University of Southern California

Overview

The University of Southern California (USC) is a private research university in the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. Established in 1880 by American lawyer and judge, Robert Maclay Widney, USC is California’s oldest private research university and LA’s largest private employer with an economic contribution of about $8 billion a year. The university’s motto is “Let whoever earns the palm bear it,” and students are nicknamed the Trojans.

The university’s academic departments are housed under the Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, its 18 professional schools, and the USC Graduate School. Examples of professional schools include the USC Leventhal School of Accounting, the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, and the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.

USC offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate education as well as postdoctoral training. Students can choose from over 90 undergraduate majors and more than 140 professional and academic minors. There are also more than 130 graduate, doctoral, and professional degrees in 18 professional schools. Majors such as Creative Writing, Data Science, Biophysics, African American Studies, East Asian Languages and Cultures, and Economics provide a glimpse of how diversified the programs are at USC.

When it comes to research, USC is one of the few institutions, which continuously supplies new knowledge, technology, and art in the country. It spends approximately $900 million annually in research and ranks second among all universities with the biggest federally funded research program in computer science. Its graduate program in science, engineering, and health is also the second largest among all private research universities.

Though USC was founded in 1879, it’s inception started almost a decade ago in the early 1870s when Robert Widney first dreamed of building a university in the region. He secured a total of 380 lots of land from prominent members of the community.

When the university opened in 1880 to 53 students and 10 teachers, there were no paved roads, electric lights, or telephones in Los Angeles. Today, it educates over 48,000 students and employs more than 4,400 faculty.

USC’s alumni is composed of outstanding scientists, artists, business leaders, athletes, politicians, and engineers among other professions. It has produced nine Nobel laureates and has graduated more Academy Award-winning alumni than any other institution in the world by a large margin. USC remains committed to bolstering research and studies in areas such as big data, artificial intelligence, analytics, and environmental sustainability.

You can also learn more about the educational performance of University of Southern California in our ranking of US universities & colleges.