The University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business has come a long way since its 13th-place finish in our debut of undergraduate rankings in 2016. The Marshall School earned a bronze medal this year in the 2022 rankings, placing No. 3.
Marshall offers a quality business education that is characterized by experiential learning opportunities. Of the three methodological categories, Marshall placed highest in Admissions, where they came in 2nd, and Alumni Experience, where they came in 8th.
USC Marshall’s average SAT score was 1449 this year, relatively high. The B-school had one of the most selective acceptance rates of all ranked undergraduate business schools this year at 9.94% for the Class of 2021 — coming in just behind Cornell’s 5.44%, Wharton’s 6.03%, Stern’s 7.16%, and Olin’s 8.36% — yet still more selective than top schools such as Virginia McIntire, with an acceptance rate of 11.76%, and Georgetown McDonough, with an acceptance rate of 11.80% this year.
Both internship and employment outcomes for Marshall graduates were especially strong this year. A strong 94.20% of the Class of 2021 secured an internship before graduation. As for employment, the B-school did rather well as well — with 96.98% of the Class of 2021 landing a full-time position within three months after graduation. The reported average starting salary was the 10th-highest of all ranked undergraduate business schools, coming in at $72,854.
Additionally, 91.49% of surveyed 2019 alumni said their first job after graduating was in their desired industry, and 85.11% reported that their first job was at their desired company.
For prospective MBAs, it’d be wise to become familiar with the way “breadth with depth” is used at Marshall. The school’s administrators use it to describe the idea of studying the appropriate amount of depth in a student’s specific area of interest. This is reflected in the curriculum by a commitment to liberal arts even for business students.
Within the business school, students choose from a business administration major or an accounting major. However, USC Marshall has one of the most unique degree programs in the World Bachelor in Business Program. A joint program more akin to an executive MBA than a bachelors degree in business, students spend for years studying at Marshall, HKUST Business School in Hong Kong, and Università Bocconi in Milan, Italy.
“The World Bachelor Program in particular touches on things like university processes, admissions, housing, and medical insurance,” Vice Dean of Undergraduate Programs at USC Marshall Tyrone Callahan told Poets&Quants in July 2021. “We had to make sure we considered every aspect of the program and what the student experience would be like. Through that, I was able to learn a lot about how the university works in different capacities in a way that most faculty members are unaware of.”
A substantial 91.49% of 2019 alumni said they experienced a global immersion or trip of some kind during their time at Marshall.
Incoming students have the opportunity to experience the state-of-the-art Jill and Frank Fertitta Hall. Before, the undergraduate population had been spread out among multiple buildings, but Fertitta Hall serves as a hub for undergraduates at Marshall. Another relatively recent innovation made by Marshall was to “trim the fat” of unnecessary core courses. The result was freeing up a lot of electives.
“Within the business curriculum, students have a minimum of 24 free electives, and that’s enough to do pretty much every minor,” Callahan pointed out in his interview.
For more info about USC Marshall, see this exclusive interview with Tyrone Callahan. For an exclusive feature on the World Bachelors in Business program, click here.
Alumni say: