University of Southern California Admission & Financial Aid

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Letters, Arts and Sciences (USC College)

USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences combines the intimacy of a liberal arts school - —enabling close faculty-student working relationships - —with the breadth of a major research institution where internationally known scholars develop influential new ideas and inventions, and engage in ground-breaking research.

Departments within USC College are listed below, with post-baccalaureate degree programs offered. Click on each link to access the department’s graduate program information. Please note that some graduate degree programs in USC College are Ph.D.-track only.

American Studies and Ethnicity

  • Ph.D.

Anthropology

  • Ph.D., Social Anthropology
  • Ph.D., Biological Anthropology (with a special emphasis on primatology)
  • Certificate, Visual Anthropology (interdisciplinary program, with training in digital video production provided by the USC School of Cinema-Television; admission after completing Ph.D. qualifying exams)

Art History

  • Ph.D.
  • Certificate in the History of Collecting and Display (open to doctoral students in Art History as well as to qualified graduate students in other USC departments)

Biological Sciences

  • Ph.D., Integrative and Evolutionary Biology
  • Ph.D., Marine Environmental Biology
  • Ph.D., Molecular and Computational Biology
  • Ph.D., Neurosciences

Chemistry

  • Ph.D.

Classics

  • M.A., Greek
  • M.A., Latin
  • M.A., Classics
  • Ph.D., Classics (Greek and Latin)

Comparative Literature

  • Ph.D.

Creative Writing and Literature

Earth Sciences

  • M.S.
  • Ph.D.

East Asian Languages and Cultures

  • M.A. (with concentration in East Asian Linguistics or East Asian Literary and Cultural Studies)
  • Ph.D. East Asian Languages and Cultures

East Asian Studies Center

  • M.A., East Asian Area Studies
  • M.A./M.B.A. (joint program, with the USC Marshall School of Business, for students whose primary interest is in the social sciences, law and business, within the context of East Asia)
  • See also East Asian Area Studies.

Economics

  • M.A., Economics
  • M.A., Economic Developmental Planning
  • M.S., Mathematical Finance
  • Dual Master of Arts in Economics and Juris Doctor (joint program with USC Law School)
  • Dual Master of Arts in Economics and Master of Planning (joint program with the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development)
  • Doctor of Philosophy in Economics
  • Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy (joint program with the USC School of Pharmacy)
  • Doctor of Philosophy in Political Economy and Public Policy (joint program with the Department of Political Science and the School of International Relations in USC College)

English

Environmental Studies

  • M.A., Environmental Studies (interdisciplinary program spanning the social and natural sciences)
  • M.S., Environmental Risk Assessment

French

  • Ph.D.

Gender Studies

  • Graduate Certificate (student must first be admitted to a USC graduate or professional school)

Geography

  • Ph.D.
  • Graduate Certificate in GIS (geographic information science)
  • Sustainable Cities Certificate (open to USC students pursuing Ph.D. programs in many disciplines)

Geological Sciences

  • See Earth Sciences

German

  • No graduate programs currently offered.

History

  • Ph.D. (26 fields of concentration, from Ancient and Medieval to Women and Gender)

International Relations

  • M.A., Public Diplomacy (joint program—the first of its kind anywhere in the world—of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the School of International Relations in USC College)
  • B.A./M.A., International Relations (5-year accelerated program)
  • Master of Arts and Juris Doctor (joint program with USC Gould Law School)
  • Master of Arts in International Relations and Public Administration (M.A./M.P.A.; joint program with the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development)
  • Master of Arts in International Relations and Planning (M.A./M.PL.; joint program with the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development)
  • Ph.D., Politics and International Relations

Italian

  • No graduate programs currently offered.

Japanese

Kinesiology

  • Ph.D., Integrative and Evolutionary Biology (interdisciplinary program that targets emerging areas at the interface of genomics, evolution and physiology)

Korean

Liberal Studies

  • MLS (Master of Liberal Studies)

Linguistics

  • M.S., Computational Linguistics (joint program with Computer Science department)
  • Ph.D. (emphasis in Hispanic or Slavic Linguistics)

Mathematics

  • M.A, Mathematics
  • M.A., Applied Mathematics
  • M.S., Applied Mathematics
  • M.S., Statistics
  • M.S., Mathematical Finance
  • M.S., Computational Molecular Biology
  • Ph.D., Mathematics
  • Ph.D., Applied Mathematics.

Marine Environmental Biology

  • Ph.D., Biological Sciences, with emphasis in marine biology (administered through the Department of Biological Sciences in USC College)

Molecular and Computational Biology

  • Ph.D. (administered through the Department of Biological Sciences)

Neuroscience

  • Ph.D. (several areas of specialization available, including cellular and molecular neuroscience, with a new focus on neurogenetics; behavioral and systems neuroscience; cognitive neuroscience; computational neuroscience and neural engineering; and the neuroscience of aging)

Philosophy

  • M.A.
  • Juris Doctor/Master of Arts in Philosophy (joint program with USC Law School)
  • Ph.D.

Physics

  • M.S., Physics
  • M.A., Physics
  • Master of Science in Physics for Business Applications
  • Ph.D.

Political Science

  • Ph.D., Politics and International Relations (joint program of the Department of Political Science and the School of International Relations)

Portuguese

  • No graduate programs currently offered.
  • For graduate studies in Latin American and Spanish literatures, see Comparative Literature.
  • For Spanish linguistics, see Linguistics.

Professional Writing

  • MPW (Master of Professional Writing)

Psychology

  • Ph.D.

Religion

  • No graduate programs currently offered.

Slavic Languages and Literatures

  • M.A.
  • Ph.D., Linguistics with specialization in Slavic Languages (see Linguistics)
  • Certificate in Foreign Language Teaching (for future language teachers concurrently enrolled in USC graduate degree programs in foreign languages or related subjects)

Sociology

  • Ph.D.

Spanish and Portuguese

  • No graduate programs currently offered.
  • For graduate studies in Latin American and Spanish Literatures, see Comparative Literature.
  • For Spanish Linguistics, see Linguistics.

Graduate Study

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