What is the Most Important Grand Challenge?
Are you applying for the Viterbi School of Engineering and need to understand a bit more about the National Academy of Engineering’s 14 Grand Challenges?
What’s the best way to answer this question?
We can help.
First, a bit of background: Back in 2008, a committee of experts around the world, some of the most accomplished engineers and scientists of their generation, proposed the 14 challenges as formidable as any from millennia past. As the population grows and its needs and desires expand, the problem of sustaining civilizations continuing advancement, while still improving quality of life, looms more immediate.
We recommend reviewing the official report from the National Academy of Engineering in addition to our site that summarizes its findings below.
The Common App Supplemental Question
Here’s one of our two supplemental questions you will find on the Common App when you are applying for the Viterbi School:
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and their 14 Grand Challenges go hand-in-hand with our vision to engineer a better world for all humanity. Engineers and computer scientists are challenged to solve these problems in order to improve life on the planet. Learn more about the NAE Grand Challenges at https://viterbiadmission.usc.edu/challenges and tell us which challenge is most important to you, and why.
Here’s the easiest way to interpret this question and go about answering:
Your first step should be to visit the link above and read about the NAE’s Grand Challenges. Then, reflect on which one you think is most important, and tell us why it’s the most important one to you. That’s it.
The most common email we get about this question is if it’s okay to discuss a Grand Challenge that isn’t related to your major. Of course it is!
The question is asking you which Grand Challenge is most important to you and why–not which Grand Challenge is related to your major. The truth is that there is no Grand Challenge that is solvable by one engineering discipline alone. These are interdisciplinary problems that will require people coming together from a wide variety of backgrounds, so you don’t have to discuss the problem through the lens of your major (although you can do that if you want).
The second-most common email we get about this question is if you need to tell us how you would solve the problem. Don’t worry, we’re not expecting any solutions here. These challenges are very complex, and solving them is beyond the scope of a 250-word response.
Another common question we get is if there is a correct answer to the question. There is no ‘right’ answer that we’re looking for, and there is not on a single Grand Challenge that is objectively more important than another. All we want to know is which one you care about the most, and why. There are countless reasons why a Grand Challenge might be the most important one to you, and we’re hoping that your answer to this question reveals more about yourself and your perspective on a big engineering-related problem.
