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Admission Decision Timeline for Transfer Applicants

Admission decisions or a request for more information, such as spring-term grades, will be posted by May 31. If spring grades are requested, a decision may not be available until mid-July.

Admission letters and certificates will be mailed following the release of admission decisions online.

Student-Led & Self-Guided Tours

Student-Led Tours

Student-led tours are hosted by current USC undergraduate students who provide a general overview of the university. Please come prepared for all types of weather conditions and bring a water bottle to stay hydrated.

Student-led tours are offered Monday through Friday and last between 75 and 90 minutes. All tours are subject to change or cancellation—updates will be provided promptly by email.

Prospective undergraduate students are invited to reserve a student-led or self-guided tour. Review our tour schedule .

Self-Guided Tours

Self-guided tours are available daily during our campus entrance hours . Please plan your visit for these hours. It is not necessary to check in with the Admission Center.

Immersive Online Tour

Can’t make it to campus, or simply want to familiarize yourself with campus before visiting in person? We encourage you to explore our immersive online tour!

Accessibility

Tour guests needing mobility and/or auditory accommodations as outlined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) should email [email protected] or call (213) 740-6605 at least five business days before their scheduled tour.

The registration calendar will provide specific dates and times for tour options.

Information Sessions

If you plan to spend your day on campus, consider adding an admission information session and/or an academic department session to your schedule. Admission sessions are available before most tours. Department sessions vary.

These tours are for individual student and/or family groups. School group and community-based organization tours are available as part of our Group Tours .

View Calendar to register.

Group Tours

Group tours are offered by the Admission Center for K-8, high school, community college and community-based organizations. Requests must be submitted by a teacher, counselor and/or administrator at one of these organizations.

Select the appropriate website for your specific grade range to request or make a reservation for a tour of the University of Southern California.

• USC Group Tours:   High schools, community colleges and community-based organizations with 12th-grade and older students can reserve a date from the Group Tours calendar .
• USC Tommy’s Tours : K-8 grade schools and organizations should review the request and reservation information from this  Tommy’s Tours calendar .
• If you are an individual student and/or family group, please sign up for an  on-campus tour .

Tour Policies and Guidelines

Health and safety measures.

COVID-19 Symptoms and Testing

All students, faculty, staff and visitors should monitor themselves for symptoms daily when accessing campus. If you develop any of the symptoms listed by the CDC related to COVID-19 or other transmissible illnesses, please stay home and arrange to have a COVID-19 test as soon as possible.

Minors Policy

Guests 12 and younger must be accompanied by an adult to participate in a campus tour. Guests 13-17 years of age will be required to receive consent from a parent or legal guardian as part of their reservation if they are attending a tour program without an adult.

Please plan your arrival to campus accordingly. Guests who do not arrive in time for the tour departure will be provided a self-guided tour brochure.

The USC Admission Center employs undergraduate students as tour guides. Therefore, the academic department of your interest will be better equipped to connect you with a current graduate student in the same school or department. However, you are also welcome to sign up for virtual programs hosted by the Office of Graduate Admission.

See our Group Tours section for details and reservation information.

USC does not track demonstrated interest. Your chances of admission will not increase by signing up for more tours or informational sessions.

Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts prevent us from securing tour guides with specific majors. All USC tour guides can speak generally about USC’s more than 150 undergraduate majors.

There are no reservations required to visit the University Park Campus at USC. However, reservations are required to access guided and self-guided tours. All campus visitors must adhere to the university’s health and safety protocols.

Formal tours at USC are free of charge, but we do require prior registration to manage the volume of visitors to campus.

Please know that USC and the Admission Center are taking precautions to mitigate COVID-19 exposure. We thank you for adhering to our health and safety measures, and washing your hands or using sanitizer.

By registering for a tour, you are acknowledging that despite precautions taken, the university cannot prevent visitors from becoming exposed to, contracting, or spreading COVID-19 or any other illness, and we assume no responsibility if you do, including medical services necessitated by any such exposure.

Proof of vaccinations or negative COVID-19 tests are not required at this time. We expect all guests to self-monitor any symptoms.

Beginning March 7, 2022, masking is no longer required indoors in most locations on USC campuses. This includes classrooms, labs, offices, libraries, recreational facilities, dining facilities, and athletic facilities. Masking may also be required in certain circumstances, such as in the event of an outbreak on campus.

The USC Admission Center is not arranging private tours. Viewing the Immersive Online Tour is your best option.

We recommend you view the Immersive Online Tour and become familiar with the campus map .

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EXPLORATION OF ARCHITECTURE

“Exploration of Architecture” is an immersive program that engages you with architecture thinking and the design process. This program will challenge you to connect more deeply with the built world by providing opportunities to experience and create meaningful places through dynamic learning methods. You will imagine and draw, as well as discover, examine, and analyze architecturally impactful places and buildings. You will gain insights into the profession through talks, conversations, and interviews with leading architects and scholars. The goal of the program is to stimulate you to pursue further education as architects, designers, and scholars who are leaders in your community and beyond.

PROGRAM DATES June 16 – July 13, 2024

PREREQUISITES None

DAILY SCHEDULE & ACTIVITIES MONDAY – FRIDAY 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Classes in session 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Lunch 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Classes in session

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• Conversations with leading architects and scholars
• Specific guidance to create a compelling portfolio advantageous to the college admissions process
• Instruction to develop valuable drawing and modeling skills, both analog and digital
• Visits to architecturally and culturally significant places
• Close interaction with USC School of Architecture faculty members, practicing architects and current USC students

Topic of Study Core architectural skills:

• Heightened 3D spatial awareness and understanding
• Fundamentals of design and composition
• Improved vocabulary of basic ordering principles
• Fundamental sketching, drawing, and photography skills
• Fundamentals of digital software, both 2D and 3D
• Broadened understanding of design methods and tools

Important Considerations for Success This rigorous program is most suitable for students who are independent workers and highly self-motivated.

Read more about the Exploration of Architecture course and see more pictures on the USC School of Architecture website.

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Please know that we do not use demonstrated interest in our application reviews. Whether or not you are able to visit campus, it will not impact your future or current applications to USC.

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The USC School of Architecture project will soon be providing shade to visitors at Joshua Tree National Park. (Photo/Douglas Noble)

The long road from USC architecture project to Joshua Tree National Park

USC School of Architecture faculty and students design and build an iconic public pavilion for Joshua Tree visitors.

When visitors go to Joshua Tree National Park , the idea is to be captivated by the natural beauty of the landscape. Their attention should probably not be drawn to any sort of human-made structure.

That goes against everything Douglas Noble wants as an architect — but as a lover of the national parks , he understands completely.

So, when he and his team of over 100 students and faculty members at the USC School of Architecture began working on project for the park, they all knew it was not meant to be a main attraction.

Now, after three years and countless hours of work, the project has gone from a concept to an award-winning design that will soon be providing shade to park visitors as a permanent installation.

“The National Park Service doesn’t like to collect spectacular attention-grabbing architecture. They want the architecture to be the best there is, but you came here to see the park,” said Noble, an associate professor of architecture.

“We wanted it to look like it belongs in Joshua Tree, but we still don’t want people going, ‘Oh, let’s go over there and see that building.’”

USC architects inspired by Joshua Tree and California colors

The project, called the Joshua Tree Carapace Pavilion, started as a concept for a standard double-restroom building. As Noble explained it, the carapace — a hard, protective shell — pulled inspiration from the colors and landscape of the park. The design structure was inspired by a cholla cactus skeleton and measures 42 feet long, with 12 feet of overhang on each end.

The design was cast into several large, 2-inch-thick pieces made of ultra-high-performance concrete that does not require any metal rebar. Due to the carapace’s location on a fault line, Noble said the material had to be extra strong: Most concrete can take 4,000 to 6,000 pounds per square inch, but this concrete tested up to 25,000 PSI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgLd7FJFlOM

The completed prototype will serve as a shade structure for the nearly 3 million people who visit Joshua Tree annually. Originally intended to be in a more remote part of the park, the carapace will now be in a more high-traffic area, and for quite some time.

“We promised them 100 years; I bet they get more,” he said.

USC architecture students create enduring landmark in a national park

Graduate student Victoria Dam said she was drawn to the project because of the hands-on experience and a chance to work on something that will have a lasting presence at Joshua Tree.

“Doug said that this is a project you can work on as a student, and show your kids in the future,” Dam said.

Of course, the pandemic presented challenges. Because of USC policy at the time, students could not go to the off-campus site where the carapace was being built; Dam was one of those students. Some former students — like Ivan Wong, who graduated with his Bachelor of Architecture in spring 2020 — were still able to work on the project as volunteers.

Wong, who is now back at USC earning his master’s at the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy, said he was working part-time and volunteering to help with the carapace project last summer after he graduated to see the project through.

Nothing like this has ever been done on so many different levels. Ivan Wong

“Nothing like this has ever been done on so many different levels, from how it’s manufactured to how it was cast, how it’s connected and how it stands up,” Wong said.

“From the first panel, our attitude was like, ‘Even if everything else fails, we will have this one panel to show for it,’ and then we had the next panel, and then we had the walls. And now it’s waiting in the yard to be shipped, and I’m just really excited for this final step actually moving it in.”

The carapace should be installed sometime between December and the end of March, toward the end of the park’s busiest season.

The extra wait time doesn’t really seem to bother anyone, since the entire project was originally only supposed to take 4½ months.

Award-winning USC architecture design

It also doesn’t hurt that the project was recognized by the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in a design competition. Of 140 entries — most professional projects — a mere 19 were honored.

As nice as it is to receive the award, the best part of the whole experience hasn’t even come yet. That will be years from now, when team members return to Joshua Tree and can say they worked on a piece of a national park.

“This is a life-bonding thing that we did,” Noble said. “They’ll come back to reunions in 40 years and people will say, ‘You’re the group that did that,’ and they can proudly say, ‘Yeah, that’s us.’”

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