University of Southern California

The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal[a]) is a private research university in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in California. For the 2019–20 academic year, there were 20,500 students enrolled in four-year undergraduate programs, and 28,000 graduate and professional students in a number of programs, including business, law, film, engineering, occupational therapy, pharmacy, and medicine.USC is the largest private employer in the city of Los Angeles and generates $8 billion in economic impact on Los Angeles and California

USC was one of the earliest nodes on ARPANET and is the birthplace of the Domain Name System.Other technologies invented at USC include DNA computing, dynamic programming, image compression, VoIP, and antivirus software.

USC's alumni include a total of 11 Rhodes Scholars and 12 Marshall Scholars. As of October 2018, nine Nobel laureates, six MacArthur Fellows, and one Turing Award winner have been affiliated with the university. As of May 2018, USC has conferred degrees upon 29 alumni who became billionaires. USC has graduated more alumni who have gone on to win an Academy Award than any other institution in the world by a significant margin, in part due to the success of the School of Cinematic Arts.

USC sponsors a variety of intercollegiate sports and competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a member of the Pac-12 Conference. Members of USC's sports teams, the Trojans, have won 107 NCAA team championships, ranking them third in the United States, and 409 NCAA individual championships, ranking them second in the United States. Trojan athletes have won 309 medals at the Olympic Games (144 golds, 93 silvers and 72 bronzes), more than any other university in the United States. In 1969, it joined the Association of American Universities. USC has had a total of 521 football players drafted to the National Football League, the second-highest number of drafted players in the country