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Linda Abraham: Art asks, “What strengths do you believe separate your school from some of the other MBA programs?”
Grace Kim: There are great programs out there, ours being one of them. Academically, any school that you go to, you will get a great academic education. So it’s really about fit – where do you fit culturally? What sort of experiences are you looking for as you are going to graduate school? I think that makes the difference as far as distinguishing factors from schools. Because when you go to an academic environment – a college, a graduate program – there are certain standards that everyone maintains to give you that type of education. But the other component is – what kind of network do you want to have? What type of culture? What type of experience? And that is what is unique from school to school.
So we always encourage our applicants, whether you are starting the application process or you’re thinking about schools, or even during the application process, to really go and visit the schools that you are going to apply to because that will give you a very good idea what the school is about and what the students are about. When we say teamwork and camaraderie, what are we talking about? How do people interact in class? What is the relationship between the professors and teachers? You will be able to get that kind of feeling and sense for the school when you actually visit. So we encourage our applicants to always visit the schools. Most schools have a visitation program. We certainly have one here; it’s called the Ambassador Program. Anyone can come Monday-Thursday. There is a morning class or an afternoon class, and a student will host you and take you around. They’ll give you a tour, answer any of your questions, and introduce you to the professors and other students so that you really get a feel for the school and what the unique characteristics of the school are. So we encourage you to do that. Feel free to call us any time in your application process to schedule an appointment.
You can view the full transcript or listen to the audio file here and see our blog post, USC Marshall Application Questions, Deadlines, & Tips, for more advice on how to optimize your USC Marshall application.
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