MBA applicants can get carried away with rankings. In this series, we profile amazing programs at business schools that are typically ranked outside the top 15.
Learning to put business strategies into a global context is more than just a specialization at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. As part of the first-year MBA core curriculum, Marshall offers a comprehensive program in the spring semester called Pacific Rim Education (PRIME) (formerly titled Pacific Rim International Management Education). Students enrolled in PRIME participate in a team project focused on a specific country, industry, and company. The team projects are a capstone of the students’ first year, a reflection of Marshall’s overall emphasis on case study teaching methods and participatory learning. In addition, students are required to partake in a ten-day overseas trip, during which they complete an on-site presentation to companies and organizations located in the Pacific Rim, Latin America, or Europe. Cities visited in the past include Kyoto, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Hanoi, Bangkok, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Moscow.