First year students start with the Core – foundational business learning compressed into three terms – that cover the all-important basics: accounting concepts, data analysis and modeling, operations management, strategy, marketing, communications, and finance. At the end of the first term students undertake a seven-week consulting assignment with a Los Angeles-based client, who expects real results.
All Full-Time MBA students will complete the following core courses:
Term I
- GSBA-510: Accounting Concepts and Financial Reporting
- GSBA-545: Data Driven Decision Making
- GSBA-540: Contemporary Issues for Competitive Strategy
- GSBA-542: Communication for Management
Term 2
- GSBA-504a: Operations Management
- GSBA-509: Marketing Management
- GSBA-521a: Corporate Finance
- GSBA-533: Organizational Behavior and Leadership
Term 3
- GSBA-516: Essentials of Data Analysis and Modeling
- GSBA-521b: Corporate Finance
- GSBA-552: Problem Solving and Decision Making: An Integrated Approach
In the spring you begin your GSBA-580 course: The Global Context of Business. This key component of the USC Marshall full-time MBA experience trains students as global managers by enabling them, through granular study and travel abroad, to compare and contrast the U.S. business experience with that in select countries. Over the course of three modules, students greatly improve their awareness and understanding of institutional and cultural issues pertinent to a global economic perspective.
A unique element of the course is PRIME International Experiential Learning, a mandatory 10-day overseas experience that puts the classroom theory to real-life test. Students visit selected companies, both domestic and multi-national, and governmental institutions. Teams complete industry and company-oriented recommendations in projects that draw upon their insights and skills on global strategy and global economics.