USC Marshall Ambassador

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To all prospective students interested in the USC Marshall MBA Program:

My name is Mark Chih. I am the international student liaison for the USC Marshall Ambassadors. We are the people who will take you around the Marshall MBA program when you are doing an on-site visit starting from now until mid-April. Our job is to provide you with a glimpse of what a typical day is in the Marshall program, and also answer any questions you may have about living in LA in general. If anyone is interested in visiting Marshall, please go to the website

http://www.marshall.usc.edu/web/MBAadmissions.cfm?doc_id=154 for reservation.

I can also be reached by email:

mark.chih.2008@marshall.usc.edu

In short, I hope everyone will be successful in applying for your dream business school. If USC Marshall is one of your destinations, I encourage you to reach out and find out more about our program.

Best Regards,

Mark

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According to our Admission Office, the first round result will be out soon. If anyone has questions about USC Marshall in general, feel free to drop me an email or post on the board. I will reply as soon as I can.

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Some pointers on looking for apartment around USC:

如果有家人的話, 真的不建議住學校附近.
1500~2000 (房租 only) 應該除了downtown之外都沒有問題
Alhambra 早上到學校應該差不多40分鐘左右
附近很多中國餐廳跟超市, 很方便
不過那裡沒有什麼公寓型的出租, 大部分都是個人出租, 房東的quality相差很大

我住的地方(south Pasadena)
早上差不多30分鐘左右到學校
離alhambra 差不多5 -10分鐘

我現在住覺得滿不錯的, 環境也很好, 這附近公寓也很多,
不過就算在同一個city里, 不同的區域的感覺會相差很多,
如果有時間, 我建議你們自己先來看看, 不要完全相信網路上的資料

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additional info:

看房子的時間其實有點tricky
因為I-20規定你只能在開學前30天入境
去年國際學生的orientation大概在I-20入境4天後
所以很多國際學生在找房子的時間上被壓縮
被迫要找比較高價位或是環境較差的地方

如果時間/經濟上比較充足的話, 我建議你可能在I-20來之前先來一趟
可能花1個禮拜選擇一些區域, 然後根據網路上的廣告, 挑選一些點看, 然後再看看路上有沒有for rent的公寓

或者USC好像有english training的課程, 你可以申請那個課程(針對那個課程會有另一個visa), 然後在暑假短暫租用USC的宿舍, 這樣你可以多利用在美國的時間

30分是包含塞車, 沒有塞車的話大概15分鐘左右
第一節課通常是8am, 所以最晚7:30一定要出發

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About IBEAR and Full-Time MBAs

The main difference is that IBEAR will have less electives to take, and they will not be eligible for summer internship. Recruiters/Employers don't treat these 2 MBAs differently (in fact, if you are not a career switcher, IBEAR might be better for you because IBEARs usually have a more complete profile of work experience) Full-time MBAs gives more electives to supplement your experience. All international students (excluding Mexican/Canadian students) will need to deal with H1-B visa, regardless of whether your are full-time or IBEAR.

[MBA2009]

Hi Mark, thank you so much for being here answering our questions regarding the Marshall School.

I applied for Marshall and will have a face to face interview while the admission staff are here in Taipei this month. Can you tell me what does Marshall usually look for in prospective students and how many Taiwanese students are there in your class? Thank you very much in advance!

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Hi,

Regarding prospective MBA students, I think Marshall and all other business schools are looking for students who understand what they want to get out of the MBA experience. Each student might have a different reason, but as long as you can express it with confidence, I am sure you will do fine :)

There are I think 8 to 10 people who use Taiwanese passports this year. If you count others who were born in Taiwan but use foreign passports, there might be 12 to 15 people. We have around 220 people each year, and we separate them into 3 'cores', so each core has about 3 to 4 taiwanese students.

Good Luck with your interview :)

[MBA2009]

Thanks a lot, Mark. According to what I heard, confidence seems really important to the adcom.

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According to our student president, USC will be ranked 21 in the upcoming USNews MBA school.

Good Luck Everyone!

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Hi All, Someone asked about additional courses by non-business background students:

USC MBA 不會要求非商科背景的學生補修基本課
跟別人比較起來, 你可能第1,2個學期會比較吃力一點, 不過如果你想多花點時間準備的話, 我可能會建議你多加強英文的讀寫能力. 看回去這一年, 我覺得Accounting/Econ/Finance其實是我們做過的事中最"容易"的... 其實你只要英文可以跟的上, 專業的知識其實問題不大. 如果你的目標是consulting/finance service related industries, 學校的成績會有一部分的重要性, 要不然其實其他的產業根本不會看你的GPA. 有些國際學生可能剛開始會把所有時間都放在學業上, 但是我會建議在第1,2個term就應該開始花點時間研究你之後想接觸的產業

[aaronmin]

cburger 你好，

可以請教今年台灣學生1st yr sutdent 的 intern，以及2nd yr student 的 full-time job 找尋的情況嗎？

感謝。

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Hi aaronmin:

As of March 7th, out of 11 1st year Taiwanese Students, 3 have accepted offers and 4 are in the interviewing process. The others are either not seeking or I am not sure about their progresses. I only include those who use Taiwanese passports to apply for USC Marshall. I am not sure about 2nd year students, but out of 5 Taiwanese students in 2nd years, I think 2 have offers.

Also, if you want to know specifically about US positions. Out of 3 internships accepted, 2 are in US(Marketing and Entertainment), and 1 is in Asia (HK I-Banking)