PhD Studies
Become the World’s Expert
Whether you plan to work inside or outside of academia, the world needs more experts with both the specialized knowledge and broad skillset to push the boundaries of what we know and what we can do.
As a PhD candidate you’ll become the expert in your field. Collaborating with outstanding faculty mentors, you’ll learn to contest groupthink, question received knowledge, and defend truth with facts. You’ll lead the future of inquiry and become our guide to the world — and the most interesting person at every party.
Earning a PhD means that you have discovered or created something entirely new. It also means that you have developed a unique and in-demand set of skills: you’re more than an expert in a given field — you’re a highly trained problem-solver.
The Road Less Travelled
Explore PhD programs and specializations, graduate resources, and funding opportunities at USC Dornsife.
PhD Academy
Through the first-of-its-kind PhD Academy, you’ll have the chance to participate in a 5-year curriculum built around practical skills — leadership principles, financial management, public speaking, and communicating your scholarship to the public, and more — which give you a competitive edge in any career path you choose.
PhD Student News
Curiosity at Work
Is it wrong to have too much money? Your answer may depend on deep-seated values – and your country’s economy
People who highly value equality and purity are most likely to see excessive wealth as wrong, suggests a new study led by USC Dornsife PhD candidate.
From lab to conference: How travel awards shape USC chemistry careers
Support from USC Dornsife alumni enables graduate students to attend science conferences and present their research to the broader scientific community.
Breakthrough Research on the Human Gut Microbiome
A molecular biology PhD student helps uncover new insights into the microscopic life that drives human health.
PhD student–led research finds your brain learns from rejection — here’s how it becomes your compass for connection
Rejection can feel physically painful. It also provides a lesson for your brain on whom to connect with and how.
Actor earns philosophy PhD on his way to major movie and television roles
If not for a last-minute Hollywood break, Luka Jones ’13 would probably be a philosophy professor.
Masks affect how kids — and parents — read emotions, a USC PhD’s brain research finds
New research—helmed, in part, by a USC Dornsife doctoral candidate—finds decoding emotions, especially sadness, behind masks requires extra brain power, complicating interactions for stressed parents and children in key stages of social-emotional development.
Two prestigious grants fund PhD research in marine and molecular biology
A diversity supplement grant from the National Institutes of Health and a Gilliam Fellowship — the first to be awarded to USC Dornsife — will advance doctoral student scholarship.
Tortoise research takes PhD candidate to Galapagos
Tortoise research is the life’s mission of USC Dornsife’s Charles Lehnen, a PhD candidate in Integrative and Evolutionary Biology. Lehnen and his team spent a month on Santa Fe Island in the Galapagos to research tortoises, their diets and surrounding ecosystems.
A fascination with history has this alumna digging up roots
A PhD in history from USC Dornsife — and a boost from the Trojan Family — led Christina Copland to a career as a genealogist at Ancestry.com.
From wood fossils to plant-based burgers with an Earth sciences PhD
Hyejung “Hazel” Lee honed her lab skills at USC Dornsife, and now she uses them at Beyond Meats, a maker of meat substitutes.
Relaunched anthropology PhD program trains next generation
The rebooted program has been redesigned for the 21st century, emphasizing topics with socially relevant applications like medical and visual anthropology.
Paleobiologist David Bottjer and PhD student Alison Cribb uncover more evidence behind history’s largest mass extinction
The team discovered ancient clues on the seafloor that show how life bounced back after 90% of species died off.
Life in L.A.
When you come to USC, you come to Los Angeles. Anything and everything is possible here.
Contact Us
Office of Graduate Admission
3551 Trousdale Pkwy., ADM 304
Los Angeles, CA 90089-4012