USC Marshall 2012 - Calling All Applicants

I am located in New Delhi, India. USC Marshall is visiting our city for the MBA fair.

Ahh I see. Looks like they won't be visiting my town in the near future, so I guess I'll need to wait for a while. Congratulations again - please let us know how it goes and good luck.

Hey guys,

I'm a first year at Marshall and was all over the GMATClub forums last year. If you've got some general questions feel free to post 'em up. Just some general notes: this is the second year they're running under a revamped curriculum. Classes start August 1 (with a week of orientation prior to that) and the last exam is December 9. First semester is heavily front-loaded with all the core curriculum, and then the rest of the time there is electives. In general, love the school, love the location, and love the people.

Cheers!

Hi Cyber, thanks for sharing the knowledge.

As a USC undergrad, I must know: has Chano's south exploded your arteries yet?

More relevant to actual business school, have you joined many clubs, and if so, what ones? Have you got a good bead on a summer internship yet, and how much ass-busting was required to do so, if so?

I'll say that the 9-0 is a lot of fun...

I've joined more clubs than the average MBA student. Here's a list (most people go with 3-5):
Entrepreneurship and Venture Management Association
American Finance Association
Marshall Consulting and Strategy Club
Healthcare Leadership Association
Marshall Eatz (best club ever)
Marshall Wine Club
High Tech Association
Graduate Asian Business Society (for the food)
Net Impact
Marshall Admissions Ambassadors
Marshall Student Government

Internship-wise we're still in the thick of it looking. A couple of my classmates have already secured positions doing product management or marketing early on through attending diversity conferences. I'm currently working part-time at a venture capital firm so it might just end up that I keep doing that through the summer (still TBD). Looking for a job is like having another class, nobody is going to hand-hold your way through this. Basically, you're an adult, you're treated like one.

Very interesting. I have some more questions about the consulting club in particular... the employment reports suggest that the big three consulting firms aren't as interested in Marshall grads as they are in the bastards across town, but have any exceptional members of the consulting club in recent years gotten offers from the big three?

This is the first year that the big 3 have decided to come back on campus. We're still not part of their core recruiting schools, but they've been hosting a lot more information sessions & become more receptive. A lot of the kudos for that has to go to the career office and the Marshall Consulting and Strategy Club; they've worked really hard to build up Marshall's consulting reputation. There have been people that have gone to a big 3 consulting but I wouldn't say that its common (increasing number in the recent past). A fair amount of people have gotten interviews (also an increasing number in the recent past).

Good to know, thanks for the info!

Hey CyberC1,

Thanks for offering your help. Based on your experiences at the college so far, I would appreciate if you could share your thoughts on what really differentiates USC Marshall from its peers (such as curriculum, location, faculty, experiential learning opportunities). Any specific opportunities at USC specific to 'consulting'? (such as Marshall Consulting Group, GCC competition, etc.)

I have my interview scheduled with Kellee Scott this saturday and would also appreciate any tips for the I/V

Thanks!

Best

Hey Gupta, let us know how your interview went!

It was a short and focused interview. I believe she had already read my application and interview primarily focused on areas not typically covered in the essays. Some of the questions were -

Why did I switch firm X to join y?
What steps did I take to learn about USC?
Three words to describe myself?
Would I want to re-join Y after MBA? (I work for a Big 4 consulting firm and wish to continue my career in consulting post-MBA. Also, I had mentioned this is my essay.)
What do I do for fun?
Whats my dream? (if I had access to unlimited time and resources)

and finally she gave me a chance to ask her a couple of questions

There was no regular questions like 'Walk me thru ur resume", "Why MBA", "Short/long-term goals" bla bla

Lasted about 20-25 mins. Dont know what to make of it. Result is expected on Feb 1

Hope this helps!

Cheers

That definitely helps. Thanks!

Just to be clear, no one else has gotten an interview except this guy because he is a special case (India), right? No US applicants have gotten invites yet?

Posted from GMAT ToolKit

That is my understanding. Last year every GMATClub R1 applicant who received an interview invite received it on December 1st with the exception of 1 person (from India no less). It would appear this year is no different.

I'd post a link, but the system won't let me yet. Just do a search for Marshall 2011. I'd suggest you read the 2011 thread. There is some great information in there that is still useful.

Sorry for the delayed response. It's the start of exam week for us this week. Before I go any further though I want to let you guys knows you should check out the student blogs on the Marshall website. It's a great way to learn more about the school from the lens of a student.

https://www.marshall.usc.edu/mba

Look for "Live @ Marshall"

Guptapiyush1986:

Sounds like your interview went well. I think the important things are just to be yourself, answer appropriate questions in terms of "situation, task, action, result" and don't be too modest.
I think the community and opportunity at USC Marshall is the differentiating factor with many of its peer programs. The community is really a rockstar group of people that have done some incredibly interesting work. A lot of people with real-world experience that span government, manufacturing, finance, nonprofit and consulting. I think at many schools they try and get a class with diversity, but honestly it results in an overload of consultants or bankers (which is really no fun). Speaking of fun, USC Marshall students know how to have fun. I've heard from outside groups that we're the most fun/outgoing MBA group on the west coast (I have no idea how true that really is, but I suspect that it's pretty much on par).

Check out the Marshall Consulting and Strategy Club - that'll be your best bet for finding out more about consulting opportunities.

https://marshall.campusgroups.com/consulting/about/

Tomorrow is the interview invite day, apparently! Marshall was the only school I submitted to in round one, so this is my first dog in the fight, so to speak.

Good luck everyone!

So far all I've gotten from R1 is a deferral to R2 from HBS.

Hoping for my first interview here tomorrow. Good luck everyone.