Foreign Student Series #27: University of Southern California

I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report.

Today, in part twenty-seven of our Foreign Student Series, wediscuss the university with the most foreign students in America. Itis in Los Angeles. Any guess which school it is?

It is the University of Southern California.

The Institute of International Education reported in Novemberthat U.S.C. was the leader for a third year. In the last schoolyear, there were more than six thousand foreign students. The numberwas over twenty percent of the student population. ColumbiaUniversity in New York City had the second largest number ofstudents from outside the United States. And the Institute ofInternational Education reported that Purdue University in WestLafayette, Indiana, was third.

Most of the foreign students at the University of SouthernCalifornia have a bachelor's degree. That means they have alreadycompleted four years of college. The foreign students at U.S.C.mostly study engineering and science. The university has studentsthis year from one hundred nations. The largest numbers are fromIndia, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Canada.

The cost for an undergraduate at the University of SouthernCalifornia is about forty-two thousand dollars for one year. Thatincludes classes, housing, food, books and insurance. Graduatestudents pay about forty-four thousand dollars.

Financial aid for an international graduate student is normallyin the form of a job as an assistant in research or teaching.Undergraduates generally cannot receive financial aid from theuniversity.

U.S.C. has offices in Hong Kong, Taipei, Jakarta, Tokyo andMexico City. They hold meetings to help get local studentsinterested in the university. The offices also help parents ofU.S.C. students to communicate with the school.

U.S.C. offers English language training and TOEFL testpreparation classes at its Language Academy.

Internet users can learn more about the University of SouthernCalifornia at usc.edu.

Our Foreign Student Series is online atvoaspecialenglish-dot-com. Since September, we have discussed manydifferent subjects of interest for those who would like to attend anAmerican college or university. Students can also get informationfrom the State Department at educationusa.state.gov.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by NancySteinbach. I'm Gwen Outen.