Resilience and Persistence are the two sides of the same coin. Sometimes, resilience is not about persistence. It is a timeline of survival and overcoming tremendous challenges and setbacks. But in a way persistence is a mindset not to be bogged down by setbacks.
In most growth and curiosity-themed Harvard MBA Essays, the persistence narrative is absent. Applicants now understand the value of not using cliches. But if your life had a series of setbacks and now you are in a place professionally that is impressive by any standards; you must capture the journey to differentiate your professional milestones.
A lot of times, applicants assume that others who apply to Harvard have also gone through similar hardships. I would say 10-15% of applicants have hardship narratives.
For the Harvard MBA resilience narrative, the theme that I used is the unexpected demise of the applicant’s father and the life-threatening illness her mother faced. Instead of just citing the person’s setbacks, I contextualized her attitude when faced with challenges first by highlighting her role in a volunteering engagement, then her milestone as a YouTuber, and finally, the setback that forced her out of her higher education. The ending is inspiring so that the admissions team truly feels connected to her story and empathizes with the applicant’s achievements.