Founded in 1905, the USC School of Pharmacy is the first and foremost pharmacy school in Southern California. Approximately 50 percent of the pharmacists in the region are graduates of USC. The School has an annual average student body of approximately 743 fulltime students in the Doctor of Pharmacy program, 89 students in Master of Science programs, and 71 in Doctor of Philosophy programs. The School has 72 full-time and 13 part-time faculty and over 430 voluntary clinical faculty.

The School occupies modern facilities on the USC Health Sciences Campus in metropolitan Los Angeles, adjacent to the LAC+USC Medical Center, one of the largest teaching hospitals in the world, where USC health sciences students receive their clinical training. Also, neighboring the USC Health Sciences Campus are the USC University Hospital, USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Doheny Ambulatory Care Center. In addition, the School utilizes many affiliated hospitals, health care clinics, skilled nursing facilities, home health care agencies, pharmaceutical industries and pharmacies in the Southern California region for its clinical and experiential programs.

Recognized as one of the most innovative schools of pharmacy in the nation, the USC School of Pharmacy has served as a model for other progressive pharmacy schools throughout the country. USC was the first to establish the six-year program leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy degree as the first professional degree. USC also initiated, in 1968, the first clinical pharmacy program in the nation, and in 1990 initiated the first program in pharmaceutical economics and policy.

In the USC program, emphasis is given to the application of drug knowledge in patient care. The pharmacist becomes an active and integral member of the patient care team. Patient care experiences begin early and increase both in scope and complexity as the student progresses through the program.