Master of Planning

Urban planning professionals are trained to lead the search for solutions to problems at many different scales — from a city block or neighborhood to a metropolis or even an entire region. Governance issues in urban areas require deliberating desired futures and balancing spatial impacts on different interest groups. Planners play a central role in this governance. In their work, planners engage with businesses, communities, citizen groups, and elected officials to define, organize, and better understand their physical, natural, and social environments.

SPPD's Master of Planning program provides students with the core knowledge underlying the key forms and applications of planning. Accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board of the American Planning Association, the MPL program's outstanding curriculum and rich institutional and intellectual environment prepares students for a wide range of careers in the field.

The MPL program offers a number of distinct features, including:

• a multi-sector perspective on and approach to planning, emphasizing not only the public sector, but also factoring in private sector development, nonprofit organizations and the needs of citizens who are intended beneficiaries
• a commitment to exploring universal principles and preparing planners to practice anywhere in the world; this training gives the basis for a wide choice of specific careers in the planning field and extends the relevance and value of graduate education over a lifetime
• convenient access to the largest planning job market in the world; USC is located just three miles from the very hub of the region’s planning activity centered in downtown Los Angeles
• instruction from adjunct faculty pulled from the vast pool of professional talent in the region; SPPD students are integrated into the planning profession before they even graduate