While the school is best known for its outstanding professional schools in law, film, medicine, business, engineering and journalism, USC is most well-known by many for its glamorous and famous School of Cinema-Television. Currently, USC ranks among the top 10 private universities receiving federal funds for research and development support and in the top 20 among all universities in the United States. It is a longtime member of the Association of American Universities and the oldest research university in the American West.

The School of Cinema-Television, perhaps USC's most famous wing, confers degrees in critical studies, screenwriting, and production. The school, well supported by its famous alumni, is known for such well-known graduates as George Lucas, Ron Howard, Robert Zemeckis, John Milius, Ben Burtt, and David Wolper.

Annenberg, the journalism school, holds its own among the best in the nation, but it has adopted a fairly grueling convergence core curriculum that requires students to devote themselves equally to print, broadcast and online media for the first year of study. While this approach promises a breadth of knowledge across various journalistic media, many students resent being compelled to devote so much time and energy to disciplines they aren't interested in pursuing. On the other hand, USC's Annenberg School of Journalism has a massive endowment, and the school is generous with promising students.

On March 2, 2004, the USC School of Engineering, headed by Dean Max Nikias, was renamed to the Andrew and Erna Viterbi School of Engineering. This was done to honor Qualcomm founder Andrew Viterbi and his wife Erna, who had recently donated $52 million to the school. According to the USC website, this gift was "the largest ever to rename an existing school of engineering."

Recently, USC has risen fairly rapidly in the U.S. News & World Report America's Best Colleges rankings, from 42nd in 2000 to 30th in 2005, leaving it five places behind its cross-town rival, UCLA (25th in both 2000 and 2005). The Best Graduate Schools rankings ranked the Viterbi School of Engineering as 6th, the School of Policy, Planning, and Development as 7th, the Leventhal School of Accounting as 7th, the Marshall School of Business as 18th, and the Law School as 18th. The magazine consistently ranks the School of Cinema-Television and the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy as No.1 in the nation.

For the 2004 fall term, the freshman class had an average GPA of 4.0 and an average SAT score of 1350, which makes USC one of the most selective universities in the nation for undergraduates.

Academic subdivisions

USC's academic departments fall either under the general liberal arts and sciences banner of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences for undergraduates or of The Graduate School for graduates, or under one of the university's 18 professional schools. A full listing of academic subdivisions follows alphabetically by subject:

• The College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
• The Graduate School
• The Professional Schools
  • School of Architecture
  • Marshall School of Business
  • Leventhal School of Accounting
  • School of Cinema-Television
  • Annenberg School for Communication
  • School of Dentistry
  • Rossier School of Education
  • Viterbi School of Engineering
  • School of Fine Arts
  • Davis School of Gerontology
  • Independent Health Professions
  • USC Law School
  • Keck School of Medicine
  • Thornton School of Music
  • School of Pharmacy
  • School of Policy, Planning, and Development
  • School of Social Work
  • School of Theatre

Areas of study

USC offers 77 majors, 101 minors, and 139 distinct areas of graduate study.

The most popular majors are Business Administration, Communications, and Psychology.

USC grades on a standard 4.0 scale, with +0.3 for a "plus" grade, and -0.3 for a "minus" grade. USC does not award the grade A+.