USC / Marshall MBA Essay Tips 2024-2025

The following essay topic analysis examines USC / Marshall School of Business (Marshall) MBA admissions essays for the 2024-2025 admissions season. You can also review essay topic analyses for other leading MBA programs as well as general Essay Tips to further aid you in developing your admissions essays.

2024-2025 USC Marshall MBA Essay Tips

Let’s take a closer look at each prompt.

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 essay question is a straightforward career goals essay, asking applicants to explain their professional goals and why they’re interested in pursuing an MBA at Marshall.

Along with describing your immediate post-MBA career goals, you should explain your long-term career goals and the broad impact you hope to have on your industry, community, country or region. For your short-term career goals, be as grounded and direct as possible—identify a position and target industry, and explain what draws you to this role and how it connects with your previous experience and long-term plans.

Then, consider first what skills you need from an MBA; this can inform what you need from Marshall and how this program will help you accomplish the growth you’re seeking. With respect to how the Marshall MBA would help you achieve your goals, it would make sense to briefly comment on your work experience to date in order to establish the skills you already possess; this helps to establish the gap in your skill set that a Marshall MBA would fill. This phase of your discussion should establish the skills and knowledge you hope to gain from a Marshall MBA while integrating details about the program. Forging specific connections between the skills you hope to gain (whether in the classroom or through involvement in student clubs or other outlets) and your future plans will show the adcom that you’ve researched the program and have a sound understanding of how a Marshall MBA will prepare you for success. 

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)
Candidates should be sure to choose a situation with successful results here. With such a tight word limit, context will have to be established concisely by defining one’s team and the objective that defined success. Working with others can take on many forms—coordinating with teams overseas, collaborating directly with a colleague for a challenging consulting project, or directing teammates to develop solutions. What’s important is how you worked together and the challenges you overcame to achieve success. Given the focus on teamwork, it would make sense to highlight communication, motivational or leadership skills that enabled effective collaboration. Consider your team projects throughout your career or activities and which ones stood out—both for the results achieved and growth earned.

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)
We recommend completing this essay and using it as an additional opportunity to reveal more about your candidacy. Though there are myriad potential topics to discuss here, applicants should consider the balance of subjects they have covered across their other essays and choose a topic that provides new insight into their overall candidacy. For example, if the majority of content in your other essays is focused on your professional life and accomplishments, this would be an opportunity to showcase and highlight your extracurricular passions or interests. It also invites something interesting about your background or unusual international experience. You may also consider what matters most to you or what feels like defines you as you decide what may be missing from the other application materials.

Clear Admit Resources

Thanks for reading our analysis of this year’s USC / Marshall School of Business MBA essay tips. As you work on your Marshall MBA essays and application, we encourage you to consider all of Clear Admit’s Marshall offerings:

• USC / Marshall Profile on the Clear Admit website: up-to-date advice and admissions information
• Clear Admit LiveWire: admissions updates submitted in real time by applicants to USC / Marshall
• Clear Admit DecisionWire: school selections in real-time by admits to USC / Marshall