About the school or an experience? Questions and confusion on UMaryland's prompt

2. The University of Maryland prides itself on being an inclusive community that celebrates differences, brings together people from the widest array of backgrounds and perspectives, and recognizes that excellence cannot be achieved without diversity. What do you look forward to gaining from the diversity of the University of Maryland community?

Is this prompt asking us to talk mostly about the school or can I talk about an experience that made me respect cultural differences and then tie it in with the last part of the prompt?

I know I have only 300 words so I was wondering if I could just spend the first two paragraphs talking about my experience and then my last paragraph is spent explaining how I would contribute to Umaryland and what I would gain at the same time?

As you can tell, I'm trying to recycle Umich's essay, but hey can you blame me? lol
I just need to know if it's possible, because this prompt is pretty vague and I doubt they expect us to just fill the essay with superficial generalities saying how you hope to love diverse schools.. blah blah blah with no details to support your beliefs..

I'm applying to both too!

Well, my guess is that it specifically mentions UMaryland, it means UMaryland.

Colleges these days want to know that an applicant truly cares about their school specifically, and not trying to serial apply to a bunch of colleges.

So, what do you know about University of Maryland and specifically, its diversity? Remember, diversity does not necessarily haveto mean just ethnicities or religion. Diversity can be a wide variety, range of beliefs, ideas, perspectives. It doesn't even haveto describe people; diversity can describe learning, a diversity of knowledge (ex. mastering science and art).

The main thing here, or when asked the specific "Why do you want to go here" question is you want to relate the specific school aspects with your needs and preferences to a school. Make it as specific as possible to the school and don't tell them stuff they already know about themselves. Just a few tips.

And yeah, you can probably use general ideas from UMich's essays, but you really need to specify it to UMD. Hope this helped.

Hmm alright, guess i'll keep it more specific and less story-oriented

They want to see if any of you high school grads out there actually think about and appreciate diversity. For many people, this writing exercise is the first time writing about "diversity."

You have to be creative, obviously, in the approach you take, but write an essay about diversity.

collegeapps.about.com/b/2009/07/29/5-tips-for-a-college-admissions-ess ay-on-diversity.htm