As the financial burdens of higher education weigh ever more heavily upon the shoulders of American families, the University of Southern California (USC) has announced a cost of attendance that nudges the $100,000 mark for the 2025 school year. CBS News Los Angeles notes that USC expects students to pay an estimated $99,139 to cover tuition, housing, books, supplies, food, meal plans, transportation, and personal expenses for the upcoming academic year. Tuition, taking a lion's share of the costs, stands at $73,260 which accounts for approximately 74% of the annual costs.
Despite efforts to reduce costs for those residing with parents or relatives—a situation where the estimated cost of attendance drops to $86,581—the figures starkly contrast with the cheaper average attendance costs of $49,906 for private four-year colleges and $29,000 for public four-year institutions in California for in-state residents, according to CBS News Los Angeles.
Correspondingly, NBC Los Angeles has reported an increase in USC's tuition by over $3,000 for the 2025-2026 academic year—pushing costs higher after it was ranked as the nation's most expensive school by U.S. News and World Report in 2024. Despite more than two-thirds of undergraduate students receiving some financial aid, the university acknowledges the significant investment families must make: "The last thing we want, however, is for cost to prevent a student from enrolling at USC."
Meanwhile, the university argues that financial aid may alleviate some of this financial pressure for eligible families. Educational cost is not solely a matter of economics but also intimately bound to public confidence which, according to a 2023 Gallup survey highlighted by NBC Los Angeles, has plummeted to historic lows with only 36% of Americans maintaining confidence in higher education—a sharp decline from 57% in 2015. And while Democrats and Republicans reportedly divide in their concerns over costs and politics in higher education, respectively, the reality of these price tags remains indisputable.
