The University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business takes a somewhat traditional approach to its application essays. For the first required essay, applicants must detail their short-term and long-term career goals and explain Marshall’s role in achieving them—though without much elaboration, given the submission’s mere 400-word limit. The second required essay is also 400 words, and candidates are asked to discuss a positive and successful teamwork experience. Applicants who feel they have an issue to explain or a particularly significant story to share can use the school’s optional essay to do so. Anyone who wishes to waive the exam portion of the application must provide a reasoned argument as to why and explain the relevant skills and knowledge they already possess and that an admissions exam would otherwise substantiate. Our analysis of all of USC Marshall’s essay questions for this season follows.
USC Marshall 2024–2025 Essay Tips
Essay #1 (Required): 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)
With this rather no-nonsense query about your motivation to earn an MBA and expectations as to where you will go with it professionally after graduation, Marshall simply wants you to spell out what you have in mind as you approach this phase of your life and career. Quite simply, Marshall wants to know that you have a vision for your career and are not just applying to business school with the expectation of figuring everything out later, once you are enrolled in the program. With just 400 words, focus on presenting your answer as directly and thoroughly as possible. Keep in mind that the rest of your application needs to provide evidence that your stated goals align with your existing skills and interests, especially once they have been augmented by an MBA education. This will show that your professed objectives are achievable and thereby lend credibility to your statement. Also take care to present your goals in such a way that the transition from your short-term objective to your long-term aspiration makes sense.
Interestingly, Marshall includes a definition for what it considers “short-term” and “long-term” goals, which is rare among MBA programs. While some schools specify that they want candidates to identify the position they hope to gain immediately after graduating, Marshall is giving you some leeway to think a little more broadly and envision your path more practically. For example, perhaps the role you truly want is more easily achieved a year or two out of the MBA program, so you might need to enter a different position first as a kind of stepping-stone.
The admissions committee also asks how “an MBA from USC Marshall” is key to your reaching your professional objectives. This means you must identify school-specific resources, opportunities, and offerings and tie them to your particular needs and interests. Do your research to ensure that Marshall can indeed position you to attain what you intend (though we hope you have already done so at this point), and simply spell things out. Your goal is to convince the admissions committee that you do not simply need an MBA to bridge the gap from where you are to where you want to be, you need an MBA from Marshall. So, identify the courses, clubs, events, centers, faculty members, and possibly even extracurriculars that will position you for success in your post-MBA career.
Given that this essay involves several elements of a traditional personal statement, we encourage you to download a free copy of our mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which provides advice on effectively addressing them in an essay and offers numerous illustrative examples.
Essay #2 (Required) – 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)
To start, note that the prompt does not ask you to share a time when you led a team but rather “collaborated effectively with others,” so your story should be about having been part of a group—rather than directing or responsible for one. As a business school student, you will need to work in tandem with your fellow students when analyzing case studies, completing group projects, and participating in other activities both inside and outside the classroom. So Marshall clearly wants to hear about your mind-set and working style in such situations. To craft an effective essay response, describe the nature of your collaboration with the others in the group, showing both what you contributed and what others brought to the dynamic (though much more succinctly). The experience you choose to highlight needs to have been a successful one, and you must explain what decisions, skills, and attitudes made it so. A submission that demonstrates your collaboration style, your ability to contribute to group projects, and your capacity to analyze and learn from such experiences is almost certain to make an admissions reader take notice.
Essay prompts that request examples are great, because they invite the use of a narrative structure, and such essays often end up being not only more revelatory but also more interesting to read (which is good when you are trying to make an impression on someone who reads literally thousands of essays each year!). To illustrate, you might start by launching directly into your story and perhaps highlighting the goal right away: “Although I had never organized a community-wide fundraiser before, I felt confident that we could find a way to collect enough to save our town’s fire department….”
Marshall will understandably want to know the outcome of the situation you describe, so you need to relate the results of your actions, but the admissions committee is even more interested in knowing what decisions you made and steps you took. In other words, in addition to explaining the goal that was achieved, you must illustrate the values, thought process, and initiatives that made it 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)
In general, we believe candidates should use a school’s optional essay to explain confusing or problematic issues in their candidacy, which this prompt does indeed allow. So, if you need to, use this opportunity to address any questions the admissions committee might have about your profile, such as a poor grade or overall GPA, a low GMAT or GRE score, or a gap in your work experience. Consider downloading our free mbaMission Optional Essays Guide, in which we offer detailed advice (and multiple annotated examples) on how best to approach the optional essay to mitigate any problem areas in your application.
That said, Marshall clearly leaves the door open for you to discuss any other information about your candidacy that you feel might be pivotal or particularly compelling—that you think the admissions committee truly needs to know to be able to evaluate you fully and effectively (and that might not have been appropriate for your required essay). We caution you against submitting a response to this prompt just because you fear that not doing so would somehow count against you, though (it will not). Remember that with each additional essay you write, you are asking the admissions committee to do extra work on your behalf, so you must make sure that the added time is warranted. If you decide to use this essay to impart information that you believe would render your application incomplete if omitted, strive to keep your submission brief and on point.
Test Waiver Requests
If you wish to receive a test waiver, Marshall provides a Test Waiver Request Box within its application and notes on its website, “Test waiver requests will be evaluated based on academic performance, with a strong emphasis on achievement in quantitative coursework (business, economics, sciences, technology, engineering, math, etc.). Professional experience can be included in the waiver request but is secondary to academic achievement and quantitative coursework performance.” You will therefore need to make a compelling, well-reasoned, and persuasive argument as to why you do not need, or should not be expected, to take one of the exams that aspiring MBAs traditionally complete. Marshall, like all business schools, uses these tests to gauge applicants’ verbal and quantitative abilities (including their command of the English language) and their readiness for the rigors of the MBA curriculum. The school does not want to admit and enroll individuals in such an academically demanding program who will ultimately struggle to keep up; this would not be good for the student, nor for their classmates. So you will need to demonstrate clearly for the admissions committee that you already have the skills and knowledge base necessary to absorb and engage with the content and assignments Marshall will require. In your appeal, share all the evidence you have of times you have excelled academically in the areas the MBA curriculum is founded on.
