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Marshall Boosts MBA Consulting Track with New Resources and Industry Connections

Marshall Boosts MBA Consulting Track with New Resources and Industry Connections

MBA students accepted in top Pre-MBA consulting programs have increased twenty-fold in just a year’s time.

by: Alexander Bernard
08.22.25
three Marshall students walking through campus

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From year to year, consulting has proven to be one of the most popular career tracks in USC Marshall’s MBA programs. The business school is supporting these prospective consultants by bolstering industry connections, providing access to a consultant coach, and offering a host of other resources to prepare students to excel before, during, and after their time at Marshall.

Consulting is unlike any other MBA career trajectory, observes Ahmed Elshinnawy, visiting scholar and associate director in the Marshall Full-Time MBA (FTMBA) program. Elshinnawy worked for over ten years as a consultant at Deloitte and helped design the consulting track at Marshall’s MBA Career Launchpad. He explained that Pre-MBA programs exponentially increase candidates’ chances of receiving an internship and being hired after completing their MBA.

“The reason why consulting does [Pre-MBA programs] is because they want to be able to see students in two cycles — the Pre-MBA plus the internship — which gives them more time to work with the students and really get to know the talent and their work ethic before [firms] make their full-time offers,” Elshinnawy said.

Elshinnawy and his team are preparing students for this unique path, assisting them with résumé editing, interview preparation, and casework. The results speak for themselves: From 2024 to 2025, the amount of Marshall students accepted into major pre-MBA programs multiplied twenty-fold.

To take one example, in Ernst and Young’s pre-MBA program, USC Marshall sported the highest share of candidates from any university according to Elshinnawy. The advantage of these programs is that students receive a head start on their competition, establishing connections that can be leveraged into an internship and, eventually, a full-time position.

USC Marshall supports students throughout the entire MBA program, as Elshinnawy and his team draw on their own expertise and professional connections to create opportunities. Their firsthand experience working with Marshall students gives them unique insight into what sets Trojans apart.

“When I’m speaking to firms, I’m not just speaking about students who I see in a career center,” Elshinnawy explained. “I know them from class, I’ve seen their work, I know their assignments, I know their outputs. There’s credibility there.”

Between career center resources and Marshall-hosted networking events, MBA candidates also have multiple avenues they can pursue on their own.

Marshall is a destination for consulting.

— Ahmed Elshinnawy

Visiting Scholar and Associate Director

“Students have been prepared either by the in-house coach or using the services offered by the career center,” Elshinnawy said. “On top of that, firms will have info sessions, they’ll come to campus, attend events, engage our signature events and so forth. There are multiple avenues where they get to connect with the students.”

USC Marshall is just getting started. There are plans to build a consulting hub built around recruitment, research, curriculum, and casework collaborations with major firms.

One such collaboration will be occurring this fall with Deloitte and the International Olympic Committee, led by Elshinnawy and Christian Busch, associate professor of clinical management organization. As part of the Career Launchpad consulting track, students are working on a case to increase fan engagement at LA28 through virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

“We’re going to have the students actually present to the Deloitte team and to the LA28 team that are working on that project,” Elshinnawy explained. “You can imagine the benefits and the value for each stakeholder there.”

The latest success in the consulting track has been a community effort, Elshinnawy says, as countless members of the Trojan Network offer to help make Marshall’s MBA programs a leader in consulting placements.

“I have Marshall alums who graduated 10 to 15 years ago who will reach out to connect and to look for ways to either support the students, or they’re reaching out to see how we can help them with that career transition,” Elshinnawy said. “That is extremely powerful. This is a lifetime network. Marshall is a destination for consulting.”

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