e has dropped to 20% for the class of 2016, following its adoption of the Common Application. 2012-2013 Undergraduate Estimate of Costs at USC Tuition $43,722 Mandatory fees $741 Room and board* 12,440 Books

 Merit Scholar winners and 7 National Achievement Scholars in the admitted class. USC ranks among the top five schools in the nation in terms of its enrollment of National Merit Scholars.[98] USC's admission rate has dropped to 20% for the class of 2016, following its adoption of the Common Application.
2012-2013 Undergraduate Estimate of Costs at USC Tuition $43,722 Mandatory fees $741 Room and board* 12,440 Books and supplies $1,500 Personal and miscellaneous $900 Transportation $580.00 Total $59,883 + $150 USC Orientation fee for the 1st semester
Faculty and research[edit]



The Eileen L. Norris Cinema Theatre, where the THX sound system was first developed and installed by Tomlinson Holman.[99]
USC employs approximately 3,249 full-time faculty, 1,486 part-time faculty, and about 10,744 staff members.[2] 350 postdoctoral fellows are supported along with over 800 medical residents.[100] Among the USC faculty, 12 have been elected to the National Academy of Science,[101] 35 to the National Academy of Engineering,[101] 13 to the Institute of Medicine,[101] 21 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,[102] 75 to the American Association for the Advancement of Science,[102] 6 to the American Philosophical Society,[102] and 9 to the National Academy of Public Administration.[102] 29 USC faculty are listed as among the "Highly Cited" in the Institute for Scientific Information database.[103] George Olah won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Chemistry[104] and was the founding director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. Leonard Adleman won the Turing Award in 2003.[105] Arieh Warshel won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry [106]
In fiscal year 2007 USC expended $415.2 million on research, and major funding came from federal agencies: the Department of Health and Human Services granted $182.4 million, Department of Defense $45.7 million, and National Science Foundation $41.8 million.[107] Total foundation and association sponsorship totaled $43.1 million, corporate research $30.6 million, and local government funding totaled $28.1 million.[107]
The university also supports the Pacific Council on International Policy through joint programming, leadership collaboration, and facilitated connections among students, faculty, and Pacific Council members.[108]
The university has two National Science Foundation–funded

9,187 8,566 8,715

Admitted   
9,187
8,566
8,715
 % Admitted   
19.9
23.0
22.8
Enrollment   
3,021
2,931
2,972
2,869
Average GPA   
3.70
3.72
3.70
3.70
Average SAT
(out of 2400)   
2070
2075
2060
*SAT from middle 50% of entering class
37,210 students applied for admission to the undergraduate class of 2015, with 8,566 being admitted (23%) and 2,931 enrolling (34% yield). Among admitted students, the interquartile range for SAT composite scores was 2020-2240[96] and the average unweighted GPA was 3.80, while among enrolled freshmen, the SAT range was 1970-2180 and the average GPA was 3.72.[97] 20 percent of admitted and attending students are SCions, or students with familial ties to USC, while 14 percent are the first generation in their family to attend any form of college. There were also 247 National

rsity's video game design programs are interdisciplinary, involving the Interactive Media Division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the GamePipe program in the Department of Computer Science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.[84] The Institute of Higher E

. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
The Princeton Review ranked USC video game design program as 1st out of 150 schools in North America.[83] The university's video game design programs are interdisciplinary, involving the Interactive Media Division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the GamePipe program in the Department of Computer Science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.[84]
The Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked USC's combined departments of engineering and computer sciences as 11th in the world, physical sciences 52nd, social sciences 35th, life sciences 51st, clinical medicine and pharmacy 47th.[85] USC is also among top 10 dream colleges in the United States. Princeton Review's "College Hopes & Worries" 2010 survey reports USC as the 9th dream college for both students and parents separately.[86]
Student body[edit]

Ethnic composition of student body[87]
Undergraduate    Graduate &
Professional    U.S. Census[88]
Caucasian    47.0%    31.9%    73.9%
Black    5.8%    4.2%    12.1%
Asian    21.0%    20.2%    4.3%
Hispanic    13.6%    8.1%    14.5%
Native American    0.8%    0.4%    0.9%
International    9.1%    24.7%    (N/A)
USC has a total enrollment of 36,896 students, of which 17,380 are at the undergraduate and 19,516 at the graduate and professional levels.[30] The male-female ratio at USC is nearly 1:1. 31.2% of incoming students are drawn from the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, 20.9% from other areas in California, 39.5% from the rest of the United States, and 8.4% from abroad.[89] USC's student body encompasses 7,115 international students, more than any other university in the United States[90] and the university maintains offices in several countries.[b] There are approximately 200,000 living Trojan Alumni.[91]
Admissions[edit]
First-Time Freshman Profile[92][93][94][95]
2012    2011    2010    2009
Freshman Applicants    46,104    37,210    35,794    35,753