USC Marshall MBA Interviews

USC Marshall MBA Interviews

Feb, 04, 2009

University of Southern California Marshall School of Business interviews are by invitation only. You’ll find that it may vary whether interviews are blind or not. The best advice is to be prepared and consistent about your story.

Interviews are conducted by admissions on-campus, by telephone, and at selected locations worldwide. USC interviews last 30-45 minutes.

Based on the reports found at accepted.com, I have noticed a recent trend towards asking hypothetical questions. Recent examples include:

-If you could do anything and time and money wasn’t an issue what would you choose to do?

-Person you’d like to have dinner with, dead or alive?

-If you were to travel across the country and had to take two people with you (not family or friends), who would they be and why?

What is interesting about all three questions is that other schools ask or have asked them as essay topics. When encountering this sort of question, take a moment and think about it.

GIFT QUESTIONS: All three of these questions have something in common. They are magic wishes and can be thought of as gifts. Gift questions are always about making best use of the resource that is being given. Best use should directly connect to your most basic motivations and core values as expressed in your application and your answers to other interview questions.

-If you could do anything and time and money wasn’t an issue what would you choose to do?
If the question, like this one, involves an alternative future for yourself, pick a future that has some connection to your values and/or motivations for pursuing an MBA and/or your goals. Think of it as an alternative way of expressing your motivations.

-Person you’d like to have dinner with, dead or alive?
-If you were to travel across the country and had to take two people with you (not family or friends), who would they be and why?
Both of these questions are essentially the same in one major respect because they involve you having the opportunity to learn from someone else. In the second question, you have to also consider group dynamics because you would be driving across country with two people for an extended period of time. Your dinner companion or fellow travelers would be people you want to learn from or otherwise benefit from. Select your dinner guest or driving companions on the basis of their potential positive impact on you.

The other questions that USC asks are rather typical. To prepare for them, see my general post on interview strategy.

If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.

Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my recent post on “Why I don’t analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant.”
-Adam Markus
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