University of Southern California

  United States

University Attributes: Los Angeles was little more than a frontier town in the 1870s, when members of the Methodist Episcopal Conference first sought to establish a university in the region. Although the city still lacked paved streets, electric lights, telephones and a reliable fire alarm system, the idea found an enthusiastic reception among Los Angeles more far-sighted residents. In those early years the founders could not have foreseen that Southern California would rapidly grow into one of the most dynamic and influential regions in the world, or that the University of Southern California would one day be a world-class research university. Nor could they have predicted how important their university would be in the explosive development of the region.

Today, USC has grown into an international center of learning, enrolling more than 28,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students on two campuses and offering degrees through its College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, Graduate School and 16 professional schools. It ranks in the top 10 among private research universities in the United States in federal research and voluntary support, and is one of only four private research universities in the western United States elected to membership in the Association of American Universities, a group that represents the top one percent of the nations accredited universities and accounts for nearly two-thirds of all federally sponsored research. Over the years, USC has conferred degrees on more than a quarter-million students, many of whom have become instrumental in leading Southern California to its position as a national trendsetter in public policy, economic and business affairs, urban planning and engineering, scientific research, health care and the arts. In addition, thousands of alumni are leaders in business, government and the professions throughout the U.S., the Pacific Rim and the world.