Marshall (USC) Class of 2017 Calling all applicants!

It means that it's under review and you'll get a notification soon (between March 15-30). At this point, I wouldn't be holding out for good news.

I don't even have that message on my application page. No activity at all. Now I am beginning to wonder if my application is lost or something.
Mine just says "Submitted" in green and that's it. Does this mean that my files are not even under review yet?

I don't think that matters that much. I interviewed on campus last saturday and mine still just says "Submitted".

Hi all! New to the group but wanted to post about my experience with Marshall thus far:

-Applied by R1 deadline on 10/14
-Received invitation to interview on 11/11
-Interviewed 11/18
-Admitted on 12/15 via phone call (non-International)

No mention of scholarship :-/

And best of all:
-Accepted the offer on 1/29

One thing I also want to note is that after putting down my deposit when I accepted the offer, I received a receipt email but that is it. No other communication from Marshall thus far. It worried me a bit so I called earlier this week and spoke to Sylvia in the admissions office to make sure I wasn't missing something. She let me know that the admissions folks are making some curriculum adjustments which has caused them to move slowly in sending out formal communications to those who have accepted. Also, I was told that Admit Weekend is the weekend of 4/25.

Congrats to those admitted, and to those who have accepted -- fight on!

Why are admissions people making curriculum adjustments?

I am a round 2 applicant and will be interviewing in the 12th-20th march window. While doing my research, I came across a data point that alarmed me.
The percentage of full time MBA graduates employed at graduation is shockingly low : 55.7%

The official website does not display this data point. Can anybody please shed some light on this matter?

Where did you get that stat from? Looking at Businessweek's data, 85% of the students are employed after 3 months of graduation (which is the standard metric for who really has a job after graduation, it seems.) That same report says that 71% get offers by graduation (but not everyone accepts those offers.)

https://www.bloomberg.com/bschools/ranki ... s/usc.html

I wouldn't worry too much about those data points. This is not to say that they don't matter, but they will change with every class, and those stats don't account for the people who fail to fill out the job survey at graduation but actually do have a job lined up. L.A. isn't a particularly strong MBA market, so it'll be a challenge for anyone going to school there to find a job. But, that's the same for Durham, NC and Hanover, NH and Evanston, IL and places with other top schools, I suppose. MBAs have to go where the jobs are...

Thanks for that info. I got the stat from the US News website.
Link : https://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... hall-01034.

I am generally not concerned about stats like these unless they are outliers. If the US News data is accurate, then it falls way behind the other schools in it's range in terms of career placement. It is particularly pertinent to international applicants considering that we have generally a harder time finding jobs after graduation even at the best schools.

Wrong, 85% had offers. The US News figures is how many accepted. The low offers vs acceptance rate means that they were probably low ball offers hence why they weren't accepted.

Were we supposed to provide official transcripts? The instruction was alittle ambiguous. I initially only uploaded unofficial copies. After re-reading it last week I quickly fedexed a request of transcript to my school... i hope it will get there in time...

My understanding is that as long as they have the uploaded unofficial transcripts, you're fine. I think they still want the official copies sent to them, but in order to simply review your application, the transcripts you uploaded are fine. I asked someone in admissions about this same issue during an info session.

Thanks!

i can confirm this. i've also asked them about this and got the exact answer quoted above.

Bunch of us brought official transcripts in sealed envelopes when we came to interview.

I just had my interview and I felt it went disastrous but who knows? Here's my experience:

I arrived extremely early to beat traffic to LA. I sat in their admissions office until my interview time. While I was waiting, the lady at the front desk was so sweet and friendly, she essentially kept me company and tried to take my mind of the daunting interview about to take place. I interviewed with the associate director of MBA admissions, which was pretty intimidating since I was expecting a second-year student or alumni. Anyway, here are some of the questions she asked:

1. Why Marshall?
2. Tell me about your current job.
3. Tell me more about your role there, walk me through a typical day, for example, yesterday.
4. What lead you to that job?
5. What skills from your current job do you think you can contribute to your Marshall group?
6. Why did you choose the previous job you had?
7. What are some of your goals after an MBA? What sparked your passion for said goal?
8. How do you think Marshall will help you achieve those goals?
9. What are you most anxious about if you attend Marshall? What are you most excited about?
10. Any questions for me?

The interview seemed to go back to my current position a lot which was a bit strange to me. Did anyone else feel this way about their interview? Also, did anyone else interview with a director or non-student/alumni?

Hope this helps and good luck to everyone with interviews soon! Of course, everyone waiting should keep their chins up as well! It seems decisions are STARTING to go out on March 15th and not BY then. At least that's what the staff told me. Best wishes~

I bet I interviewed same day with you, don't sweat it too much, it's unlikely that it went as bad as you think it did! I had a current student interviewer, BUT look on the bright side, the opinion of the admissions director will have more sway than the opinion of the current study (I would guess). Good luck!

The only interview question that tripped me up some was when they asked about one repeated course I had. (I walked out of the final to go to the ER because apparently I crushed/exploded a bone in my foot and I was feeling like I was about to keel over, and I did repeat the course from a F [you can not do better in the class than you did on the final rule] to an A). I told them that, but it sounded like I didn't own up to it or I was complaining. Haven't heard back from them yet so who knows how they took it.

your interview wasn't blind? so far, it sounds like all interviews have been blind, like mine.

I interviewed with the interim director of admissions. Walked out of there feeling not too confident either. It wasn't any particular question that I couldn't answer just didn't feel like I could connect very well with her. We'll see what the next couple of weeks bring...




Considering the limited staffing that everyone seems to be talking about I imagine its hard for all the interviews to be blind. Assuming the student/alumni conducted interviews are certainly blind. Admissions directors probably not since they'd review applications before issuing interview invites but it doesn't sound like anyone else has had their application info brought up in the interviews before. luck of the draw probably ..