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University of Southern California (USC), Southern California's oldest private research university, is located in the urban center of Los Angeles, California.
Founded in 1880 by three wealthy Los Angeles residents as a Methodist University, it has grown to international prominence. The university has attracted more international students over the years than any other American university. Currently, 16 percent of USC's students represent over 115 countries, with a present total enrollment of about 30,000 students. The university offers degrees through its College of Letters, Arts,and Sciences, Graduate School and 16 professional schools. The staff includes novelist T.C. Boyle, and Nobel Laureate George Olah. USC was named "College of the Year 2000" by the editors of Time magazine and the Princeton Review for its outstanding community service. Roughly half of the university's students volunteer in community-service programs in neighborhoods around campus and throughout Los Angeles.
Besides its main campus ("University Park Campus", about 2 miles southwest of downtown LA), the university includes the Health Sciences Campus about 2 miles northeast of downtown and the Information Sciences Institute in Marina del Rey. The School of Public Policy and Development runs a satellite campus in Sacramento, California. Another satellite campus in Washington, D.C. was closed down in 2002.
The school is best known for its professional schools in law, film, medicine, business and journalism. The j-school is among the best in the nation, but it has adopted a fairly grueling convergence core curriculum that requires students to devote themselves equally to print, broadcast and online media for the first year of study. While this approach promises a breadth of knowledge across various journalistic media, many students resent being compelled to devote so much time and energy to disciplines they aren't interested in pursuing. On the other hand, USC's Annenberg School of Journalism has a massive endowment, and the school is generous with promising students.
On March 2, 2004, the USC School of Engineering, headed by Dean Max Nikeas, was renamed to the Viterbi School of Engineering. This was done to honor Qualcomm founder Andrew Viterbi and his wife Erna, who had recently donated $52 million to the school. According to the USC website, this gift was "the largest ever to rename an existing school of engineering."
The school's sports teams are called the Trojans. Their traditional rival is UCLA. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A and in the Pacific Ten Conference. There have been more Trojans in the Olympics than any other American university. The USC football team is the 2003-4 co-champion of Division 1-A, along with Louisiana State University. The head coach of the football team is Pete Carroll. The USC Alumni Association has over 200,000 current members. Famous alumni include former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, astronaut Neil Armstrong, architect Frank Gehry, opera singer Marilyn Horne, symphony conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, film directors George Lucas and Robert Zemeckis, football running back\notorious popular icon O.J. Simpson and baseball legend Mark McGwire.
USC is also known for its marching band, which calls itself "The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe". This band performed in the 1932 and 1984 summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, along with countless performances in movies, television shows, and performing with other famous musicians. Most recently, the band produced an instrumental version of the popular song "Hit That" by The Offspring (whose lead singer is a USC alum), and it appeared with Outkast at the 2004 Grammy Awards in their hit song "Hey Ya!".
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