Featured Supplemental Essay Prompt For University of Southern California Applicants:

Describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests and why you want to explore them at USC specifically. Please feel free to address your first- and second-choice major selections. 250 Word Maximum.

Successful Supplemental Essay Example From Our Accepted Alumni Student:

My love for science was, admittedly, born from childhood idealism—devouring diagrams in my Children’s Encyclopedia, dissecting a sheep brain with wonder, envisioning myself healing Dad’s hypertension or Ammamma’s arthritis.

With time, limitations in the medical field—in both progress and access—became elucidated. Mere childhood curiosities morphed into patient concerns—and glaring inequities—that I witnessed at a [City] hospital. I learned of systemic injustices through courses and outreach. I realized the importance of universal healthcare and equity through research.

But I never lost my drive. I became determined to practice medicine with an empathy toward diverse backgrounds, difficulties, and stories.

At USC, I hope to explore applications, interactions, and human experiences through a major in Biochemistry or Biology, coupled with a minor in Spatial Studies—uniting disciplines through the incredibly unique Renaissance Ideal program. As a hopeful future physician and biomedical researcher, USC Biochemistry would help me to integrate disciplines toward innovation: specifically, exploring enzymatic treatments, identifying cancer biomarkers, and contributing to atherosclerosis cures.

Spatial Studies at USC would reveal research pinpointing causes of social inequities. Through Spatial Studies research—and throughout Los Angeles with a USC Joint Educational Project—I hope to work toward reducing healthcare inequality. I want not only to make advancements, but to bring hope to as many people as possible and ultimately dissolve entrenched barriers.

I look forward to learning from USC—a community that embraces the diversity of Los Angeles, works to remedy systemic healthcare injustices, conducts revolutionary scientific research, and promotes social consciousness and equality with every action.