Calling All Fall 2011 USC Marshall Applicants!

Alright, a few folks have asked for a trip report from USC because they were unable to attend the admit weekend. Others asked specific questions I’ll try to address. If you need to know something else, please feel free to PM me.

First off, I need to give a shoutout to the GMATClubbers who showed up. I met CyberC1, socalscool, and several other GMATClubbers who's GMAT names I cannot remember. But there were several of us there, so it was good that there was a nice showing at least. They are free to add imput anywhere they’d like, especially since I had to leave a few hours early on the second day.

I guess it was really fun and loose to say the least. There were plenty of ‘beverages’ to drink, lots of fun games to get to know people, little trivia games, and numerous meet-and-greets with other students. The first-years in charge of the event were hystarical in my humble opinion, and alone made the trip worth while.

The prosepctive class seemed really smart to me compared to other compareable schools in the 15-30 range. We had a “where are you from” intro thing, and the vast majority of the students came from UCLA, Cal, and USC for undergrad. I met one or two Stanford undergrad students, a couple of prospective people from the East Coast, and others from UC Irvine, UCSB, and some small private colleges. A good mix of students. There weren’t any international students, or at least none that I met, but that’s to be expected given that this is only a 2-day event. The class seemed somewhat young to me, as there were lots of folks who graduated college from ’03-07. Didn’t meet anyone straight from undergrad.

There was a good mix of students who wanted to study marketing, finance, operations, etc. A lot of people aren’t sure of what they want to study, but again, that’s to be expected. My only complaint is that a lot of people were not committed to going to the program, mainly as they were deciding between USC and UCLA. UCLA’s admit was the same day as USC’s, and a lot of people left USC’s early to go to UCLA. I got a feeling a lot of people applied to both schools, and those that got accepted to both honestly didn’t know which they would attend. Throw in the fact that there are budget cuts at UC schools and USC seemed to hand out quite a few fellowships, and you’ve got a tough decision on which school to attend. So while the prospective class seemed really smart, outgoing, and awesome, it’s tough to tell which of them are actually going to end up at USC. If they all end up going to UCLA, then UCLA will have one hell of a great class.

First-years were outgoing, and you can definitely tell they have a lot of school spirit and love USC. They had a club-fair type event where we got to talk to about 30 club representatives, and there was everything from golf, to biotech, to consulting. Apparently you can also take advantage of undergraduate clubs as well, so I guess that’s a benefit of attending the school. Some of them seemed really smart (talked to one person who chose USC over numerous top 5 schools). The main complaint from first-years was that USC was “ranked low” and that such really affected the recruiting for certain industries, mainly managerial consulting. As a disclaimer, I know virtually nothing about consulting. McKinsey apparently only hired in the single digits (I think someone told me 2 people, but can’t remember the number), although it seemed like Deloitte had deep connections there. Outside of consulting, people were interning at NBC, Disney, Cisco, and GE to name a few places. Lots of folks are ex-bankers or ex-consultants looking to change fields. USC advertised that the average starting salary broke the $100k mark, but since I didn’t meet any current 2nd years, I cannot comment on where full-time job offers are being made. The other common complaint was traffic. I’m from the Bay Area so I’m used to it, but apparently it’s a culture shock for some people. Newsflash to all attending Stanford, Cal, UCLA, USC, UCSD, or UC Irvine: There is traffic in California. All-day. Everyday. Quit complaining.

Also had the chance to meet some professors and learn more about PRIME in detail. The professors were really excited to be there (on a Friday afternoon, believe it or not) and they seemed really good. A couple had PhDs from UCLA, and I think a third was from Stanford. Saw a slideshow for the PRIME event, in which you travel to Asia or South America. Everyone was raving about getting to travel, although there seems to be competition to get to go to some of the more popular locations. The companies you work with overseas all appear to be large corporations for the mostpart.

I visited another school last week, and I can tell you that I am going to USC for sure now. There was a lot of enthusiasm at the school, and the prospective class seemed really smart. And although this shouldn’t matter, the fact that Marshall admissions coordinated the event so flawlessly really stood out. They had the band play for us, the dinner and drinks were all good, and there were a lot of first-years there to answer questions and they were very candid about their experiences. The presentations were all done really well, and the community really seems to care about the program. I’ll add more if I get less busy, unfortunately work is killin’ me right now.


Other info people have asked for: I’d say about 100-150 people showed up for the event. Desposits for USC are due May 1st, in the amount of $1500. Most people appear to be living in Koreatown, downtown, or near the beach (if they are willing to drive). We were told there will be some pre-class assessment tests/assessment courses to complete online, but not given a lot of details about them. School (pre-term)starts in July. No that’s not a typo.