lawyer

• Kellee Scott. Senior Associate Director, USC MBA Admissions
• Sheryl Schreiber. Senior Associate Director, USC MBA Admissions

Kellee Scott, Senior Associate Director, MBA Admissions, USC Marshall School of Business: First and foremost, we need you to be authentic and tell your story. It s not about what think we want to hear, it s about the life that you ve led and why you ve decided to apply to our MBA program. Also, if you decide to use any of the consultant services for your essay, make sure the finished product is in your voice and not theirs. Also, try not to be redundant. We re going to ask you multiple questions and also give you choices, be sure to look for opportunities that tell us something new in each question. Be passionate, show us your interest, and tell us why you re interested in our school and how it fits into your future MBA plans. Every school will also ask you about your goals, be sure that you have a framework on the path that you plan to lead while you re in school and also after school. In your essay, it should be smooth, it should be a good read, and it should be something that tells us all about you before we get a chance to interview you. Good luck.

Sheryl Schreiber, Senior Associate Director, MBA Admissions, USC Marshall School of Business: There are so many dos and don ts when it comes to interviews. Remember, first impressions count. When you come into the office for an interview, make sure you re dressed in business attire. It s important for both men and women to dress as though they re going for a job interview in a business suit. Make sure you have a firm handshake and make sure your handshake is not sweaty. It s okay to be nervous but make sure you re friendly and personable. Make sure you re prepared. Make sure you ve done a lot of research about both the program and the school and that you re ready to ask questions of the admissions officer. When it comes to things not to do, don t be late. Make sure you allow for enough time for both traffic and for parking. Make sure you don t answer I don t know to any of our questions. We really want to make sure that you can think on your feet and that you can provide us information about your leadership capabilities. And remember, don t forget to send a thank you note.

Kellee Scott, Senior Associate Director, MBA Admissions, USC Marshall School of Business: If you re researching MBA programs the year you re ready to apply, you re already behind the eight ball. You need at least a year or two to investigate and understand all of the overwhelming information that s out there. Between the websites and the social media, you re going to find so much information on the schools you re interested in, you ll need to take time to narrow down your choices. In addition, schools in session is the best time to see what s going on so you can understand the culture. So make sure that you re planning to be able to visit schools when they are in session. Unfortunately, on holidays, a lot of things are not happening and that s usually your work holiday so you re probably going to have to take some vacation days in order to do really thorough research. Also, we travel around the world with a lot of school fairs and a lot of organizations so if you want to visit schools when they re in your town, you will need to do that. And finally, schools hold information sessions year round so you ll need to take time to be able to take advantage of those opportunities.

Sheryl Schreiber, Senior Associate Director, MBA Admissions, USC Marshall School of Business: Admissions officers use resumes to evaluate your current and your previous work experience; therefore, resumes are a very important part of the application. It s important for the resumes to be easy on the eyes as well as limited to one page. Remember, admissions committee members are reading hundreds and hundreds of applications and since resumes are formatted very differently, it s very important that they be easy on the eyes for the admissions committee. The font you choose is important and the size that you choose is also important. Make sure the font size is not too small. And be specific in your resumes, don’t be general. We want to know all about your responsibilities, what you ve done, what your leadership capabilities are, and what your leadership opportunities have been. If you can, also provide us with quantitative and qualitative results within your resume as well.