Marshall (USC) Class of 2017 Calling all applicants!

rbsx: I never got a chance to respond to your latest comments, but the negativity you're showing throughout your posts is exactly what we're trying to filter out of Marshall. Call me naive, but I believe that one's character truly shines during adversity and all of the current students and faculty are taking the challenge of improving Marshall head on. You can get on the bus or not.

As far as "admissions director," if you're talking about Keith Vaughn, he left months ago as part of a faculty evaluation process that has been on going with regards to all staff members. As part of this evaluation process, we have also been adding some tremendous talent. You fail to mention that we recently hired Chris Harris to run career advising for students and he has been doing an AMAZING thus far. This evaluation process will be on going into the spring and summer, so more additions will be coming soon as well.

Still don't believe me? PM me your email address and I will forward you a 10 page PDF document that we received from our MGSA (Marshall Graduate Student Association) President outlining some great things we have in store for the spring and next fall. Just a few highlights:

- We have Monthly Town Hall Meetings that allow first and second year students to speak directly with the administration and faculty. Your voice is now heard here. If you have an issue, it will be addressed.

- We now have half semester classes so students can take more specialized courses in their areas of interest. They're half semester because we don't want to waste your time on a specialized class that shouldn't a full semester in length. These half semester classes will only continue to increase.

- The entire core will be changed for the class of 2017, with an increased focus on data analytics, excel, and real world applicability

- Our Career Development Workshop program is being revamped for the class of 2017 thanks to students' efforts and the addition of Chris Harris

- We're beginning to build one centralized online system that connects all the various resources we have available to students (welcome website for first year students, career services system, graduate salary reporting system, club groups website, MyMarshall, etc.)

...plus various initiatives to increase the companies that visit Marshall, as well as many other small initiatives that deal with summer preparation, orientation, etc. Oh, and we still have the best business communications class in LA. You'll be speaking publicly during orientation as part of a required case competition (for fun). You'll then spend the next 5 months improving your communication skills. It's such a good course that UCLA had to get in on the action.

Now the fun part: we have some of the most amazing social events every semester that really allows us as students to network with each other (perhaps the most important thing about business school). Nearly the entire class of first years (in addition to many second years) is about to go on a huge trip to Mammoth Lakes in a week. We have mixers every other week. It's FUN here.

You can disagree with our strategy all you want, but you cannot disagree with our effort for improving what already is a great school.