Graduate & Professional Degrees

All resident JD, LLM and MCL students will be eligible for this certificate.

To earn a Transnational Law and Business Certificate, students must complete at least 12 units of the mandatory and elective courses outlined in the curriculum. 

With more people living in cities and urban areas than ever before, transportation systems and planning are critical to managing sustainability and the demands of a rapidly growing population. 

The Certificate in Transportation Planning is an interdisciplinary program administered by the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Combining transportation planning with transportation policy and project management, this certificate program is especially appropriate for students intending to pursue careers as transportation professionals who will design or implement transportation policies and plans, whether within government agencies, the private sector or with non-profit organizations.

The certificate consists of 12 units of course work.

The graduate certificate in Transportation Systems is an interdisciplinary program administered by the USC Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The certificate program allows students to specialize in transportation applications, while simultaneously receiving a degree in their home department. The certificate in transportation systems combines elements of transportation engineering with transportation policy, planning and project management. The program is especially appropriate for students intending to pursue careers as developers of transportation technologies, or as implementors of technologies within government agencies.

Students electing the certificate program apply to the USC Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Course prerequisites for the program are:

• one course in statistics or uncertainty, equivalent to ISE 225 or CE 408;
• one course in engineering economy, equivalent to ISE 460;
• one course in microeconomics, equivalent to ECON 203; and
• one course in a contemporary high level programming language.

These prerequisites may be satisfied after enrollment in the certificate program by taking the indicated courses or their equivalent. Graduate students cannot receive credit for courses numbered below 400. Detailed admissions requirements are published by the USC Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The courses taken for the certificate may be applied later to the Master of Science in Civil Engineering, transportation option.

Qualified students holding a bachelor's degree also have the option of enrolling in the certificate program without receiving a separate graduate degree.

The curriculum consists of five graduate courses for a total of at least 18 units.

Transportation is a dynamic field with many aspects. The Master of Science in Transportation Management prepares students from any sufficiently analytical undergraduate background for advanced positions in the private, public or non-profit sector as well as for advanced graduate study. Students complete the program core, subject to options indicated there, plus a specialization for a total of 32-36 units.

The program core provides students with a broad, interdisciplinary basis for understanding transportation systems and needs. A required specialization of the student's choosing provides depth in a focused aspect of transportation systems relating to a particular set of methods or problem domain. Students learn:

• the design, provision, operation, and effectiveness of transportation services in the larger context of economic and social systems;
• how organizations can best adapt to changes affecting the transportation environment in which services are demanded and provided, including the relationships between transportation, technology, information services, and regulatory requirements; and
• to characterize, analyze and address complex transportation problems at the system level by relying on both theory and applied analytical methods.

For Admission Requirements, refer to USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Given the current K-12 school landscape in the United States, social workers must be prepared to respond to the overwhelming needs of youth and schools. To combat contemporary challenges in educational settings, with some consideration for sports and recreation, the Trauma Informed Practices in Educational Settings certificate provides training on child and family development; culturally responsive, trauma-informed practices; and holistic approaches. By the time they complete the certificate, students will have been trained to deliver interventions relevant to educational settings, with a supplementary understanding of the transformative power of social work and sports.

The USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work offers university certificates, which provide students advanced practice or research training through a social justice and intercultural competence lens that emphasizes community, organizational and environmental justice. Certificates are designed to complement and deepen training provided through our degree programs by focusing on experiential application of concepts in relation to particular and diverse client populations, settings, and systems. Each certificate consists of at least 12 units, which may in part be satisfied by courses completed for a degree program. Certificates are also available to graduate students from other disciplines and to employed professionals.

The Price School offers two PhD programs. Both the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Public Policy and Management and the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Urban Planning and Development degree programs are under the jurisdiction of the Graduate School. Students should also refer to Graduate and Professional Education and The Graduate School sections of this catalogue for general regulations. All courses applied toward the degrees must be courses accepted by The Graduate School.

The PhD programs in the Price School both emphasize rigorous programs of advanced study and research, stressing qualitative or quantitative analysis and the theoretical foundations of their field of study. The programs are designed to provide students with the opportunity to develop their own specialization and expertise in either major field — public policy and management or urban planning and development — while also offering them a breadth of knowledge in an especially rich intellectual environment.

Curriculum Requirements

The Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy and Management and the Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Planning and Development are administered by the doctoral committee of the school. The PhD program in Public Policy and Management requires the completion of 64 units of course work, comprising the following elements outlined below:

The USC Price Executive Master of Urban Planning (EMUP) degree is built to respond to the needs of the professionals who are rising leaders in urban planning, urban policy and development. The curriculum is designed to train professionals committed to crossing boundaries, and to educating persons who seek synergy between the public objectives and business aspects of planning.

The core of the EMUP revolves around the interlocking themes of urban economics, citizen participation and governance, urban design and site analysis, and data analytics and visualization. The degree does not train narrow experts in any of those four areas. Instead, the degree trains professionals who will be leaders in fields where the interplay of those themes is essential to private sector development, public sector planning and policy, and the goals of non-profit entities.

The target audience is experienced professionals in fields allied with urban planning and public policymaking, where place is a central feature: community development and redevelopment, real estate development, architecture, urban design, law, public policy, economic development, and infrastructure. 

The degree is designed to be completed by working professionals in four semesters of part-time study. The degree will be 24 units, taken over four semesters. Each semester is 5 units of online course work. There are also two four-day in-person intensives.

For admission information, please go to the USC Price Website.

The Master of Urban Planning (MUP) degree trains students to be leaders and innovators in all aspects of urban planning. Students study the traditional elements of urban planning while being immersed in innovative and emerging themes. Students will study normative approaches to social justice, equity, and inclusion in planning practice, data resources, and visualization techniques that are transforming cities, and methods for crafting place-based approaches to societies most pressing issues. 

Planners are engaged in evaluating and guiding community and urban development at geographic scales, ranging from the local American neighborhood to the global village utilizing the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Cities worldwide are being transformed by technology, mass movements of populations and demographic transitions, environmental challenge, rapid economic change, and questions of distribution and justice. Planners play a central role as analysts, conveners, forward-thinkers and innovators.

The MUP curriculum provides a core of knowledge around five themes – (1) the interaction of planning theory and history with normative questions of justice, (2) the use of research, data, and evidence to inform the public good, (3) the economics of urban areas, including the economics of environmental externalities and cost benefit analysis, (4) the legal context for planning, and (5) the built environment and urban design. In all cases, students are immersed in study that includes comparative approaches and examples from international examples, training students to be globally adept. A goal of the MUP curriculum is to prepare planners to practice anywhere in the world.

The Planning Accreditation Board of the American Planning Association and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning accredit the MUP program.

All persons pursuing the MUP will complete core courses that present basic theories, techniques and methods.

Concentrations are available in six areas: arts and culture; design of the built environment; economic development; planning for climate change and sustainability; housing and real estate development; and mobility and transportation planning. A concentration in any of these areas qualifies graduates for a wide range of private, public and nonprofit sector careers with government agencies, consulting firms, corporations, utilities, international technical assistance programs, nonprofit and special interest organizations and joint public-private ventures.

Students can be admitted to the certificate program in visual anthropology after they have completed their PhD qualifying examinations. The certificate is an interdisciplinary program, with training in digital video production provided by the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Professional skills in video production are designed to help students present their research results to a wider audience and to use visual media effectively in communicating ideas about anthropology. After completing fieldwork, students take a year-long editing sequence and practicum (ANTH 576 and ANTH 577) to finish a visual project, which will complement the written dissertation.) A total of 16 units is required.

Students in the Masters of Visual Anthropology (MVA) program at USC pursue an academically rigorous course of study, focusing on Anthropology's applications to the production of visual media and documentary. MVA students learn qualitative research methods, contemporary anthropological theory, and ethnographic film history and theory, while gaining hands-on experience in anthropological media production and non-fiction cinematic practice. 

The MVA is designed as an intensive, full-time program that spans a calendar year, including the summer after course work, during which students complete a 20- to 30-minute thesis film based on original ethnographic research. There is also the option to complete the MVA degree over two years of study, providing students who have work or other obligations more flexibility in undertaking the course work and field research required for the degree.