An SPPD Education

The USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development offers an education that:

• Combines the liberal arts, professional expertise, and the resources of a great research university to offer students breadth, depth and variety as they follow their interests and design their programs
• Centers on and values the relationships that develop between individual students and individual teachers
• Offers both academic and relevant real-world experiences and draws widely on the expertise of networks of engaged councilors, advisors, alumni, and prominent professionals
• Encourages innovation, entrepreneurship, experimentation, and collaboration
• Fosters a multidisciplinary and problem-solving ethic
• Focuses broadly and inclusively on the issues, constituencies, structures, and institutions engaged in public life—in both governance and the built environment
• Utilizes and engages with the city of Los Angeles and the greater Southern California region as a living laboratory in which to learn and put into practice the lessons of the classroom