What Students Say
Likes
- Alumni Connections
- The manner in which professors teach
- The structure of the assignments to learn efficiently
Dislikes
- The traveling one has to do till the campus to go there is usually a good amount
- The competition for each of the positions that are open is a lot
- Connecting with other people is a little bit difficult, it's not as easy as other colleges
Course Curriculum
10
- It depends on the courses you take, some are theoretical and some are practical. The theoretical ones are difficult if they are like algorithms but otherwise you should do fine. The practical ones are like web technologies and it is very fun to do that if you are one that is interested in learning a lot about technologies and be at the top of the game and be industry ready.
- The difficulty level of the course curriculum is very high, it is very competitive out here, you have to be very good since you will be competing with 1600 other students in just one class and you will only get a good gpa if you are the best of the best literally because of its relative grading gpa.
- There are quite a lot of Indian students at USC in each and every field so there would usually not be much of a problem with connecting to them and making friends.
- The teaching methodology is the absolute best of the professors out here, they focus on a students ' learning methods than anything else.
Admission Experience
- Applied to Northwestern University (rejected), University of Southern California (accepted), Northeastern University (accepted), and Carnegie Mellon University (rejected).
- Rejected because the competition in these universities is a little bit more when it comes to applications, maybe the SOP wasn't as tailored as the professor who reviewed it wanted.
- Chose the University of Southern California based on alumni connections, job opportunities, rank of this university. The seniors whom I spoke to also suggested that the professors teach a lot better compared to other university professors.
- Submitted SOP, resume and LORs in order to complete the application and from then you just have to wait for their email of acceptance.
- Admission criteria include: Min GPA of 3.9/4, GRE above 320, IELTS above 8
- I applied for the fall intake but got the admission for the spring intake but was happy to take it more because spring intakes get a really good chance to work on themselves and show something to the companies for their internship chances for the summer of the following year. This is what you should do too if you get the chance for that but you have to make sure that in the first semester you score a good GPA.
Campus Life
10
- 2 campuses and the two are one is university park campus and the other one is Health science campus.
- Library, sports facilities and medical services and a pool are all the facilities that are available at the campuses to provide convenience to the students.
- There are multiple clubs such as viterbi student graduate association and 100 types of different clubs you can get to know as soon as you get admission, you can check on the portal.
Part Time Jobs
- Teaching assistant is no longer provided to masters student you have to be a phd student in order to get that, Research assistantship can be acquired but it is equally difficult for anyone to get it as one has to constantly lookout for it and reach out to the professor and have a good rapport with him and get a 4 gpa each semester.
- Pay range is 20-25$ per hour
- You can work for 20 hours maximum per week. It is quite easy to get on-campus jobs.
- Most people prefer working in the RTCC which is a canteen where multiple restaurants are there, they can work in library as a technical staff member and multiple such options are available, you can have a whole list as soon as you join USC, they have a dedicated page for this, it doesn't make sense for me to list each one over here, so it is better for you to go to that page and see.
Placement
2
- The market is pretty bad, full time job roles are really difficult to obtain, you have to do a lot of networking and create a lot of connection in able to get a good job and despite the 4 gpa you cannot guarantee that you are going to get an internship secured also, so you cannot just bet on the job.
- It is better if you have experience in the field from your home country before having come here because the companies here look for experienced individuals.
Accommodation
Off Campus
10
- Off campus is the best type of accommodation you can go for, cause not only is it cheaper than on campus but you also get to meet a lot of students in your vicinity and you can connect based on the location you are at.
- Moreover if you are on campus you are automatically enrolled within the food program which only mainly consists of non-vegetarian food so if you want flexibility it would be better if you chose off-campus housing. Average rent is $650-$800.
Exams
- GRE, IELTS/TOEFL is all that will be required for admission here at USC, make sure that you score a decent amount of score that is higher than the general average to get in here as USC only takes candidates that have an above average performance so in the GRE it should be above a 320 score and in the IELTS it should be above 8 and if you give TOEFL instead it should be above a 100 at least.
Fees
- Tuition fee is 21000$ per semester. Credit based fees structure, where a person is only able to take a maximum of 8 credits per semester, so its 2625$ per credit.
- Transportation is free around here in USC, as USC provides a free Lyft program after 6pm till 6am.
- Rent is averaged around 650-800$ per sharing room and about 1000-1400$ per private room, though it heavily still depends on the location one is living in.
Scholarship
- No scholarship is provided by USC to international students. USC never provides scholarships for international students; it's a written rule and they will not go against it no matter how good a candidate you are.
- If you are a person who is already a citizen, residing in the United states of America then you have a good chance to get a scholarship, where a scholarship can go till fully funding your tuition fees through the 2 years of masters too.
