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University of Southern California Data & Information Overview

109 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
12% Acceptance Rate
Get the facts about University of Southern California. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more. If you’re interested in learning more about a particular stat, just click on its tile to go to a new page that covers the topic more in-depth. Also, you can jump to any section of this page by clicking one of the links below.

How Well Is University of Southern California Ranked?

#13 Best Colleges in Nation
#2 Best Colleges in CA
Communication & Media Studies Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2025 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

University of Southern California was awarded 109 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is communication & media studies.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

USC landed the #13 spot in College Factual's 2025 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,152 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 1% of all schools in the nation!

USC is also ranked #2 out of 161 schools in California.

See all of the rankings for University of Southern California.

Is It Hard to Get Into USC?

12% Acceptance Rate
53% Of Accepted Are Women
34% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

University of Southern California has a very low acceptance rate of 12%, making it one of the most selective out of all the colleges and universities in the nation. It's probably a good idea to apply to other schools in addition to USC just in case you don't make the cut.

Average Test Scores

About 34% of students accepted to USC submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 710 and 760. Math scores were between 740 and 790.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for University of Southern California  ( 710 to 760 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for University of Southern California  ( 740 to 790 )
200
800
USC received ACT scores from 16% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 32 and 35.

ACT Composite Scores for University of Southern California  ( 32 to 35 )
1
36

Learn more about University of Southern California admissions.

University of Southern California Faculty

9 to 1 Student to Faculty
59% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to measure the number of teaching resources that a college or university offers its students. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1, but at USC it is much better at 9 to 1. That's good news for students who want to interact more on a personal level with their teachers.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at University of Southern California is 59%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  59 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at University of Southern California

97% Freshmen Retention
79% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 97% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like University of Southern California enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  97 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at USC for first-time, full-time students is 79%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  79 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at University of Southern California.

University of Southern California Undergraduate Student Diversity

18,560 Full-Time Undergraduates
51.8% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
52.0% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 19,786 undergraduates at USC with 18,560 being full-time and 1,226 being part-time.

How Much Does University of Southern California Cost?

$29,462 Net Price
31% Take Out Loans
$30,104 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of USC is $29,462. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for USC

$0-30 K$30K-48K$48-75$75-110K$110K +
$12,880$14,852$19,991$26,959$52,817

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of USC, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At USC, approximately 31% of students took out student loans averaging $7,526 a year. That adds up to $30,104 over four years for those students.

Get more details about paying for University of Southern California.

How Much Money Do USC Graduates Make?

$92,498 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from USC make around $92,498 per year during the early years of their employment. This is good news for future USC graduates since it is 88% more than the average college graduate's salary of $49,219 per year.

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See which majors at University of Southern California make the most money.

Location of University of Southern California

California State
18,560 Full-Time Undergraduates
Large City Campus Setting
University of Southern California is a private not-for-profit institution located in Los Angeles, California. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

Get more details about the location of University of Southern California.

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Contact details for USC are given below.

Contact Details
Address:University Park, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Phone:213-740-2311
Website:www.usc.edu/

University of Southern California Majors

158 Majors With Completions
36,374 Undergraduate Degrees
36,383 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 158 majors graduated from University of Southern California. Of these students, 36,374 received undergraduate degrees and 36,383 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular MajorsBachelor’s DegreesAverage Salary of Graduates
Business Administration & Management1,609$71,668
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods1,020NA
Computer Science1,015$137,284
Legal Research924NA
Social Work786NA
Communication & Media Studies585$47,651
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions407NA
Legal Professions (Other)399NA
Teacher Education Subject Specific387NA
Economics377$57,060

Learn more about the majors offered at University of Southern California along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at USC

34% Take At Least One Class Online
13% Take All Classes Online

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2022-2023, 16,482 students took at least one online class at University of Southern California. This is a decrease from the 22,847 students who took online classes the previous year.

YearTook at Least One Online ClassTook All Classes Online
2022-202316,4826,276
2021-202222,8477,556
2020-202141,11237,923
2018-20198,5816,707

Learn more about online learning at University of Southern California.

If you’re considering University of Southern California, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against USC? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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