University of Southern California (USC) Essay Guide

The University of Southern California is a private university located right in the middle of Los Angeles, California. With an acceptance rate of 11% (and competitive merit scholarships available), it’s important to give your all in their application – and some of the questions they provide can be difficult to conquer without preparation. 

Describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests at USC. Please feel free to address your first- and second-choice major selections (250 words). 

 This essay prompt is deceptive – it’s important to spend some time describing your academic interests, but make sure to leave room to discuss why USC is the best place to follow them. It’s fair to describe your major selections (“feel free”, like the prompt says) but make sure that there’s ample room for the primary directive – describing your plan to use USC’s resources to pursue your academic dreams. 

I’d toured USC previously and genuinely enjoyed the experience, which I really tried to show off in my essay. If you have the chance to tour any schools, make sure to take notes both on programs and the campus! And if taking notes while walking is too difficult (or you’ve already toured and didn’t write anything), pictures can be worth thousands of words – or, at least, ­­a couple words in your 250-word essay.

My essay isn’t written incredibly eloquently; rather, I decided to bombard AOs with imagery, rapid examples, and quick descriptions to show them that I could fully imagine myself being a USC student. This took additional research from their website (and about 50 tabs), but showing a depth of knowledge and exploration is one of the safest ways to display interest. I’ll admit that I could’ve portrayed the content quite a bit more fluently (that conclusion is really just an add-on), but the most important thing here isn’t to “wow” an AO with writing – it’s to “wow” them with your enthusiasm for their school. Show excitement for USC beyond a cookie-cutter “I sit at ___ library while doing my homework for ____ class and sipping a coffee” by finding niche programs and opportunities that support your unique interests.

Essay Example:

I found myself captivated by USC’s campus. Framed by a brick courtyard, the Douglas Fairbanks Senior fountain dazzles me. Tommy Trojan watches triumphantly as my tour guide describes the origins of USC’s “fight on” catchphrase. McCarthy Quad beckons me to sprawl on the grass, eating a pizza from California Pizza Kitchen. But I was not touring USC just for the aesthetics. As I hold up a peace sign for my paparazzi mom under the Von KleinSmid Center flags, I become excited remembering what drew me to campus in the first place: the opportunities USC provides to continue my study of the Japanese language.

Dornsife offers the necessities of continuing my Japanese studies, but also opportunities for further enrichment. The grammar structure of Japanese has always fascinated me. Why not study it in “Introduction to East Asian Linguistics”? Outside the classroom, when I’m not at a USC Nikkei meeting, I know I’ll be bugging my Conversation Partner constantly over text. But it might also be hard to keep up with people at home while studying abroad in Japan — unless Dornsife’s alluring classes convince me to stay on campus. I thought it might be hard to do Japanese-related research in college, but Global East Asia offers unique research opportunities for me to go further with my studies in the real world.

Just as I was in the brick courtyard, I can’t help but be dazzled by USC’s brimming fountain of Japanese knowledge, a fountain that I can’t wait to plunge into.

 Beware redundancy – this prompt is really close to some potential personal statement questions, so be careful not to repeat anything! Show your own open-mindedness or personal growth, and tie it to how you can add to USC’s diverse community. Be cautious with how you show growth – don’t say anything that’s incredibly insensitive or triggering, even as an example of the past – and go with a different prompt if this one doesn’t speak to you.

 This is a good place to try to synthesize your interests (perhaps your first and second choice majors) into one unified interdisciplinary interest. Show your capability to think diversely, outside of the bounds of a single field – and tie that interest to how you can pursue it at USC, if you can do that fluidly. Ensure that you bring a fair amount of new content to the table, as it’s easy to make this into a second “Why USC” essay otherwise; you don’t need to restate much between essays.

This prompt is a bit of an open one, so make sure to approach it with some specific goals in mind – whether that’s telling a story, showing a fundamental part of your character, or displaying a unique quality that not many others possess. Don’t get lost in the breadth of opportunity and write an essay with too much content and not enough valuable substance.  

 The most important thing about this section is to have fun. USC isn’t looking for anything insanely profound (if they were, they’d at least give more characters for your thoughts than Twitter), so use these prompts as an opportunity to show your character, embrace your quirks and interests, and fill in any blanks left from your original two essays. Use all 100 characters – elaborating and describing responses helps make you, as an applicant, seem far more compelling and fun to talk to. There are really no “wrong answers” for these prompts, besides being disingenuous – so have fun and be creative! Your responses should either show something new about you or show your personality – make sure that they aren’t just forgettable fluff. Following are some suggestions for each individual prompt, but remember that the most important thing is that you like your answers and feel like they adequately represent you.

 One admit I met while interviewing for USC’s full-tuition Trustee Scholarship listed “Handsome, Intelligent, and Humble” for this prompt – which obviously worked well enough in his favor, but copying that response or forcing humor wouldn’t be the smartest. You can go with some fancy adjectives, display your interests, or just use descriptors that fit your overall essays – I went with the latter of the three. However, it’s incredibly important to investigate potential negative connotations and screen your words with some colleagues. I’d generally recommend starting with a longer list, then slowly narrowing it down with your own gut instinct and the input of others. If you want, you could use the remainder of the 25 characters per word for a short quip or description – but that might be hard to fit in.

 Although your favorite snack might be chips, that really doesn’t show much personality (unless they’re a niche flavor or you have a personal connection you can succinctly describe). People’s favorites change all the time, so feel free to pick whichever snack you feel is best for your application out of your Top 5 or so – don’t worry about making pizza work if you can write something compelling about a more interesting runner-up. Be descriptive and appeal to the senses!

Short Answer Example:

Pocky (only the U.S. chocolate kind, but Japan’s exclusive chocolate mint flavor is pretty good too)

This prompt is another place where you can pick a mainstream movie if you have a unique reason, but would be better off choosing a more niche one if not. Connect the movie to yourself and your interests, or describe it in a fun way!  

Short Answer Example:

Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice), which I’d only recommend if you have a box of tissues on hand

Make a connection to your major, or pick a job that shows something about you and your personality – but choose something specific enough that it’s interesting to read.

Short Answer Example:

Conducting research and helping students as I teach postsecondary Japanese sounds pretty great to me.

 It probably wouldn’t be the best choice to go with too saucy and explicit of a song for this one, but don’t go too generic either! And remember that you only have 100 characters – it isn’t worth overthinking and going too profound with this prompt, unless you can do it naturally and succinctly. 

Short Answer Example:

Whatever's playing on my Tae Kwon Do studio’s ever-repeating warmup CD (right now it's Runaway Baby)

 I decided to choose one of the study abroad locations USC offers for this one – going to a new location in Japan would already be a pretty dreamy trip for me, so narrowing it down to one tied more closely to USC worked. There’s a decent chance for AOs to recognize a location as a study abroad option, but it isn’t worth forcing an answer – feel free to go with something more personal or out-of-the-blue if that feels most natural.

Short Answer Example:

Nagoya: Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya Castle, Science Museum, Osu Kannon Temple — so much to explore!

 Just like the previous questions, here’s another place where you can show personality with what you say, how you say it, or why you decided on the answer that you did. I decided to go with the how and choose a pretty conventional answer, but portray a way I could fit into the USC community – there are plenty of ways to show personality indirectly in these prompts.

Short Answer Example:

Stranger Things: Season 4 will warrant a huge dormitory binge party, if I have any say in the matter

This one’s a bit tricky, since it asks for someone who is well-known – which can be relatively hard to judge, especially with generational gaps. This prompt is biased towards generic answers with interesting reasons / descriptions, but a slightly less popular character could work with a minor description. My choice of “Totoro” might’ve been a little too niche, but I included the detail that he’s a forest spirit to help paint a picture for someone who might be uninformed.

 Short Answer Example: 

Totoro. It'd be fun having a forest spirit as a bro, and he'd be a great pillow for late-night study 

If you’re like me, you might not have had the chance to get super immersed in any books recently – so feel free to reach back and reference something from your childhood, unless it’s too universal to show much individuality (Harry Potter, Narnia, etc).

Short Answer Example: 

The Inheritance Cycle was good enough to make me obsessed with dragons for a sizable period of time

 This last prompt gave me the most trouble, since I was set on designing a new class – which is probably the best way to go around writing an answer, but can be difficult. Think about what you’ve touched on in the rest of your application and try to put an interesting spin on one of your interests, or look through a course catalog of college classes for brain food on how to come up with your own! 

Short Answer Example: 

Han or Hiragana: How to tell major East Asian languages apart in writing + speech without fluency.

And that's a wrap! USC's prompts may feel overwhelming, but it can be one of the most fun applications to write if you give yourself room to breathe and enjoy the short answer prompts. Make sure to keep your overarching application story in mind and use each prompt, large and small, to add to your holistic appeal - show the characteristics you have (outside of your resume) and convey the great student you'd be at USC. 

Written by DB, PathIvy Content Team