Graduate & Professional Degrees
The University of Southern California is one of the top-ranked universities in the country and offers a diverse range of graduate and professional programs to suit various career pursuits. Students can gain access to exceptional academic scholarship, accelerated degrees, top faculty, leading research opportunities and collaborative learning communities. With state-of-the-art facilities and competitive faculty and staff committed to excellence, USC's graduate and professional programs serve as an attractive option for those seeking higher education on the West Coast.
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Dual Degree | USC Leventhal School of Accounting
Dual Degree Program
The Leventhal School of Accounting, in conjunction with the USC Gould School of Law, offers a dual degree program leading to the degrees of Juris Doctor and Master of Business Taxation (JD/MBT). This program permits a student to pursue a specialized program in taxation through courses in the Marshall School of Business, the Leventhal School of Accounting and the USC Gould School of Law.
The MBT portion of the program requires 42 units, including 9 units of law school courses that are recognized by the Leventhal School of Accounting toward the MBT degree. JD/MBT Students must complete 76 law units to satisfy the JD portion of the dual degree.
Unit Requirements
The total number of units required for the MBT portion of the JD/MBT program will vary, depending on the educational background of the individual student. Units are divided into four categories and students are required to maintain an overall graduate grade point average of 3.0.
The Leventhal School of Accounting Master's Program Office evaluates the academic background of each admitted student to determine if any of the 12 units of course work in Group I can be waived.
The courses in Groups II, III and IV are required of all JD/MBT students and total 30 units, including no more than 9 units of Law School courses.
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Dual Degree | USC Gould School of Law
Students must complete 20 units (five courses) of communication courses at the School of Communication: one core class from the student's preferred track; one method course;
First Year: Required law school courses.
Second and Third Years: 20 units of communications courses and 46 units of law courses, of which 8 units must be approved as appropriate for acceptance by the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism toward its degree. All students take
Application to pursue the dual degree should be made before completion of 15 units of work on law or 8 units toward the MA Admission by the law school to its JD degree will be evaluated as a substitute for GRE scores.
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Dual Degree | USC Gould School of Law
The dual degree program with the USC Gould School of Law and the USC Price School of Public Policy enables qualified students to earn a Juris Doctor/Master of Public Administration (JD/MPA) in approximately four years of study.
Some of the topics covered in the law school are also covered in the program of the Price School of Public Policy, so some credit toward the law degree may appropriately be given for specified graduate work taken in the Price School of Public Policy. Similarly, some credit toward the master's degree may appropriately be awarded for certain work completed in the law school. The goal of the program is to encourage law students to gain a recognized competence in administration, which has a direct relevance for the roles lawyers are asked to play in society.
Students must apply to, and be accepted by, both schools. They may be accepted to a dual degree program at the time of their acceptance to the law school or at the beginning of their second year of law school. The program requires the completion of the required first year of law school and the fulfillment of a statistics prerequisite, which can be met by passing an undergraduate inferential statistics class with a grade of B or better at an approved university within three years of matriculation or taking
Credit toward the law degree may not be given for graduate work completed prior to the completion of the first year of law school. The Price School of Public Policy, on the other hand, may allow some credit toward the MPA for approved work completed prior to the first year of law school.
Students are required to complete 108 units of course work.
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Master's Degree | USC Gould School of Law
The USC Price School of Public Policy and the USC Gould School of Law offer a dual degree that enables qualified students to earn both a Juris Doctor and a Master of Public Policy in approximately four years of study.
The dual degree allows students to acquire a blend of the analytic skills of public policy and an understanding of legal institutions and processes. This combination of knowledge is well suited for law students who want to affect the policy-making process and craft legislation to aid in achievement of public policy goals. It is equally appropriate for prospective policy analysts who are interested in law and public policy.
Students must apply to, and be accepted by, both schools. They may be accepted to the dual degree at the time of their acceptance to the law school or at the beginning of their second year of law school. Dual degree students spend the first year of the program completing the required first year of law school. The remaining units of law school courses and the required 36 units of core MPP courses are taken by students in the second through fourth years.
Students are required to complete 114 units of course work, including 78 units in the Gould School of Law and 36 units in the USC Price School of Public Policy. The MPP program has a statistics prerequisite. See
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Dual Degree | USC Gould School of Law
The Juris Doctor/Master of Real Estate Development dual degree program provides the opportunity for in-depth study of legal issues and real estate development. The increasingly regulatory environment developers work within demands that professionals in the real estate industry have a strong understanding of the legal system. Lawyers who plan to specialize in real estate law will benefit from a thorough understanding of the development process, including financial, planning, marketing and design issues.
Application must be made to both the Gould School of Law and the USC Price School of Public Policy. This program normally requires three years (including one summer) of full-time study in residence to complete.
Students must have use of an approved laptop computer as required by instructors and must demonstrate calculator and spreadsheet skills; a calculator and/or spreadsheet class is offered online via the Internet.
Requirements for completion of the dual degree program are 112 units, including 78 units in law and 34 units in planning. For a complete listing, see
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Dual Degree | USC Gould School of Law
The JD/MS dual degree combines the knowledge of the older population with understanding of the legal system. The program prepares graduates for a number of roles in both public and private sector organizations. Students are required to complete 112 units of course work, 76 from the law school and 36 from the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. The first year is devoted to required law courses, and the second, third and fourth years combine gerontology and law courses.
Gerontology Requirements
The Master of Science in Gerontology will require 36 units of course and field work that cover the core content of the MS program.
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Dual Degree | USC Gould School of Law
The Juris Doctor and Master of Social Work (JD/MSW) dual degree program is a four-year program. Students are required to complete 121 units of course work, including 76 units in the Gould School of Law and 45 units in the
To earn the JD, all students (including dual degree students) must complete 37 numerically graded law units at USC after the first year. The associate dean may make exceptions to this rule for students enrolled in law school honors programs. Students must apply to both programs prior to matriculation. The program of study is as follows:
First and Second Years: Complete both the first year JD program of study and the first year program of study in the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, which includes the required courses outlined in the Master of Social Work (Integrative Social Work) section of the catalogue. Students will take their remaining MSW units in specialized courses in the third year of the dual degree. Students will be advised into the appropriate courses.
Third Year: Complete MSW coursework and resume JD coursework, per advisement.
Fourth Year: Complete the JD program.
The law school gives credit for the third semester in the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, while the latter recognizes a law course as a substitution for the elective/special topics course requirement.
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Graduate Certificate | USC School of Architecture
This program is intended to introduce at the graduate level the basic subjects inherent to the field of landscape architecture: plant materials suitable to urban conditions; urban utility and transportation systems in relation to topography, natural drainage and pathways; plant and wildlife communities; as well as inquiries about landscape infrastructure and ecology, and the history of human settlement in the evolution of urban landscapes. Southern California and Los Angeles provide an exceptionally valuable natural and socio-cultural laboratory for landscape architecture studies.
Course Requirements
Completion of the certificate program requires a minimum of 12 units.
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Master's Degree | USC School of Architecture
Landscapes are the dynamic synthesis of natural systems, sociocultural forces and the physical material of the constructed world. The Graduate Program of Landscape Architecture + Urbanism uses the complex regional geography of Southern California as its primary laboratory to generate and test responses to the planet’s most pressing environmental challenges, including resounding impacts of climate change, rapid urbanization, social and environmental injustice, and the interface of nature and technology. Looking regionally and globally, we conduct rigorous design-research to develop multi-scalar innovations in performative regional infrastructures, equitable urban frameworks and public spaces, and healthful biophysical systems. We focus on pressures of urbanization and how to utilize landscape strategies to shape those systems, spaces, cities and infrastructures to imagine more resilient futures – socially and ecologically.We are fortunate to inhabit one of the most culturally and environmentally diverse geographies in the world - within an hour’s drive from the Pacific Ocean, the San Gabriel Mountains and the western edge of the Sonoran Desert. Clearly Southern California offers a wide range of landscape challenges to which we apply design exploration, strategic thinking, technical resolution and creative expression. Those challenges include increasing water scarcity impacting urban and agricultural territories, warming temperatures, rising sea levels, reduced biodiversity, wildfire-flood-debris flow cycles, as well as deeply institutionalized practices of discrimination that have marginalized and burdened communities of color, and rapid urban development that is leaving many populations behind or displaced. More optimistically, there is an increasing investment in public space, urban nature and environmental resilience in our region, which is characteristically experimental and creative.Our program curriculum is focused on a balanced core of design studios, media and fabrication, history and theory, performance technologies, plant materials and ecology, construction and practice, and urbanism. It is field-based and hands-on. The studio sequence begins with local urban sites where intensive field work is critical to site understanding and builds up to territorial-scale design-research studios. Students synthesize their courses in media, history, plant materials, ecology, construction and urbanism with their studio work. Second-year studios provide opportunities to investigate design responses to urban development, as well as climate change causes and impacts, and have options both to travel outside the region and to collaborate with architecture students in an integrated setting. Elective courses in our curriculum come from a wide range of offerings in the School of Architecture and other courses including those in urban planning, spatial sciences, art and cinema. We have a number of international opportunities to study other geographies – both during the summer global studies programs and studios within the curriculum.Our curriculum is increasingly focused on opportunities for applied research that has real impact on the ground or in shaping policy. The aim of the program is to develop critical thinkers and design leaders unafraid to tackle some of the most contested landscapes and environmental questions of our day. -
Master's Degree | Linguistics
The Master of Arts in Language Sciences is a professional preparation degree, providing advanced instruction in linguistic theory to the most accomplished of USC's Linguistics majors.
Students pursuing an MA in Language Sciences are required to complete 24 units of course work, including a master's thesis. Students may tailor their course list to further their own professional or academic aspirations by selecting courses in consultation with an adviser.
Master's Thesis
Students are required to write a thesis and to provide satisfactory written answers to related questions submitted by their master's committee.
Admission
Admission to the program is limited to USC students majoring in Linguistics (or a combined program within Linguistics) who have taken two of the four advanced core courses in Linguistics (