USC Tuition and Financial Aid

This guide is designed to answer one question for you: How are you going to afford University of Southern California?

You probably know that planning for expenses is an important part of the college application process. What you may not know is how many different things you need to keep track of to pay tuition and apply for financial aid.

Here's what we'll cover:

• How much does USC tuition cost?
• How much financial aid do students at USC usually get?
• How much debt is typical for students at USC?
• How much will USC cost YOU, and can you actually afford it?
• Is USC a good value for you?
• What are other schools that might be a better value than USC?

By learning more about expenses and aid, you’re already on the right path to managing college costs. Let’s get started!

School location: Los Angeles, CA

This school is also known as: University of Southern California

How Much Does USC Cost?

Knowing what a school costs is Step #1 in managing college costs. There’s more to think about than just the tuition—you also have to factor in where you'll live, what you'll eat, and more while attending University of Southern California.

The "Cost of Attendance" is the total amount of money the average student has to pay, WITHOUT any financial aid, to attend a particular school. Think of it as a school’s sticker price. It includes not just USC tuition and fees, but also room, board, textbooks, and personal expenses.

Here’s the Cost of Attendance breakdown for USC:

How Much Financial Aid Do Students at USC Get?

The Cost of Attendance listed above might be intimidating. The good news is that most students don’t end up paying that full price to attend USC. Financial aid helps make up the difference between the Cost of Attendance and what families can actually afford.

Here we'll cover how many students get USC financial aid, what types of aid they get, and how much.

A Brief Intro to Financial Aid

Aid comes in many forms, including:

• Need-based grants
• Merit-based scholarships
• Student loans

This financial aid comes from a few different places:

• Federal aid comes from the federal government, or is subsidized by the federal government.
• Institutional aid comes from your school itself.

Generally, it’s better for MORE students to receive HIGH amounts of financial aid—this means students pay less for college.

Let’s take a look at how USC compares to other schools.

Overall Aid

Let's start with the overall numbers. At USC, we know that:

67% of Students Get ANY Aid

This is 25% LOWER than the average for Private not-for-profit schools, which is 92%.

This could be bad news - fewer students getting aid could mean students are paying more at USC than they would at other similar schools. It could also mean students attending USC are wealthier and need less aid.

To break this apart, we'll next look at each type of aid and how much students get from each.

Grants and Scholarships

We’re focusing on grants and scholarships first because they’re the most important forms of financial aid. Grants and scholarships are better than loans because students don’t ever have to pay them back. The more grant/scholarship aid students receive at a particular school, the better off those students are in the long run.

At University of Southern California, we know that:

59% Get ANY Grant Money

This is 30% LOWER than the average for Private not-for-profit schools, which is 89%.

Although it’s useful to know how many students get grant aid, it’s also important to know how much grant aid people tend to receive. The bigger the average grant award, the better.

So how much grant money do students at USC tend to receive?

Average Grant Award: $29928

This is $13440 HIGHER than the average for Private not-for-profit schools, which is $16488.

Altogether, this is mixed news - at USC, FEWER students get aid, but the ones who do get MORE than average. If you qualify for aid, this can work out well, since you'll get a sizable award. But it might be harder for you to qualify for USC financial aid.

How Generous is USC’s Financial Aid?

The grant dollar amounts we’ve seen so far have included aid from all sources - both federal and institutional. Schools don’t have much control over how much federal aid students can qualify for (like Pell Grants), but they do their own financial aid dollars and how they’re used.

To figure out how strong USC’s own financial aid program is, we’ll look at how they award their own (non-federal) financial aid dollars. The more students receive aid directly from the school (otherwise known as institutional aid), and the bigger the award amounts, the better the financial aid program.

Let’s see how generous University of Southern California is with its students:

59% Get ANY School Grants

This is 23% LOWER than the average for Private not-for-profit schools, which is 82%.

Because USC gives a smaller percentage of its students institutional grants than similar schools, it may offer less competitive financial aid.

Some schools may claim to offer large amounts of aid to prospective students without advertising that much of this money may come in the form of student loans - money that you have to pay back. To figure out if this is the case, check out our following section on student loan debt at USC.

The amount of money that students actually get is just as important (if not more important) than the percent of students who get grants. If you receive a grant, you’ll want it to be big enough to do you some good.

Average School Grant: $26764

This is $12965 HIGHER than the average for Private not-for-profit schools, which is $13799.

Right away, it seems like University of Southern California offers more institutional aid than other schools. On the surface, this can mean that students who do receive institutional grants get a competitive amount, compared to other schools.

On the other hand, this can also mean that the school just costs more than the typical school of its type. If USC costs more, it makes sense for the average grant award to be higher.

Up to this point, we've looked entirely at grants for USC. Next, we'll do the same analysis for student loans, which is where student debt comes from.

How Much Debt is Typical for Students at USC?

Aside from grants, the other major way to pay for college is with student loans. Student loans aren’t free sums of money - you borrow a certain amount to attend USC, and then pay it back with smaller monthly payments after you graduate.

The more student loan money you borrow, the more debt you’ll end up with after graduation. Ideally, you want to minimize your student debt as much as possible. Less debt means less of a financial burden once you leave school.

It’s generally a bad sign if a school has many students taking out a lot of loans. This indicates that graduates have to worry about paying back big sums of money once they leave school.

To address the amount and type of debt that students take on, this section will cover:

• Loan Overview
• Federal Loans
• Other Loans

Let’s see what students at USC have to deal with:

Loan Overview

First, let’s talk about how many students at USC actually have to take out any student loans at all. The ideal goal is to graduate with little to no debt.

It’s very common for college grads in the US to graduate with some debt, but high percentages of students taking on loans at a particular school is a big red flag. In contrast, low percentages of students with loans is a sign that USC tuition is affordable.

So how many students actually end up taking out loans at USC?

34% Have ANY Loans

This is 32% lower than the average for Private not-for-profit schools, which is 66%.

It’s a good sign that lower numbers of students take out loans at USC. It doesn’t necessarily mean that students end up with lower amounts of debt - we’ll get to that question very shortly - but it suggests that USC is more affordable for the average student.

Next, we'll look at exactly HOW much debt the average person takes out while in school.

Federal Loans

Now that you have a handle on the basic loan information for USC, we’ll get into some more nitty-gritty information on the types and amounts of loans that students typically have.

We’ll start with federal loans because, in general, federal loans are preferable to private loans. Federal loans tend to have low interest rates, which means they cost less in the long run. They may come with other perks (like subsidization or even options for loan forgiveness).

High percentages or amounts of federal loans still isn’t a great sign - again, you don’t want to see students burdened with too much debt. Generally, schools with strong financial aid programs will have students with more federal loans than private loans.

Let’s see how USC stacks up:

34% Have Federal Loans

At University of Southern California, 34% of all students take out federal loans. This is 31% LOWER than the average percent of students for Private not-for-profit schools, which is 65%.

Average Federal Loan: $5942

At USC, the average annual federal loan amount is $5942. This amount is $135 LESS than the average for Private not-for-profit schools, which is $6077.

Other Private Loans

Other loans, or private loans, are the last resource students turn to when paying for college. They’re the least preferable form of financial aid because they have higher interest rates and cost students the most money in the long run.

Generally, the fewer students who take private loans, and the lower the amount of the loan, the more affordable USC is.

Let’s take a look at the percentage of students at USC with non-federal loans:

2% Have Private Loans

At University of Southern California, 2% of students take out private loans. This is 7% LOWER than the average for Private not-for-profit schools, which is 9%

Just as important as the percentage of students with private loans is the average loan amount. The smaller the average loan amount, the better:

Average Private Loan: $22691

The average private loan amount at USC is $22691. This is $11247 HIGHER than the average for Private not-for-profit schools, which is $11444.

The percentage of students getting federal loans is greater than those getting private loans, which is a good sign. This means lower-interest federal loans are usually enough to pay for USC.

What Would It Cost YOU to Attend USC?

Finally, we get to the bottom line: what will USC actually cost YOU? Every family has a different situation, and depending on your income level, you'll have to pay more or less to go to college.

What is Net Price, and Why Does it Matter?

Above, we've covered USC's Cost of Attendance (tuition, room and board, books, and more). We also covered its typical financial aid in grants, loans, and scholarships.

The Net Price is the total cost minus the total aid given. In other words, this is the price you have to pay to the school out of pocket. The lower the school's cost, and the more aid you get, the lower the Net Price.

We'll cover two ways to get your Net Price for USC - the fast way, and the precise way.

Net Price: The Quick and Easy Way

If you want a quick, general idea of your annual Net Price at USC, here's a handy chart showing the net price of real students. All you need is your family income.

If your family makes between...	Your Net Price will likely be around...
$0 - $30,000	$16403
$30,001 - $48,000	$17253
$48,001 - $75,000	$22464
$75,001 - $110,000	$32484
$110,000 and up	$46606

Note that these values may be a few years old, and today's prices may be a bit higher.

As we'll discuss next, your exact Net Price will depend on other factors like the number of family members and total assets, but this represents the typical Net Price.

Net Price: The Most Accurate Method

Most schools have an updated Net Price calculator available. To find it, just google "USC Net Price Calculator" - the official tool should be one of the top search results.

Often the school will ask for more information than just income:

• The number of people in your household
• The number of family members in college
• Parental wages, income, and assets
• Student wages, income, and assets

This will take 10-15 minutes to complete, and you'll get a specific net price that's more accurate than the table above.

Can You Afford to Attend USC?

Once you have a Net Price estimate, you’ll want to figure out whether your family can afford to pay USC tuition and costs. Once again, the Net Price is the total cost of attending, minus the aid you can expect to get (grants and scholarships). It's the amount you'd have to cover yourself.

The US government has come up with a standardized way to calculate how much a typical family can afford to pay without help. They call this the Expected Family Contribution, or EFC.

As an example, a family that brings home $80,000 in income before taxes, with no assets and no other children in college, has an EFC of around $7,000. This is the amount the government thinks that family can reasonably pay, and the school will have to step in and cover the rest.

Colleges use this number as a guideline to decide how much aid to give you, but it's just a guideline. Some schools will be stingier with aid, and you'll have to pay more than the government's suggested EFC.

So we're going to calculate your EFC and compare it to USC's Net Price. If the Net Price is higher than the EFC, the school will cost more than you can typically afford. It's a simple equation:

Net Price - Expected Family Contribution = Deficit (extra cost you would need to cover)

We've constructed a simple tool to figure out whether USC is affordable for you:

Affordability Calculator

Finally: Is This Price Really Worth It?

Chances are, college won't be cheap. Even if you have a few top choice schools in mind like USC, it's still useful to explore broadly.

A few questions to ponder:

• How much better off will you be if you attend USC as opposed to a similar, but cheaper, school?
• Have you considered a range of private and public schools? Big and small?
• What if you didn't attend college at all? (This is extreme, but just worth considering even for a second.

These are the big picture questions to consider when we talk about the value of a college education.

Here's our take: college will be a really important stage in your development. Going to a better, more reputable college will usually pay off in the long run. By going to a better college, you'll be surrounded by a more interesting community, find it easier to land a job, and open up opportunities.

To determine the value of USC, we're going to rely on reputable ranking lists. These consider factors like reputation, student selectivity, income after graduating, and more to determine the value of a school.

Value Judgment

So how does USC stack up?

What Other Schools Should You Consider?

Your next step should be to get a better idea of costs and aid availability at similar schools. If you’re interested in USC, you should check out some other high-value schools that could give you more bang for your buck. Get started here to check both in-state and out-of-state schools that might provide a better value.

Better Value Schools

Finally, we're going to look at schools that might offer a better value than University of Southern California. To compile this list, we first find schools at similar academic levels, so you have a similar chance at getting in. Then we select schools that better value for you, by being more affordable or having a higher quality of education