University of Southern California (USC)
Los Angeles, California · Founded 1880
Create a free account and we'll score this university against your grades, budget, intended major and location — and explain the reasoning.
Get your matchTesting policy
Test-optional
USC does not require the SAT or ACT. If you do send scores it superscores both exams, taking your best section results across sittings - but it will only accept official reports sent by the testing agency. Self-reported scores are not accepted, which is unusual among schools at this level and means you have to order the report yourself before the February 20 deadline. Transfer applicants are not required to submit scores either. Source: admission.usc.edu (verified September 2026).
About
USC is a private university with the range of a public one. Its liberal arts college, Dornsife, takes just over 40% of each entering class, but the professional schools are what the university is known for: the School of Cinematic Arts, Marshall for business, Viterbi for engineering, Annenberg for communication and journalism. Students are encouraged to cross between them, and the city does the same work the campus does - Los Angeles is where the internships, studios and startups are.
History
A group of Los Angeles citizens led by Judge Robert Maclay Widney founded USC in 1880, when the city still had no paved streets or electric lights. The land came from three men of different faiths - Ozro Childs, a Protestant horticulturist, John Downey, an Irish-Catholic former governor of California, and Isaias Hellman, a German-Jewish banker - and the university opened with 53 students and 10 teachers. It has since sent more athletes to the Olympic Games, and produced more medalists, than any other university in the United States.
What stands out
- Cinematic Arts, Marshall business and Viterbi engineering on one campus
- More Olympians and Olympic medalists than any other U.S. university
- USC Village: a residential and retail neighborhood built next door
- Residential colleges organized around honors, arts and international life
- One of the largest transfer intakes of any private research university
Popular majors
Campus life
There are more than 1,000 student groups and about 3,000 student events a year, and the Trojan traditions hold them together: the Tommy Trojan statue at the center of campus, the white horse Traveler at football games, the Trojan Marching Band, and Fight On. USC Village, a residential and retail complex built next to campus, is where much of daily life happens. Greek life is there but small for a university this size: 34 recognized chapters, joined by 3% of undergraduate men and 12% of women, and by no first-year students at all.