University of Southern California Marshall School of Business MBA Essays & Analysis 2024 - 2025

University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business has released its MBA application questions for 2024 - 2025. The questions have changed for this year’s application cycle. 

Here are USC Marshall’s MBA application essays for the 2024 - 2025 application cycle. 

Essay 1

What are your short-term and long-term career goals, and how will an MBA from USC Marshall help you achieve those goals? Short-term career goals should be those you want to achieve within 3-5 years post-MBA, whereas long-term goals may span a decade or more and encompass broader professional aspirations. (word limit: 400)

This is your classic, all-inclusive career goals essay. 

Use this essay structure to explain the context behind your goals, state them, and describe how you will use your USC Marshall MBA to achieve them. 

1. Context: Start by explaining the “why” behind your goals. Use a story in the SCAR format to provide context for why you decided to pursue your career path, and where you want to go from here. 

2. Goals: Clearly define your short-term and long-term goals. Be specific about the role, company, industry, and location you want to be in. Your longer term goals can be more ambitious, but they should link to the skills and experience you will gain in your short-term goal. 

3. Why USC Marshall: Once you’ve stated your goals, steer the essay towards exploring how USC Marshall resonates with you. Mention the specific courses, electives, specializations, faculty, and research centres that will aid your plans. Describe any conversations you’ve had with alumni or current students with similar backgrounds to get more incisive information on the opportunities and resources available at USC Marshall, and how these will play into your career journey. Research (both online and offline) is key here. 

Deepak

Harsh

Jasmin

Vibhav

Chinenye

Sejal

Elie

Essay 2

In the USC Marshall MBA Program, teamwork is essential to success. Please share an example of a time when you collaborated effectively with others to achieve a personal or professional goal. (word limit: 400)

Last year, USC Marshall asked applicants to write an open-ended letter to help AdCom understand their candidacy better.

This year, the school has opted to swap the vague letter essay for a shorter, direct essay that asks applicants to tell a team story.

At business school, you’ll need to collaborate often with your peers on projects, case studies, and in your extracurriculars. USC Marshall places special emphasis on their Trojan Family network, where current and former students and staff are deeply involved in the school community, offering career services support, mentorship, recruitment opportunities, and even short-term projects. Given this collaborative culture during and after the MBA program, you need to demonstrate that you can fit right into the school’s tight-knit community. 

Note that the prompt doesn’t ask you to talk about leading or managing a team. Instead, the school is interested in how well you collaborate with others, even if you didn’t have any formal managerial experience in this regard. 

Tell your team story in the SCAR format: that is, Situation, Challenge, Action, Result.

Situation: What is the context of your story? Who was involved, and what was your role in the team? 

​Challenge: What was the specific task or challenge that your team faced? Make the stakes clear. What would have happened if your team did not collaborate effectively, and whom would that have affected?

Action: What specific, measurable action did you take? How did you rally the team, or help them collaborate more effectively? What was your thought process behind this action? 

Result: Describe clearly how your actions led to the measured result. How did the team achieve the goal because of your contribution? Quantify this result to make your impact really clear. That means including percent differences in the team’s output, the number of clients you brought on board, or how much you saved the company.

Remember to choose a story with positive results! Focus on the difference you made to the team, whether it was improving communication processes, coordinating with cross-cultural team members, resolving conflict among colleagues, rallying the team during a challenging project, or directing your team members to find an effective solution. Highlight your thought process and skills (like communication, negotiation, leadership) that made these results possible. 

Optional Essay

We realize that each person is more than a list of facts or pre-defined categories, and we’d like to recognize each individual’s unique qualities and experiences. Please use this space to share any additional information about yourself that cannot be found elsewhere in your application and that you would like the Admissions Committee to consider when reviewing your candidacy for the MBA program. (word limit: 500)

Here, you can discuss any defining personal experiences that have shaped who you are. This could an unusual life circumstance, mental health, finances, or any other extenuating information that may paint a more authentic and strong picture of you to the AdCom. But don’t ramble on; provide the context as quickly as possible and then describe how it has shaped your values, perspective, and experiences. Make sure that this information is incremental and relevant to your application. 

Note that this essay is optional. Don’t add information here just because you have an extra 500 words to work with. You may also discuss topics like employment gaps, a low undergraduate GPA or GMAT/GRE scores, or any criminal records or expulsion from school. Don’t make excuses! Be direct and brief in explaining these, and explain how you have worked on these issues since.

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You might also want to check out our USC Marshall MBA Interview Guide for in-depth insights into USC Marshall's interview process, what they're looking for in prospective candidates, interview schedule and questions for 2024, and tips to ace your interview.

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