<p>The prompt that says to describe your academic interests. It allows for 3500 characters but that's around 500 words or so. Should it only be a paragraph? That's what length it says on the PDF document with the supplement instructions. And should the writing be more straightforward, since USC is already getting my personality from the personal statement? Thanks a lot everyone. Two weeks till deadline and this is all I have to finish. Hopefully I'll be joining the ranks of the Trojans next fall!</p>
<p>Oh and I'm trying to major in business, so I'll probably write about Marshall and what it offers, including programs like GLP, LINC, etc.</p>
<p>I just wrote about the different programs USC has to offer that interest me and the other aspects of campus that interest me. I made it all one paragraph but it was about 380 words. I probably should have changed the spacing to make it multiple paragraphs but I, like you, was unsure about what exactly they wanted.
I think you’d be safe making it more straightforward since like you said, they will get to hear more about you specifically in your personal statement. Also, the way you write your answer to “Why USC?” will tell them about your personality as well.
I hope this helped a little. Good luck!</p>
<p>Anyone else with an opinion as to how long the essay should be? The "one paragraph " seems to be inconsistent with “3500 characters”. Should it be a paragraph or a page?</p>
<p>I ended up breaking mine into a few paragraphs. I don’t think the “one paragraph” rule is too strictly enforced; the 3,500 character limit is very large (mine neared about 2,800).</p>
<p>My paragraph was about 250 words. I did not want it to be overly long since you don’t see 500-word paragraphs very often.</p>
<p>Mine was around 465 words, 3,001 characters but it was broken down into 6 small paragraphs. I don’t think it matters if its longer than one paragraph.</p>
<p>Mine was about 2500 characters and most of the people I know who applied had equally as short (long? Whatever) essays. I broke mine into 3 small paragraphs. I couldnt bring myself to write one huge paragraph… Plus mine still showed personality and was pretty artistic.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who has provided information.</p>
<p>mine was 3470 characters, broken into 7 paragraphs.</p>
<p>thanks for the info! it’s really helpful for me
I’m applying for fall 2013</p>