University of Southern California

The University of Southern California (USC) is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university.

USC's four year, full-time undergraduate program enrolled 17,380 undergraduate students in Fall 2010. USC is also home to 19,516 graduate and professional students in a number of different programs, including business, law, social work, and medicine.

Ranking

In the U.S. News & World Report's annual ranking of best "National Universities," USC made the prestigious top 25 and was ranked 23rd in 2011.USC is ranked 46th among world universities and 32nd among universities in the Americas by the Academic Ranking of World Universities, 48th worldwide in 2011 by Human Resources & Labor Review, and 13th (tied with seven other universities) among national universities by The Center for Measuring University Performance.

USC was named "College of the Year 2000" by the editors of Time and The Princeton Review for the university's extensive community-service programs

Schools & Programs

USC is a large, primarily residential research university.The majority of the student body was undergraduate until 2007, when graduate student enrollment began to exceed undergraduate. The four-year, full-time undergraduate instructional program is classified as "balanced arts & sciences/professions" with a high graduate coexistence. Admissions are characterized as "most selective, lower transfer in"; 95 undergraduate majors and 147 academic and professional minors are offered. The graduate program is classified as "comprehensive" and offers 134 master's, doctoral, and professional degrees through 17 professional schools.

• USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
• USC Leventhal School of Accounting
• USC School of Architecture
• USC Marshall School of Business
• USC School of Cinematic Arts
• USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
• Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC
• USC School of Dramatic Arts
• USC Rossier School of Education
• USC Viterbi School of Engineering
• USC Roski School of Fine Arts
• USC Davis School of Gerontology
• USC Gould School of Law
• Keck School of Medicine of USC
• USC Thornton School of Music
• Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
• USC School of Pharmacy
• Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy
• USC Sol Price School of Public Policy
• USC School of Social Work

Campus

The University Park campus is in the West Adams district of South Los Angeles, 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of Downtown Los Angeles. The campus' boundaries are Jefferson Boulevard on the north and northeast, Figueroa Street on the southeast, Exposition Boulevard on the south, and Vermont Avenue on the west. The University Park campus is within walking distance to Los Angeles landmarks such as the Shrine Auditorium, Staples Center, and Los Angeles Coliseum.

Health Sciences campus

Located three miles (5 km) from downtown Los Angeles and seven miles (11 km) from the University Park campus, USC's Health Sciences campus is a major center for basic and clinical biomedical research in the fields of cancer, gene therapy, the neurosciences, and transplantation biology, among others. The 50-acre (20 ha) campus is home to the region's first and oldest medical and pharmacy schools, as well as acclaimed programs in physical therapy and occupational therapy (which are ranked #1 and #3 respectively by U.S. News & World Report). As well, USC physicians serve more than one million patients each year.

Careen Ingle

BA, Animation and Digital Arts '13

“The most important part of any creative work is its story. That’s a good thing to keep in mind when making your films, as well as writing your admissions essay.”

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