Second, it does not specify whether the challenge must be positive or negative—both positive and negative experiences have effects on us! Why does it captivate you? Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way, usc application essay. Financial assistance is available for undocumented students who meet certain criteria. With a question this broad, you can write about pretty much anything as long as it tells a story about you and your life. Try to pick an uncommon topic or at least a specific aspect of a common topic. Not only does this essay usc application essay with a one-line paragraph, it starts with two sentence fragments.
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Want to get a better sense of what USC is looking for? For deep insights usc application essay how this private research university envisions its role and how it wants to grow and evolve, usc application essay, read its most recent strategic plan, Answering The Call scroll to bottom to download the entire document. Describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests and why you want to explore them usc application essay USC specifically. Please feel free to address your first- and second-choice major selections. You do not need to address a summer break. The student body at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering is a diverse group of unique engineers and computer scientists who work together to engineer a better world for all humanity.
Describe how your contributions to the USC Viterbi student body may be distinct from others. The National Academy of Engineering NAE and their 14 Grand Challenges go hand-in-hand with our vision to engineer a better world for all humanity. Engineers and computer scientists are challenged to solve these problems in order to improve life on the planet. at Learn more about the NAE Grand Challenges and tell us which challenge is most important to you, and why. Please respond to one of the three the prompts below. USC believes that one learns best when interacting with people of different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. Tell us about a time you were exposed to a new idea or when your beliefs were challenged by another point of view.
USC faculty place an emphasis on interdisciplinary academic opportunities. Describe something outside of your intended academic focus about which you are interested in learning. What is something about yourself that is essential to understanding you? Tips : Our favorite of these is the third one. USC Essay Example written for Prompt 3 :. When I joined the Durham Youth Commission, a group of students chosen to represent youth interests within local government, Usc application essay met Miles.
After that, my notion of normal would never be the same. A melting pot of ideologies, skins, socio-economic classes, faiths, and educations, the DYC is a unique collaborative enterprise. My ability to listen empathetically helped us envision multifaceted solutions to issues facing 21st-century youth. My experience in this space of affirmation and engagement has made me a more thoughtful person and listener. Reconciling disparate lifestyles and backgrounds in the Commission has prepared me to become a compassionate leader, eager to both expand perspectives and take collaborative action. Re-use other essays, if you can. This sample essay is basically an extracurricular activity essay that the student re-used for this prompt.
It describes a community she was a part of, a perspective of hers that changed, and yes, as mentioned it was part of an extracurricular activity. Even if you do write about an extracurricular activity, bring it back to you. In other words, make it personal. She also indirectly communicates that she values listening, collaboration, and meaningful work. Usc application essay Points: Ask yourself: How might you develop this essential part of yourself at USC? Research a club, class, space, usc application essay, or speaker who will help you further engage with this identity at USC.
Here are three other great examples of USC essays that worked for this first prompt:. Option 1. Three books started the trajectory of the person I am today: Savages in the Mirror by Gunn Allen, Yellow by Wu, and Citizen by Rankine. Gunn Allen reexamines canonical history that erased Native American voices. Wu gives a voice to my experiences being Chinese-American. Rankine portrays African-American history and identity through bursts of color, art, and poetry. Three books. I fell in love with them after reading them in Honors American Literature. So much history, pain, celebration, power. When I study economics, I think of the motives that shaped America and continue to do so.
When I study politics and business, usc application essay, I remember the importance of bringing in the voices of history into actions of today. They have changed the way I want to view the world and learn business. Option 2, usc application essay. My passion for history led me to an internship at the Sejong Institute, a think tank specializing in Korean diplomacy. This notion also applies to my participation in MUN. Learning about the often-controversial past actions of nations prompted me to raise ethical questions. In resolving these conflicts, how do we balance national sovereignty with the responsibility of former colonial powers to stabilize the region?
From tracing the African exodus of Homo erectus to examining La Bestia freight trains used by US-bound migrantsI now understand that migration is as old as history itself. In college, I hope to continue drawing connections between history and contemporary geopolitics. Option 3. I once believed that despite learning English from the ground up and struggling with several Americanisms, my Brazilian identity was just a matter of geography. But returning to Fortaleza this year showed me the tethers I was blind to. While browsing a crafts market, I met an elderly gentleman selling cordéis: booklets of long, narrative-driven lyrics musicians purchase and interpret.
He told me he wrote them himself, and offered to play a song. And so, listening to this haunting, droning hymn, I looked through the various tales usc application essay authors had conceived… stories of Brazilian heroes, thieves, princesses. Even in my home studio in Washington, I feel an energy being channeled from Fortaleza, through my fingers, into the music. Describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests at USC. Make a copy of this chart to map out your college research. Create an outline for your essays based on either Approach 1, 2 recommendedor 3 in the full guide above. Make sure to connect each of your USC examples to your first- and second-major choices.
Mistake 1 : Writing about the school's size, location, reputation, weather, or ranking. Mistake 2 : Simply using emotional language to demonstrate fit. Mistake 3 : Screwing up the mascot, stadium, team colors or names of any important people or places on campus. Mistake 4 : Parroting the brochures or website language. Mistake 5 : Describing traditions the school is well-known for. Mistake 6 : Thinking of this as only a "Why Them" essay. Science stimulates my thoughts. Music heals my soul. Because the possibility to double major is encouraged, I ultimately want to mold medicine and music together, uncovering ways to use music as treatment for diseases. Outside academics, the bustling extracurriculars at USC already usc application essay me. In the center of LA, usc application essay, I see myself running from lab to stage, changing from a white coat to concert attire, usc application essay, experimenting various treatments then rehearsing for an upcoming a cappella gig, usc application essay.
Bursting with opportunities, USC supports this interdisciplinary approach and provides endless opportunities for me to delve into the two very different passions of mine. My dream is to be an opera singing doctor, and USC supports every aspect. The author shows usc application essay sides of herself and names specific ways that each of those sides would flourish at USC. Scan the essay and look for capital letters, usc application essay. Those are the school-related specifics. Create a clear, solid structure for the essay. This essay does that in the first sentence of each paragraph. Go back and re-read them. See how easy the essay reads as a result? Demonstrate a variety of values. One of the most important messages you want to convey in any college essay is your core values—the things that matter to you at your, well, usc application essay, core.
Look over this example essay and see how many values you can spot, usc application essay. We see bunches—intellectual curiosity, meaningful work, excitement, productivity, hunger, and more. Jacqueline Novogratz used financial investments and Wall Street as a vehicle to help others. Courses such as Financial Markets will allow me to examine how Wall Street functions within the American economy, while Introduction to Econometrics will help me develop quantitative analysis skills for evaluating the market. By pairing courses such as The World Economy and International Finance with Neuroeconomics and Behavioral Economics I hope to not only discover the economic reasoning that motivates people, usc application essay also how those individual actions can accumulate to have effects visible on a macroeconomic scale.
I usc application essay love big questions--Why are people attracted to money in the usc application essay place? Does capitalism foster immorality? I hope to confront the universal problems that I may experience throughout my life, so that If I come close to making a harmful decision, I can step back and existentially evaluate my choices. As a Trojan, I hope to explore my existing passions while creating new ones. As a child, I was curious to know how the human mind works, usc application essay.
Growing up in a mathematically talented family, I was encouraged to learn how to make mental calculations. At age 8, I won a mathematics race usc application essay an accountant with a calculator and became fascinated with not only mathematics but also neuroscience. As one of the only universities to have computational neuroscience as a major, usc application essay, USC will definitely provide me with the practical knowledge I need to pursue my intended career as a physician. With a major in computational neuroscience, I can apply my mathematical and computational techniques toward the understanding of complex neural systems. I also hope to participate in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fund SURF program to research diseases, injuries, and mental impairments and build computer-based models that explain the biological functions of the brain.
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Why is this bad? This sentence could just as easily apply to UCLA. Without the bit about Los Angeles, the reasoning could even apply to any decent school in existence. Good: At USC, I plan to participate in the Joint Educational Project JEP to find a community of students who, like me, are passionate about the intersections of teaching and social justice. Through JEP, I will be able to actively use the teaching principles I learn in my classes about the Dynamics of Early Childhood. Why is this good? The Final Step: Write a cohesive essay that tells admissions officers why you are pursuing your field and why USC is the right place for you to pursue it.
Some examples could include:. If you are worried about the word count, one way to maximize the little space you have is to find a way to relate your first- and second-choice majors. A student with a first-choice major in Physics and a second-choice major in English might want to write about their ultimate goal of writing Science Fiction novels. A student with a first-choice major in History and a second-choice major in East Asian Languages and Culture might write about their goal of curating Asian American history museums.
In the first prompt, USC is asking you to demonstrate that you will appreciate, add to, and benefit from the diverse community they have fostered. It is important to recognize that this prompt builds in a lot of flexibility. There are many different avenues that your essay is free to go down. First, it does not specify the kind of experience you have to discuss. You could talk about joining a new club, making a new acquaintance, reading a book that challenged your views, internal questioning where you were the one presenting the new ideas , or any other experience that connects to the prompt.
One topic we recommend staying away from, however, is sharing how you used to be closed-minded about certain groups of people like certain cultures or sexualities , but now are open-minded. Second, it does not specify whether the challenge must be positive or negative—both positive and negative experiences have effects on us! For example, if a student were to write about an experience at a protest, it might not be the most joyful essay, but it could be compelling. On the other hand, a student could write about a situation where they made a friend who was very different from them and learned about themself—like a Christian young girl learning the principles of Hinduism through a new friend or a student of South African descent learning about the history of Algeria from their Algerian American teacher.
Third, it does not specify if the challenge or exposure had to lead to you changing your belief. Sometimes we are challenged and the challenge simply reaffirms something we formerly believed. Use the space to tell a story that shows your personal growth or character arc. The key here is to show that you are open-minded and that you understand the value of learning from the people around you. This prompt is great for students who have a hobby, interest, or even just a burning curiosity, outside of their first and second-choice majors.
You can also use this space to demonstrate your passion for your major and show how that passion compels you to make connections between your field of study and other fields of study. This approach—which simultaneously shows that you understand the interconnectedness of academics and care about your field—will be very appealing to admissions officers. Examples could include:. If the subject you are writing about does not relate to your major studies, you might want to consider including an anecdote to introduce your new subject. This essay might take on a more narrative form.
On the other hand, if your interest relates to your major, you might want to write a reflective essay about your goals and the importance of interdisciplinary studies in achieving your goals. This could include discussing your values, beliefs, history, identity, or personality. Here are some examples:. Of course, these are just a few examples. This prompt can go anywhere you want as long as it ties back to something fundamental about yourself. Take some time to really think about why you are the way you are. However, if you do have a gap in your educational history, then be sure to use this space to address it. Give a brief explanation of the reasoning for the gap—be it illness, a move, etc.
Ideally, you want to demonstrate how you made the most of this time off and why the time off was necessary. In this section, USC lets you have a little fun. The questions ask for short, rapid-fire responses that give you the opportunity to let your individuality shine. The most important thing to keep in mind with the short answer supplements is that USC is asking you to provide new information that sheds light on different aspects of your personality. Most importantly, have fun in this section! You can leave descriptions or notes in your responses, though remember that you have characters max. If your choices are pretty well-known, you can still leave a note about why you chose them as in the sample response to 8. Tip: This is an opportunity to show your roots or quirky favorites.
Make your response more interactive by including descriptive words that appeal to the senses, especially taste and smell. Tip: A lot of applicants will write Harry Potter. Be genuine in your response, but take this opportunity to stand out rather than providing a generic answer. That said, you could also go for a more lighthearted answer, like a crossword puzzle writer, to use the space to show personality. Tip: Just as with the best movie prompt, you may want to avoid mainstream selections and instead put forward a title that says something about you. When I study politics and business, I remember the importance of bringing in the voices of history into actions of today. They have changed the way I want to view the world and learn business. Option 2.
My passion for history led me to an internship at the Sejong Institute, a think tank specializing in Korean diplomacy. This notion also applies to my participation in MUN. Learning about the often-controversial past actions of nations prompted me to raise ethical questions. In resolving these conflicts, how do we balance national sovereignty with the responsibility of former colonial powers to stabilize the region? From tracing the African exodus of Homo erectus to examining La Bestia freight trains used by US-bound migrants , I now understand that migration is as old as history itself. In college, I hope to continue drawing connections between history and contemporary geopolitics. Option 3.
I once believed that despite learning English from the ground up and struggling with several Americanisms, my Brazilian identity was just a matter of geography. But returning to Fortaleza this year showed me the tethers I was blind to. While browsing a crafts market, I met an elderly gentleman selling cordéis: booklets of long, narrative-driven lyrics musicians purchase and interpret. He told me he wrote them himself, and offered to play a song. And so, listening to this haunting, droning hymn, I looked through the various tales these authors had conceived… stories of Brazilian heroes, thieves, princesses. Even in my home studio in Washington, I feel an energy being channeled from Fortaleza, through my fingers, into the music.
Describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests at USC. Make a copy of this chart to map out your college research. Create an outline for your essays based on either Approach 1, 2 recommended , or 3 in the full guide above. Make sure to connect each of your USC examples to your first- and second-major choices. Mistake 1 : Writing about the school's size, location, reputation, weather, or ranking. Mistake 2 : Simply using emotional language to demonstrate fit. Mistake 3 : Screwing up the mascot, stadium, team colors or names of any important people or places on campus.
Mistake 4 : Parroting the brochures or website language. Mistake 5 : Describing traditions the school is well-known for. Mistake 6 : Thinking of this as only a "Why Them" essay. Science stimulates my thoughts. Music heals my soul. Because the possibility to double major is encouraged, I ultimately want to mold medicine and music together, uncovering ways to use music as treatment for diseases. Outside academics, the bustling extracurriculars at USC already excite me. In the center of LA, I see myself running from lab to stage, changing from a white coat to concert attire, experimenting various treatments then rehearsing for an upcoming a cappella gig. Bursting with opportunities, USC supports this interdisciplinary approach and provides endless opportunities for me to delve into the two very different passions of mine.
My dream is to be an opera singing doctor, and USC supports every aspect. The author shows two sides of herself and names specific ways that each of those sides would flourish at USC. Scan the essay and look for capital letters. Those are the school-related specifics. Create a clear, solid structure for the essay. This essay does that in the first sentence of each paragraph. Go back and re-read them. See how easy the essay reads as a result? Demonstrate a variety of values. One of the most important messages you want to convey in any college essay is your core values—the things that matter to you at your, well, core.
Look over this example essay and see how many values you can spot. We see bunches—intellectual curiosity, meaningful work, excitement, productivity, hunger, and more. Jacqueline Novogratz used financial investments and Wall Street as a vehicle to help others. Courses such as Financial Markets will allow me to examine how Wall Street functions within the American economy, while Introduction to Econometrics will help me develop quantitative analysis skills for evaluating the market. By pairing courses such as The World Economy and International Finance with Neuroeconomics and Behavioral Economics I hope to not only discover the economic reasoning that motivates people, but also how those individual actions can accumulate to have effects visible on a macroeconomic scale.
I also love big questions--Why are people attracted to money in the first place? Does capitalism foster immorality? I hope to confront the universal problems that I may experience throughout my life, so that If I come close to making a harmful decision, I can step back and existentially evaluate my choices. As a Trojan, I hope to explore my existing passions while creating new ones. As a child, I was curious to know how the human mind works. Growing up in a mathematically talented family, I was encouraged to learn how to make mental calculations. At age 8, I won a mathematics race against an accountant with a calculator and became fascinated with not only mathematics but also neuroscience. As one of the only universities to have computational neuroscience as a major, USC will definitely provide me with the practical knowledge I need to pursue my intended career as a physician.
With a major in computational neuroscience, I can apply my mathematical and computational techniques toward the understanding of complex neural systems. I also hope to participate in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fund SURF program to research diseases, injuries, and mental impairments and build computer-based models that explain the biological functions of the brain. These models will enhance my understanding of how synapses function and change in relation to external stimulus, allowing me to build technologies that diagnose both the physical and mental disabilities of patients.
In order to approach computational neuroscience with a knowledge of artificial intelligence, I plan to conduct research with Professor Laurent Itti to learn how the intelligence of machines can exceed that of humans. I hope to one day design more powerful models and methods of testing theories related to neuronal networks. You do not need to address a summer break words. So how do you write about a gap year or time off between high school and college? Who can squish their face in the funniest shape for the camera? Who can find the weirdest snack in the supermarket? Ready, go! But when my dad got sick the summer after my senior year of high school, the game was up.
It was impossible to go to college during this time of crisis, so I took the year off to support my family. Many days, my dad and I would talk. Our new game was one of curiosity. That spring, my dad beat cancer. Although that year was hard, it was defined by a clearer understanding of my relationships to others. I was profoundly affected by the new bond I shared with my father. My fascination with connectedness in times of crisis led me to take an online course in advanced psychology and design an independent research project on psychotherapy.
My dad and I still turn pretty much everything into a game, but we also show up for each other in newly meaningful ways. Remember, the key here is to convey when you missed school and why. The author is clear about the fact that she took a gap year and why: because she had to take care of her dad while he battled cancer. Include details to highlight your personality. Many people take off school for similar reasons personal tragedy, study abroad opportunities, internship, financial burden, etc. Although all these reasons are valid, you want to use the space to explain what specifically this year off meant to you and what values you developed or strengthened.
Show growth. When you write, make sure to highlight how your experience away from school helped you develop academically or personally or better yet, both! Giving specific examples of how you grew is also really important. Talk about classes you took on your own initiative, trips you went on, jobs you worked, or projects you started. Draw connections. This author uses the idea of games to reinforce what she learned about reciprocity and responsibility in her relationship with those she loves. This is a common thread throughout the essay, and she returns to in a brief, but meaningful way at the end of the piece.
You can do this in your essay as well by finding a way to connect the intro and conclusion. Your answer should be cohesive and articulate no matter how you go about writing your essay. How do your tangible projects or jobs connect to your interests? What are you doing now that relates to your experiences then? These are all questions you can be asking yourself to draw connections that will elevate your essay. Describe yourself in three words. Best movie of all time Dream job If your life had a theme song, what would it be? Dream trip What TV show will you binge watch next?
Which well-known person or fictional character would be your ideal roommate? Favorite Book If you could teach a class on any topic, what would it be? Questions limited to characters each. Describe yourself in three words: Get creative. What is your favorite snack? If your life had a theme song, what would it be? It could just be the title that resonates with you. You can also time travel. What TV show will you binge watch next? As above, use this as a chance to teach us something new about you. After you answer, maybe say why briefly. Favorite book: Avoid these books commonly read in English classes.
If you could teach a class on any topic, what would it be? Describe yourself in three words: Hungry, Petrichor, Retrouvailles. Spicy bars, only ¥0. What is your theme song? Gertrude Bell, also known as "the female Lawrence of Arabia" and "Queen of the Desert. Favorite book: Memory and Modernity in South India, Davesh Soneji. Happiness: psychological or philosophical? This essay offers a fun, creative way to help USC imagine you on its campus, collaborating with equally industrious Engineering or Computer Science majors, and—perhaps even more important—contributing to the program in your own unique way. Share how your contributions would be diverse and distinct. What inspiration do you turn to? In writing about yourself, use a brief example or two.
Details do more than help your essay come to life—they help you stand out. Think big. If you have a remarkable idea even a small one! that would make life better for humans, that idea can anchor your essay. Show your why. Share your reasoning for choosing the parts of yourself that are one-of-a-kind. How does building a robot help you build strong friendships? Or lending your 3D design skills to make Braille maps for USC students who are visually impaired. Let go of the LEGO. LEGO is one of the most commonly mentioned words in engineering-related essays. A lot a lot. So maybe use another way to show how your love of building things developed? From first-hand experience, I know my effective communication skills lead my teams to success.
As captain for my high school and club volleyball teams, I strive to form tight-knit bonds with teammates. I firmly believe that strong bonds inside a team translate to key victories on the court. Through trial and error, I help the younger team members build sturdy yet lightweight projects. But underneath my collected exterior, I am an adrenaline junkie. On most weekends, you can find me plowing through horror films my favorite is The Silence of the Lambs or rewatching Criminal Minds. All with the lights off, I must add. My search for thrill also leads me to experiment in the kitchen. Some of my weirdest but yummiest! culinary creations include sticky rice gnocchi and peanut butter quesadillas. However, not all risks are perilous. In fact, because I took a risk, I applied for the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program and ended up learning how to code last summer.
My search for adventure leads me to discoveries both inside and outside of the classroom. In chem class, my willingness to take risks allows me to experiment without fear. At USC, I cannot wait to collaborate and experiment with my fellow peers. This writer puts us in her world. She even describes her philosophy of leadership in almost the same breath as a peanut butter quesadilla. Dial back the brag. Cherry-pick uncommon words. These words underscore her point about adrenalin, and make this part of her essay memorable. As you write, look for ways to up-level your essay by up-leveling your word choice.
This Epic Verb List may help. Watch out for careless language. Is it really a good idea to be a chem student who experiments without fear? That could be disastrous! Your imperfections can be among your most valuable contributions.
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