How to Add Resilience in your Columbia MBA Fit Narrative
Another great way to demonstrate resilience is by quoting New York’s history of withstanding natural calamity, terrorist attacks, and the pandemic – 3 shocks that often take cities months and some even years to recover. The ability of the people in New York to adapt, recover and emerge with new strategies to face similar shocks to the system is what makes the City resilient.
Native New Yorkers
If you are a native New Yorker, there must be examples that you can quote from the 2012 Hurricane Sandy to 9/11 to the pandemic. The narrative can focus on you as the Protagonist or your close friend or relatives (parents, uncles/aunts, or grandparents). Finding inspiration from New Yorkers is a narrative that has worked for Columbia.
International Applicants
Even for international applicants, New York can be an inspiration. In our Sample Essay, we captured the story of a German applicant whose family business faced an unprecedented halt in production during the pandemic. A line mentioning how the person looked up to the City for inspiration was sufficient to transition into the support of an EIR representative in New York that helped the applicant take the business in a strategic direction.
Connecting Similar Experiences
Some of the heroic tales of your City might not have reached Social Media or even mainstream media. This is even more challenging in personalized TikTok or YouTube, or Facebook bubbles. While introducing the resiliency of your City and people, include sufficient context to demonstrate that what you faced was truly challenging.
With Climate Change, Flooding is a common narrative I have read. The disruption can be mild to severe. From 2013 to 2022, more than 100 flooding events have been reported worldwide. If you were part of such events, it is a great opportunity to paint a picture of how you and your community survived and thrived just as New Yorkers did.
If you are covering natural calamity:
* Use at least 1-2 lines demonstrating the disruption.
* Use 1 line personalizing the cost of the event to you, your family, and your community
* Use a line sharing how the community bounced back
Resilience need not be all related to natural calamity.
Sometimes War and Immigration also lead to disruption in the way of living for your parents or you. Although that might have been painful at the time, on reflection, you might have noticed how scarcity and the push to survive have led you to new values that have built the foundation for who you are today.
