Graduate Program

Grow Towards Independence

The Department of Chemistry at the University of Southern California is continuously training approximately 175 Ph.D. students in the various areas and disciplines of modern chemistry. For an overview of program requirements and expectations, view the Graduate School Path or read full details in the Graduate Student Handbook. You can apply to our program by following the instructions provided on our Graduate Admission page. The Department distributes a number of Graduate Student Awards every year, and graduate students are involved in several Organizations.

The Graduate Student Handbook provides full details of the requirements and departmental policies for students in the Department of Chemistry. Click here to download the latest version.
Our support package for graduate students is one of the most competitive in the nation. The starting stipend is currently $35,700 per year for all students, plus several tiers of fellowships ($3,000 – $5,000) that are available for outstanding applicants. There are no tuition charges, and students receive both health and dental insurance coverage. The stipend is covered through either teaching assistantships (TAs) that supervise laboratory work, grade papers, and proctor exams, or research assistantships (RAs) that are funded by grants or by fellowships that allow students to pursue their doctoral research projects conducted with the student’s research mentor. See also:

Alfred E. Mann Innovation in Chemistry Doctoral Fellowship – to support chemistry doctoral students conducting innovative interdisciplinary research relevant to medicine and health care.
USC graduate student housing, located adjacent to campus near the USC Village, is available at the Hillview apartments. We require all international students to sign up for Hillview. If there is additional space, we invite domestic students to reside at the USC Hillview apartments as well. Students who apply for Hillview apartments are required to live there for one full academic year. Our department reserves “Two-Bedroom” spaces for ~$1,300/month per resident, enabling first-year graduate students to meet each other and form strong friendships. For more information regarding Hillview please visit their website.
As a university campus in an urban center, USC is committed to providing students with a safe educational environment. The USC Department of Public Safety is one of the largest campus safety departments in the US, which deploys public safety officers on campus on in the surrounding community. Additionally, USC provides other safety tools, including the Campus Cruiser that transports students between buildings on campus or to their local residences. Because of USC’s location in downtown Los Angeles, many students may be surprised to learn that the statistics for safety, as collected by the U.S. Department of Education, show that student-related violent crime at USC is lower than at UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UC San Diego.