USC is the fourth most expensive university in the nation, according to a Princeton Review survey.
The total cost of attending USC stands at over $103,000 for the 2026-27 academic year, including tuition, housing, books, transportation and fees, a Washington Post analysis found.
Out of the top 20 most expensive universities, USC’s need-based scholarships and grants average just over $50,000 per person, the fourth lowest amount of need-based scholarship and grant money provided to students on average.
The overall cost of attendance, or sticker price, for USC went up by 4% since last year, marching over the six-figure cusp.
“It’s a game to a lot of people,” said graduate student Jose Guillen as he sat in the waiting room of the USC financial aid office. “Especially to those that are trying to price a lot of individuals out of higher education.”
USC did not respond to three emails requesting an interview. They also did not answer written questions about plans to increase the pool of need-based scholarship money or minimize the sticker shock in the future.
Students view location as an important factor when it comes to the overall cost of attendance. The most expensive university in the nation is Harvey Mudd College, located in Claremont, about 40 miles east of USC. California is the third most expensive state in the country, according to Missouri Economic Research & Information Center (MERIC) data.
USC data shows that this year, it costs about $13,500 to live on campus, and $13,000 off campus. Guillen sees the cost of living at USC as unique: “I believe that USC is an interesting situation because it’s surrounded by a community that might not necessarily be at the same standard of living as the students.”
Junior Economics major Crystal Rivera is from East Los Angeles and views the location of USC as much more expensive than other areas of the city, calling it “a bubble of inflated prices.”
While Harvey Mudd stands at the top of the list with the highest overall cost of attendance, their average sticker cost when subtracting their average grant amount is just over $39,000. USC’s is almost $53,000.
USC students attribute this to a number of factors.
“There’s just so many people and not enough money,” said freshman music student Zerxes Dabhoiwala Marolia. USC has about 21,000 undergraduate students.
Guillen thinks the lack of aid is for other reasons. “USC has a global attraction, and they feel like they can market that,” said Guillen. “Because of that, they might have this misled belief that [students] are able to pay for that out of pocket. To me, it might be a little ignorant to believe that.”
Rivera said USC is focused on investing in students who they believe will donate to the university in the future to keep up with rising Los Angeles costs.
“They risk running a loss,” she said. “When you have to pay more, because everything’s getting expensive here, you’re less likely or less able to pay for students who need scholarships. You’re less willing to because the university still has to fund itself.”
According to The Post’s reporting, the costs of higher education will only increase in the coming years. A report from the Education Data Initiative showed that college enrollment is down 7.6 percent from peak enrollment in 2010, and projections show this number as dropping even more.
“It’s a completely different landscape,” said Guillen. “Looking back at how the prices have changed, the way that [loans] have been financially distributed this semester and going forward, it’s definitely a barrier that’s been increasing.”
Edited by Andriana Yatsyshyn and Lindsay Augustine