Academics
Offering “international business learning opportunities not available elsewhere” as well as solid programs in finance, consulting, entrepreneurship, real estate, marketing, and entertainment, the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business excels in a broad range of areas. Best of all, perhaps, USC boasts “the most amazing alumni network in the nation,” a huge asset when the time for job searches arrives. As one student explains, “I have never met another Trojan anywhere in the world who wasn’t excited to meet another fellow Trojan!” “The Trojan Network is enormous and expansive, providing a lifetime equity of resources.”
Marshall offers a two-year full-time MBA as well as a part-time evening MBA, an executive MBA, a one-year international MBA (called the IBEAR MBA), a global executive MBA, and an online MBA. The school “combines a rigorous curriculum” with “the personal attention of a private college.” The MBA program here “has a strong emphasis on providing students an international perspective on business issues. It is more than just saying ‘We think it is important that you consider other cultures.’ At Marshall, it’s mandatory that all students work on a consulting project for a company overseas and travel to that region through the PRIME program. As a result of PRIME and other programs, I’ve had meaningful work, educational, and fun experiences in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and in Western Europe.”
Marshall professors “are outstanding. They bring new research into the classroom and encourage students to actively participate in class.” The faculty represents “a mixture of academics and recent career switchers from their fields in business...they do a very good job giving us a base to learn from.” Course work is demanding; one student warns, “Marshall is much more difficult than I expected. I have nine years of work experience and consider myself a fairly bright individual. If I put in a decent amount of work and keep up with the reading, I can get a B-plus in our classes with relative ease, but it really is difficult to break the A barrier.” Administrators “are committed to growth and innovation as an institution.” According to one student, “chaos is inherent when new programs and classes are initiated. . . . This is a leading school’s greatest challenge, and USC Marshall does everything in its power to attend to students’ individual needs as well as meet their own goals and expectations.”
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