FOMC Press Conference, March 18, 2026

[0:00]So, welcome everyone to today's webinar for the Master of Science in Supply Chain Management Program at the USC Marshall School of Business. My name is Ashley Uchi and I am the associate director of graduate admissions at USC Marshall. I'm also joined by my colleague, Amanda, who will be assisting in the Q&A throughout the presentation. And we're also joined by our esteemed faculty director, Nick Van Dorp, who will be walking you through the program curriculum and all of the exciting opportunities that the program has to offer. So I'll quickly just go over the agenda for today's presentation. I'll start off by giving you an overview of USC and the USC Marshall School of Business. Then I'll hand it over to Professor Van Dorp, who will dive into the program curriculum, career opportunities, and all of the student life aspects of the program. And then finally, I'll wrap up with the admissions requirements and financial aid and scholarship information. And then we'll conclude with the Q&A session. So, to kick us off, for those of you who aren't too familiar with USC, we are located in the heart of Los Angeles, California. We are a private research university and we are the oldest private university in the state of California. We were founded in 1880. We have about 49,500 students, with about 21,000 undergraduate students and 28,500 graduate students. So you'll be in very good company in your graduate studies. And then in terms of our faculty, we have about 4,700 full-time faculty and 2,100 part-time faculty. We have 23 academic schools and units, including the Marshall School of Business. And then in terms of our alumni network, we have one of the largest and most powerful alumni networks in the world, with over 450,000 living alumni. So this network is a great resource to our students and alumni alike. And then on to the Marshall School of Business, we were founded in 1920, so we recently celebrated our 100th anniversary. And our mission at Marshall is to develop a diverse community of leaders and scholars who can contribute to the healthy functioning of business and society. Marshall is a very diverse and collaborative community. We're actually one of the most diverse top business schools in the country. And then in terms of our values, we lead with integrity, we embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion, we champion scholarship and research, we foster community and belonging, and we impact the world. So that concludes my portion of the presentation. I'll go ahead and hand it over to Professor Van Dorp. Great, thank you, Ashley, and welcome everyone. Let me dive into the program for a little bit. So this is a stem designated 30 unit program. It can be completed in two semesters if you do it full-time, or you can actually do it part-time over three or four semesters if that is more suitable for you. It's an applied program. We are very much focused on getting you industry ready. So we're going to teach you how to hit the ground running with the concepts and the tools that you're going to learn in this program. And the program is actually ranked in the top 10 programs in the country, which is something we're very proud of. Our next cohort is going to start in fall of 2024. Let me talk a little bit about what supply chain management is about. So what you can see here is a picture of a typical supply chain. It all starts with our suppliers who deliver to us. And what we do is we take those materials and we turn them into finished products. And then we deliver them to our customers through a distribution network. So this is what we do as a business. And what supply chain management essentially means is the management of the flow of these goods and services and information throughout this entire network, starting with the suppliers, going to the manufacturing, going to the distribution and going to the customers. And we actually have a number of objectives in supply chain management. And the first one is about efficiency. We want to make sure that we produce goods and services at the lowest possible cost to our customers. And so that we maximize our profits. At the same time, we need to satisfy our customers. So that means that we need to deliver the products on time with the right quality and at the right price. And then in addition to that, we're very much focused on making our supply chains resilient. So that when there are disruptions, think about Covid or the Suez Canal blocking, we can still deliver our products and services to our customers. And then finally, sustainability has become very important. So we need to make sure that we reduce our carbon footprint, that we reduce the waste, and that we have fair labor practices in place. Now, why is this so important? And it is basically because everything we do involves the supply chain. If you look at the price of goods, if you look at the availability of goods, if you look at the convenience by which you can buy goods, the quality, it's all affected by the supply chain. And because we are so global, this means that these complex supply chains can actually result in some risks. And what we've seen in the last couple of years is that this has become more and more apparent that a lot of things can go wrong. And so, here's a few examples of some disruptions, right? We had the trade wars between the US and China. We had the wildfires, especially here in California. We had labor shortages, we had cyber attacks. Of course, Covid was a huge disruption to many supply chains. The Suez Canal, I already mentioned that. We had a ship that was blocking the entire canal, so nothing could actually pass through. We've had volcano eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, all these things are really disrupting our global supply chains. And this is why this program has become even more important because companies are really looking for people who can navigate these very complex and sometimes uncertain environments. Now, let's talk about the curriculum. So this is what your fall semester could look like. So what you will do is you will start with our core courses. And there are a few important ones. One is about the supply chain essentials. So these are the core fundamental concepts of what is supply chain all about. And then in addition to that, we're going to dive into some more specific courses like purchasing and supply management. We're going to look into supply chain analytics. And this is a course where you're going to learn about how to apply analytics and data to solve supply chain problems. And then we have another core course that is about operations management. And in addition to that, you can actually take some electives in your fall semester. And here are a few examples of what those electives could look like. You can go into the global context of supply chains. You can do supply chain strategy. You can learn about sustainable supply chains. You can dive into the legal issues around supply chain management. Or you can even take an independent study course if you're interested in that. And then in your spring semester, you will dive into a few more core courses. And this is about process improvement. So how can you make processes more efficient? How can you improve the quality of your processes? Then we're going to dive into risk management in supply chains, which is, as you can imagine, extremely important, especially nowadays. Then we're going to have an experiential learning course where you're actually going to work on a real-world project with a company. And so you get some hands-on experience in that. And then we're going to dive into supply chain modeling. And that is about how can we, for example, build models to optimize our supply chain. And then you're going to have some more electives. And here again are a few examples. You can take a course on lean six sigma, which is very important for process improvement. You can do supply chain finance, supply chain consulting. You can take a course on logistics and distribution. You can take a course on global sourcing, or again, you can take an independent study course. So this is the overview of the curriculum. And now let's talk about career opportunities. So as you can imagine, supply chain management is a very important part of every business. And so there are a lot of different job titles that you can obtain after you graduate from our program. Here are a few examples. You can become a logistics manager, a consultant, a data scientist, a business analyst. You can work in purchasing or sourcing. You can become an operations manager, a supply chain manager, or even a demand planner. These are all jobs that you can actually get after you graduate from our program. And here are a few companies that have hired our graduates in the past. And these are pretty big names in industry. So for example, Amazon, Apple, Deloitte, EY, Google, Nike, Nestle, Starbucks, all these companies are actively looking for people with a supply chain degree. And these are the companies that will actually be hiring our graduates. And then in terms of where they're working, so you can see that it's a very diverse set of functions. So they work in operations, in logistics, in supply chain, in consulting, in procurement, in analysis, and even in project management. So there's a lot of different career paths that you can take with this degree. And what our career outcomes look like, so 92% of our graduates actually found employment within three months after graduating. And the average base salary is about 87,000, and the median base salary is about 85,000. And for those who got a signing bonus, the average signing bonus was about 15,000. And as you can see, these are pretty good numbers, especially given the fact that this is a 9 to 12 month program. So it's not a two-year program. So we're very happy with these career outcomes. Now, let's talk about student life. So we have a lot of different opportunities for you outside of the classroom. First of all, you can become part of the Marshall Graduate Student Association. So this is our umbrella organization for all graduate programs at Marshall. And you can also become part of specific supply chain student organizations. One is the supply chain management student association. The other one is the operations management club, and then you have a number of other clubs. And these clubs are organizing a lot of different activities. So for example, they organize company visits. They organize alumni events. They organize speaker series. They organize social events, and they organize case competitions as well. So there's a lot of different opportunities to actually experience and apply what you've learned in the classroom. You can also join our global supply chain management research initiative. This is a research initiative where we're actually conducting research for companies to improve their supply chains. And so if you're interested in research, you can actually become part of that as well. And then we have an international student mentorship program. So for our international students, we will actually help you navigate the program. And you can connect with your peers who are also international students. And then we have a number of career events throughout the year. And you can network with companies, you can do mock interviews, all the things that are important for you to find a good job. And then on to graduate career services, so this is another very important resource that we offer to our students. And they are actually helping you with your job search. So they provide one-on-one career advising. They can help you with your resume and cover letter writing. They provide you with internship and job search strategies. They do interview preparation, they have workshops and career panels. They also have mentorship and networking opportunities. So a lot of different things that can actually help you succeed in finding your next job. And then for our international students, we also have international student services. And they can actually help you with any visa questions, any cultural adjustment questions, any employment questions that you might have. And then finally, we have a student wellness services that actually provide you with mental health care, medical care, health promotion, and so on and so forth. So that concludes my portion of the presentation. I'll go ahead and hand it back over to Ashley. Thank you, Professor Van Dorp. So now I'll dive into the admissions requirements for the program. So for this program, we do require an undergraduate degree from a regionally accredited university. And we do also require a minimum 3.0 GPA. And then in terms of your academic background, we are looking for students who have a bachelor's degree in business, engineering, math, economics, or any related fields. We do also require two letters of recommendation. These can be academic or professional in nature. And then in terms of the test scores, we do require the GMAT or the GRE. But if you have a cumulative GPA of a 3.3 or higher, the GMAT or the GRE is waived. We also require a professional resume. We do ask for one essay, which is about a statement of purpose. And then if you're an international student, we do require the TOEFL or the IELTS. But if you've completed your undergraduate degree in the U.S., or if you've received a bachelor's degree from an institution in a country where English is the official language, then the TOEFL or the IELTS is also waived. And then for this program, we do also require 1 to 2 years of work experience. And then in terms of the application deadlines, our final deadline to apply for the fall of 2024 is going to be May 1st. But we do encourage you to apply as early as possible because we do review our applications on a rolling basis. And then in terms of tuition and fees, the tuition for the program is about 64,888. This is going to be for the entire program. And then in addition to that, we do have mandatory university fees, which are about $1,972. And then in terms of financial aid and scholarships, we do offer merit-based scholarships. And you are automatically considered for these scholarships once you submit your application. So there's no additional application necessary. We also offer federal student aid, which you can learn more about by submitting your FAFSA application. And then we also encourage you to look into external scholarships, which you can find through fastweb.com or through scholarship.com. And then for our international students, we do also encourage you to look into the international student loan at discover.com. So that concludes our presentation for today. Thank you all for joining us. And now we'll go ahead and open it up for Q&A. And if you have any questions, feel free to use the Q&A box at the bottom of the screen.