University of Southern California (USC) Courses and Fees 2026

• Difficulty level of your course curriculum: Hard, mix of both theoretical and practical
• Positive aspects :  Industry-aligned coursework: Projects like ML Hardware Accelerator and AXI Interconnect Design mirror real-world challenges in semiconductor and computing industries.
• Negative aspects : Course availability: High-demand electives have limited seats

• Full Fee Breakdown
  1. Tuition

  Graduate Engineering Tuition: $2,543 per unit1

  Total Units: 28 units

  Total Tuition: ~$71,204 (28 units × $2,543)

  2. Mandatory Fees

  Per Semester: $873 (includes programming, transportation, and student aid fees)1

  Total for 4 Semesters:$3,492

  3. Health Insurance

  Annual Cost: $6,080 (Fall: $1,063; Spring/Summer: $1,977)1

  4. Housing

  Estimated Annual Cost: $9,600 (off-campus)24 month*800/per
  Housing (2 years): $38,400

  5. Additional Costs

  Personal Expenses: ~$2,700 annually
  Personal Expenses (2 years): $5,400

• Total Estimated Program Cost: ~ $105,376 (including tuition, fees, insurance, housing, and ancillary expenses)159

• Fee Charging Structure
  Tuition: Credit-based/International wire (charged per semester)1
  Mandatory Fees: Semester-wise (fixed per term)1
  Housing/Insurance: off campus, Monthly

The course structure is manageable, you have multiple streams such as product management, business analytics, supply chain along with a blend of management courses which makes you industry ready.

Total fees - $70,000, it requires 28 unit to graduate and per unit rate changes. Currently it is 2424.

I think the coursework can be improved a lot and the required courses should be updated but other than that the Marshall courses are superb in the data science and finance departments.

70k (28 units)

My degree concentration is Machine Learning and Data Science and the coursework is pretty focused on Machine Learning.

Approximately 72000$.

Most of my work falls aligns with PhD students, which allows me to compete with them.

It has good courses of quantum computing where I further choose to do my PhD in. Great exposure of real time environment.

VLSI and Computer Architecture courses are state-of-the-art and well-designed. The variety of courses in the field is broad and there is a lot to learn. In each subject, you will have some really advanced topics to teach about industry-relevant innovations. Course projects are hard and you will need to spend a lot of time to excel in them but you will learn a lot from them. In some courses, professors frequently bring industry people to give guest lectures and also opens up the chance to do industrial project.

For a master's, you will need to study 28 units at USC. And one unit price is $2075. Which is likely to change by $100 a year.

My course was structured from absolute essentials to advanced. The essentials give you a good base to overcome the gaps you may experience from your education in India. My coursework was extremely relevant to the world today. Yes, I received extensive research experience as my coursework itself contains a few "points" for research. You are encouraged to work with a professor on an ongoing or upcoming technology and write a paper on it.

For my curriculum, you are required to complete 28 units. Courses are assigned units based on their popularity and work load and you must "pass" a course to gain those units. When I joined, the cost per unit was $2085. By the time I left, it had risen to about $2175.