American Politics because of my interest in the Founding Fathers—but also because the program is run by a professor with more conservative views than mine, and I wondered how I’d react. One student there left me with especially strong feelings. After reading Tocqueville, we discussed Ibram X. Kendi’s work on antiracism, and even the professor winced when this student said, “I think Kendi’s idea is stupid. The world isn’t black and white.” I didn’t disagree with her last point—I believe in shades of gray—but she was criticizing Kendi for oversimplifying, while doing that herself. I said so, yet I tried to sandwich the criticism in an acknowledgment of her point. My words made an impression on others, but not on her: two days later we discussed marginalized groups, and she said, “Those LGBTQ+ people’s flag keeps getting uglier. Soon it’ll be the whole alphabet and we won’t know what to call anyone.” By now the whole seminar knew she said these things for effect. Still, it was discouraging. Being outrageous and not seeking common ground seemed to give her an advantage. But then I saw the result. Her comments united a lot of us who otherwise held differing views. We felt that hard questions should be discussed with respect and care. She had succeeded in getting noticed, but I learned—and this makes me hugely hopeful—that the rest of us, different as we were, had come here to serve something bigger than ourselves.
Why it works: We learn a lot about this student from the above—we know his views are less conservative than the professors, and that he’s curious about himself: “I wondered how I’d react.” This is someone open to different ideas and interested in having challengin conversations. They demonstrate the insight they gained in having a conversation with someone who was reluctant to think more deeply about complex topics, and we see their optimistic world view at the end.
Real Essay Example #3
Prompt (Yale): Reflect on an element of your personal experience that you feel will enrich your college. How has it shaped you?
The sticky dough felt strange between my stubby fingers as I tried to form the cat-eared noodle shape my mom had demonstrated earlier. Mao er duo, we called it at home. I glanced up enviously at my mom beside me, a perfect pile of noodles sitting on her cutting board.
“Bie dan xin, bao bei er,” my mom would insist every time I got frustrated and accidentally flung flour across the tiles. Don’t worry, darling.
I expected to work hard for success when confronting difficult math problems or training for volleyball tryouts, but for my younger self, dissatisfaction stung just as much when I pinched too much filling into a dumpling skin. Eventually, though, I didn’t flounder when an eggshell splintered into the bowl; I cleaned my own messes and Googled solutions.
With more free time as my brother and I became increasingly independent, my mom ventured into fusion cuisine, making macarons and cheesecake following recipes written in Chinese. To show my gratitude, I attempted a matcha chiffon cake for her most recent birthday, using her favorite recipe. Though my Mandarin was rusty, I weighed the ingredients and beat the eggs with a practiced hand.
“Fold from bottom to top, like this,” I instructed my brother, who I’d coerced into helping me. I let him do the final honors of sprinkling powdered sugar on top.
In the candle glow, I realized that my mom had lived in the US for almost as many years as she had in China. I began to understand why she treasured reminders of her childhood. I used to scorn Sunday Chinese School because I felt anxious about answering incorrectly and embarrassing myself in front of my more “authentically Chinese” classmates. But there’s no competition for who can stay most in touch with their roots; I’ve learned to embrace the erratic but comforting way we second-generation children switch between the two languages midsentence.
Before I ever failed a calculus test or lost a state-level officer election, my greatest disappointments were deflated red bean buns and misshapen mooncakes. But even if I can’t recreate a recipe flawlessly, I won’t be discouraged from trying. I’ve learned not to let the discomfort of making mistakes stop me from experimenting in the kitchen or seeking new experiences in life. I hope that by continuing to do so, I’ll embolden others to do the same.
Why it worked: This student fits a lot of information into a tight space. We see her growth through the essay as she references different points in her life. We also see how facing challenges came from her cultural background in a very specific way: she uses the kitchen and Sunday Chinese School to show how these earlier challenges prepared her for other ones. The final line gently references her interaction with her brother by stating that she sees her duty as one of leading by example and encouraging others to confront difficult or new tasks.
Strategy to Approach the Context Essay
It’s useful when planning for this essay to brainstorm as many moments, experiences, and conversations as possible to develop plenty of material to pull from for several essays. You should approach each school’s prompts carefully, making sure you read them over a few times and know exactly what they are asking you to share. Perspective essays and Identity essays, for example, might look similar, but they might also require two different stories. If a school asks for both of these, you want to avoid repeating information.
You want to consider the purpose behind the essay question when brainstorming your own response. Often, you can understand this through the school’s choice of wording in the prompt—in some cases, they ask about your perspective and how it’s been challenged. In other cases, they ask you to describe yourself and where you come from. This language is crucial because it tells you what types of communities they want you to describe in your essay.
Outline
1. Start with a story. Real moments stick. Think: a phone call, a childhood tradition, a family dinner, a bus ride, a book you read that changed how you think.
2. Zoom out. What did the experience teach you? How did it shape your beliefs, values, or goals?
3. Connect it to college. What will you bring to campus? A global mindset? Resilience? The ability to build community? Say it clearly and connect it to something specific on that campus if you can.
4. Be honest. You don’t have to exaggerate your life story. What matters most is your voice—your tone, your insights, your realness.
What to Avoid
To play it safe, we advise students to explore other topics before writing about extracurricular activities, such as athletic teams or school clubs, in essays that specifically ask about diversity, unless the community pertains to their identity in some way.
How do you know if an activity relates to your identity? Your identity is the core of who you are— it’s deeply tied to your character and shapes the way you see the world and interact within it. For example, being a baseball player isn’t an identity—it’s not likely something that influences your interactions with everyone from your teachers to your grandparents, changes how you think about money, or informs the way you move through the world.
Here’s a quick example of how that baseball essay could work:
Prompt (UVA): What about your individual background, perspective, or experience will serve as a source of strength for you or those around you at UVA? Feel free to write about any past experience or part of your background that has shaped your perspective and will be a source of strength, including but not limited to those related to your community, upbringing, educational environment, race, gender, or other aspects of your background that are important to you.
From the sky, I could see dozens at once, the familiar diamond-shaped dirt patch surrounded by a sea of grass that had become my second home: a baseball field. When the plane approached China, however, as I marveled at the tiny cities below, the lack of baseball fields was palpable.
I’m the only Chinese baseball player on any team I’ve played. Representation in the major leagues is virtually nonexistent. Worst of all, no matter how often I tried explaining what the strike zone was to my parents, they didn’t “get” baseball. Due to the language barrier, my parents found it difficult to understand baseball lingo and navigate a community where attending local high school baseball games was a favorite pastime. My parents’ unfamiliarity with the sport forced me to figure out mechanical tweaks on my own. When they suggested tennis or basketball instead—sports they at least knew the rules of—I wondered if baseball wasn’t for me.
Then I met 孙岭峰 (Sūn Lǐngfēng), a Chinese national baseball player on a mission to spread baseball to Chinese youth. Watching him openly address the lack of Chinese representation in baseball encouraged me to do the same. I started to teach my family the sport as I’d taught myself, bringing them into the baseball community. Just last week, my parents went to watch the Orioles play and didn’t need me there to explain a pickoff attempt or a stolen base.
Representation is a lot of pressure, but it’s also a source of strength: if I’m ultimately the only Chinese baseball player someone ever meets, I aim to make a lasting impression. Whether through interacting with new teammates on UVA’s Club Baseball team or labmates at UVA’s VIVA Lab, I’ll draw on this strength to build inclusive communities, ensuring that diversity encourages understanding, not alienation.
The above still includes the student’s identity and how his baseball community played a massive role in shaping his worldview. Some extracurricular activities and clubs lend themselves more clearly to aligning with a student’s identity. For example, if you are part of the LGBTQ+ community, writing about secretly joining your school’s Gay-Straight Alliance when you were not yet ready to come out tells about a part of your identity that does influence many of your interactions.
We aren’t saying you need to describe parts of your identity that are recognized as an oppressed minority. Instead, you want to think about how your character and worldview are unique. What makes you you? If you’re feeling stumped on this, consider how you’d compare to a larger global community. If you were taken out of your hometown and put in a different part of the world, what would set you apart? How would your perspective be unique?
Here’s another way to think about it: Your lived experience growing up in a suburb is necessarily different from a student who grew up in rural Kentucky, and their lived experience is different from someone who grew up in rural Pennsylvania, and that person’s experience is different from someone who grew up in New York City. If you want to get more granular: Did you grow up living in an apartment where it was normal to knock on a neighbor’s door? A house in a gated community, where you struggled with how closed off your community made itself? Maybe your mom hosted a book club in your living room, and, for years, its members imparted small words of wisdom to you.
Final Thoughts
Consider how the examples we reviewed approached these essays. Some of them did reference their culture or ethnic backgrounds, but not all of them did. Colleges are looking to see if you understand the context in which you lived and were curious enough to think about it deeply. What beliefs do you hold? Where do you feel they come from? Think about the environment that shaped you—what unique perspective did it inform you with, and how will it help you contribute to a diverse campus community?
