Marshall 2013 (USC) - Calling All Applicants

APPLICATION DEADLINES
Round 1: Application due - November 1st, 2012 (Thursday) | Interview invites - December 7th, 2012 (Friday) | Decision notifications - February 1st, 2013 (Friday)
Round 2: Application due - January 15th, 2013 (Tuesday) | Interview invites - February 15th, 2013 (Friday) | Decision notifications - April 5th, 2013 (Friday)
Round 3: Application due - March 15th, 2013 (Friday) | Interview invites - April 15th, 2013 (Monday) | Decision notifications - May 17th, 2013 (Friday)

OTHER IMPORTANT DATES
Round 1 Deposit due: March 15th, 2013 (Friday)
Admit Weekend: April 26-27th, 2013 (Friday - Saturday)
Round 2 and 3 Deposit due: May 1st, 2013 (Wednesday)
Orientation for International Students: July 22-26th, 2013 (Monday - Friday)
Orientation for ALL Students: July 29th - August 2nd, 2013 (Monday - Friday)
Class begins: August 5th, 2013 (Monday)

ESSAY QUESTIONS
1) What are your short-term career goals post MBA? How will USC Marshall help you achieve these goals? (750 words)
2) How will other USC Marshall MBA Students benefit from your background, experience, leadership and teamwork skills? (500 words)
3) Select three from the following and describe: (250 words each)
- a) A challenging international business experience.
- b) How would you contribute to the “Trojan Network.”
- c) Your most significant accomplishment.
- d) A personal or professional setback.
- e) Introduce yourself to your future Marshall classmates in 100 words or less
4) Optional Essay: Please add any additional information that you would like the Admissions Committee to consider in evaluating your application. Also, if you are applying to a dual-degree program, please address that in this essay.

ESSAY ANALYSIS
https://blog.clearadmit.com/2012/10/usc- ... 2012-2013/
https://blog.accepted.com/2012/10/11/usc ... ines-tips/

The round 1 deadline for Marshall is coming up quick! November 1st is a week from Thursday, how are everyone's application and essays coming along? Anyone running into any issues?

The data form seems pretty straight forward, similar to many other schools. There has been a few slight changes to the essay questions from last year but nothing major. After speaking the with admissions department last week, I discovered Marshall needs OFFICIAL transcripts of ALL schools attended (university and community college) mailed to the graduate admissions office prior to submitting your application. This has been the only headache I've run into so far but more may arise when I continue to dig deeper into the application tonight. I'll keep everyone posted...

Any thoughts on the "Additional Documents:
You may use this area to upload additional documents and information to support your application. " section after uploading your essays. Is this for other non MBA programs? Any advice
?

Well for example, if you got the Presidential Medal of freedom, or were written up in The Wall Street Journal, you might upload a scan.

unfortnately no medals. I wish. Sounds like advice is dont touch. I've got inconsistent answers from admissions.

Posted from my mobile device

Yeah, I don't have any formal awards or medals worth uploading either so I'm not going to worry about this section. At first, I thought this was the standard "Optional Essay" area but this is listed as the last question on the essay prompts. I would rather not create extra work for the admissions committee when reviewing my application unless the additional material adds substantial value my profile.

Found a couple write-ups on the analysis of the new 2013 Marshal essay questions:

https://blog.clearadmit.com/2012/10/usc- ... 2012-2013/
https://blog.accepted.com/2012/10/11/usc ... ines-tips/

I ended up spending the majority of last weekend revising and honing these essays. With a total of 2000 words over 5 essays, this was a serious process. However, the diversity of the questions made this actually pretty interesting and enabled all areas of my background to be highlighted. After some fine tuning, I'll be submitting my application in a couple of days (shooting for Tuesday or Weds).

Has anyone observed that the second essay on the website and in the 'Downloadable forms' is actually different? I almost submitted my application when I happened to see the downloadable forms. I'm bringing this up just so that the rest of the applicants are careful while submitting their applications.

I noticed this discrepancy back in September but it was fixed soon after. Are you sure you are clicking on the link titled "Essays: Full-time MBA Program" (file name "ftmbaessays2012-13.pdf") under "Downloadable Forms" on the online application? I just double checked and this document matches what is posted on the website here https://www.marshall.usc.edu/mba/admissions/requirements.

Back in mid September the new deadlines along with the new essays were released and posted on Marshall's MBA website under "Admissions", "Requirements". However, the link in the online application form under "Program-Specific Essays" was to a PDF of last year's questions. This was resolved in early October so you shouldn't be running into the same problem.

Looks like the problem hasn't been completely rectified. Since I'm a reapplicant, I downloaded the PDF in the 'Reapplication' section, assuming it would be the same as the one in the 'Application requirements' section. While the PDF I downloaded was the old one, the new one has been updated only in the other section. I think this should also be brought to the notice of the Marshall adcom to avoid last minute panic for other reapplicants. I'm sure if I hadn't cross checked I would have submitted the wrong essays!

Nice catch! That's a good idea, I would definitely give the admissions department a call informing them of this. That is exactly what I did when I first discovered the discrepancy last month.

Apologies if this has been covered.

After submitting my app online, I received a confirmation e-mail from Marshall. In the e-mail, they requested a hard copy of my official transcripts. Does Marshall need the hard copy transcripts before evaluating the app? Or do they simply require the hard copy transcripts for validation once I've been admitted?

Thanks.

Marshall requires hard copies of OFFICIAL transcripts from ALL schools attended since secondary/high school BEFORE they can render a final decision (admit). You can upload unofficial copies of your transcripts to the online application and submit these for the adcom to review when evaluating your profile but an offer for admittance cannot be made until official copies are submitted to the USC graduate office of admissions. Also, be sure your schools complete and include the USC-supplied "Transcript Cover Page" when sending your transcripts to the admission office.

More info can be found here, under "Transcripts" : https://www.marshall.usc.edu/mba/admissions/requirements

I am an international applicant and my confirmation mail after submission says: "If you are an international applicant, your "Confidential Statement for Financing Studies at USC" document should also be sent to the above address. Delay in the submission of any required documents may create a significant delay in the processing of your application."

Do I need to send in this document right away or in case I get an admit?

I am also a reapplicant, and I had sent in my transcripts last year. Will I be required to send them again?

Submitted 10/4 to the PM program but haven't found any applicant threads other than this one. Anyone else submit to PM?

You submitted it 4 days or a month after the application went live? If you did 4 days, that's insanely quick!

According to the text in the confirmation email you quoted, I would assume this financial document is required to be submitted PRIOR to the adcom reviewing your application (NOT in the case of an offer for admission). I would complete and submit this document right away.

As for sending in transcripts as a reapplicant, that is a good question. I suggest calling the admissions office to confirm that they still have your transcripts on file.

Diablo-- I've been working on the application for 8 months on-and-off. When they went "live," all my work to date was still saved. The only thing that I noticed had changed was that they had one fewer options for Essay 3. Also, they switched to rolling admissions and created what looks like a first-come-first-served approach to evaluating apps. I would like to be in their first batch of decision notifications come December 1.

Okay. I ask because unless you've applied before or have generalized your essays, you couldn't have possibly know the specific prompts until 10/1.

Actually, I did know. They released their essay prompts back in September. The 10/1 date we are talking about was simply the first day they started accepting submissions of applications.