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