USC / Marshall - - 04-10-2025 | Clear Admit LiveWire

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April 10, 2025 9:03am ET

Rejected at USC / Marshall

Round: Round 2

Received via email on April 08, 2025

Standardized Test: Granted Waiver

GPA: 3.29

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Other

Application Location: California

Note:

Interviewed during R2 (interview went well) but still rejected. (Most likely due to no record of attending admissions events )

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Show Comments (8) Last: April 13, 2025

anon18845 Likes Earned: 34 Sorry to hear that:( Do you think they really look into who attended admissions events that much? And do you have to mention that or do they automatically check your Email and name from their attendee database? (0)

megatron1998 Likes Earned: 12 You don’t necessarily have to mention but the business school application process , the networking really starts before you apply and given the application volume, that would be my guess (1)

anon18845 Likes Earned: 34 Understandable.. did you attend any events at all or none? And did you write a thank you letter to the interviewer after your interview? That matters too as I know (0)

zee369 Likes Earned: 0 Sorry to hear that. When did you interview? (0)

megatron1998 Likes Earned: 12 I wrote a thank you letter to interviewer & I interviewed early March (0)

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1445 Sorry to see this news.

FYI: I'm not convinced that the reason for the rejection is related to not attending admissions events. If I had to bet, I suspect it might be related to the combination of a below-average GPA (USC typically has a 3.5 average) and the fact that you didn't take a standardized test to give the admissions committee another data point that could have boosted your GPA a bit. And yes, there certainly may be other factors (work experience, ECs, demonstrating clear interest by attending events, etc.), but the first thing that jumps out to me is the academic profile.
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megatron1998 Likes Earned: 12 Well it’s not for you be convinced. Your claim regarding My stats doesn’t hold much weight simply because USC has rejected candidates with higher GPA as well. If that were the case, it would be a waste of time on their end to invite a candidate to interview knowing his/her academic profile was below average. On top of that, I was granted a waiver given my quant experience from undergrad and professional work. (0)

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1445 Thanks for your reply. My comments were based on my experience working in the MBA admissions space for the last 20+ years, but you certainly aren’t required to take my advice or accept my theory. As I said in my original post, there are other possible areas of your file that could have held you back.

With that said, as an exercise, you might try sorting LiveWire for “USC, accepted, granted waiver” and then look at the average GPA in that group to see if it’s strong, or if there are many candidates at the 3.2 mark or below who get test waivers and are ultimately offered admission.

I should also mention that the interview isn’t a final hurdle - it’s another data point in the process. This means that USC revisits the entirety of your file post-interview, making a holistic decision based on the all of the elements (including the interview report). As such, a candidate with a weakness might get an interview invite, but still find that the weakness is what prevents an acceptance.

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