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# Free USC tuition to students with $80K or less family income
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/free-usc-tuition-to-students-with-80k-or-less-family-income/
- Published: 2020-02-21T13:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2024-12-11T23:52:01.000Z
- Description: Free USC tuition to students with $80K or less family income LOS ANGELES (AP) — The University of
- Author: Associated Press
- Tags: college, Education, News, Sports, Free USC tuition, income, Students, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-06 12:37

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The University of Southern California will phase in free tuition for undergraduate students from families with an annual income of $80,000 or less, USC President Carol L. Folt announced Thursday.

As part of the initiative, ownership of a home will not be counted in determining a student's financial need to attend the Los Angeles private college with 20,500 undergraduates, where tuition and living expenses are above $77,000 annually.

*"We're opening the door wider to make a USC education possible for talented students from all walks of life,"* Folt said in a statement.

The changes will be phased in beginning with first-year students entering USC in the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021, USC said.

The university also said it will increase undergraduate financial aid by more than $30 million annually. When fully implemented, the expansion will allow USC to provide stronger financial assistance to more than 4,000 students every year.

An undergraduate's estimated full-time, two-semester tuition for 2019-2020 is $57,256, according to USC's cost and financial aid website.

Adding fees, housing, meals, books, supplies, transportation and miscellaneous costs boosts the total to $77, 459\. For students living with parents or relatives the total estimate is $64,715.

In comparison, the estimated annual average cost for a California resident undergraduate living on campus at the nine public University of California colleges is $36,100\. The cost for a student living off campus averages $33,200.

According to USC, two-thirds of its undergraduates receive financial aid and more than 21% of undergraduates are from low-income families.

In all, USC's undergraduate students each year receive more than $640 million in awards from all sources for tuition and expenses. More than half of the total is from USC grants and scholarships.

*"With this new initiative, we will be even better positioned to recruit students from all backgrounds and strengthen the USC experience for everyone,"* said USC Provost Charles F. Zukoski.

Folt, the former chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, became USC's president last year as the university dealt with a series of major scandals, including the college admissions bribery case.

That scandal followed allegations that the school ignored complaints of widespread sexual misconduct by a longtime campus gynecologist and an investigation into a medical school dean accused of smoking methamphetamine with a woman who overdosed.