Contributing to the School’s excellent reputation is its outstanding student body.  USC architecture students are creative, articulate, motivated, and curious. The diversity of their interests and wide-ranging backgrounds enriches the collective educational experience.  Women represent 50% of the student body, while 21% of the students are from under represented groups. Students come from throughout the country (approximately 40% are from other states) and around the world (11% are from abroad).  Each semester the faculty present a range of issues through design studios that challenge students to think about how architecture responds to their own cultural and geographical circumstances as well as those of others.

Quality
More than a quarter of the entering class are USC eligible merit scholars.  Scholars receive substantial scholarship assistance based on their past academic records.    Many undergraduates pursue advanced degrees in a variety of prestigious graduate programs including Masters and Ph.D. programs at Harvard, MIT, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Yale and USC.

Graduate Students
Graduate students pursuing advanced degrees constitute an important and valuable resource for the School.  They represent dozens of countries, bringing unique cultural perspectives and a desire to improve urban conditions through design studies.  Graduate students in most programs have an undergraduate degree in architecture, landscape architecture, or building science.  Many have had years of professional practice experience.

Student Organizations
Students serve on many school committees and actively participate in the direction and development of the School. The School has ten student organizations that are listed below:

Alpha Rho Chi (APX), a professional co-ed architecture fraternity
American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS)
Arquitectur (ARQU)
Asian American Architects and Engineers (AAA/e)
Association of Graduate Architecture Students
Association for Women in Architecture (AWA)
Illuminating Engineers Society (IES)
National Organization of Minority Architects Students (NOMAS)
Student Council (officers elected by the student body)
Tau Sigma Delta Honor Society

The Student Council President, Vice President, and a representative from each design studio attend the regular faculty meetings. This allows the faculty to hear student concerns and viewpoints on a regular basis. In addition, the students elect, as part of the Student Council, a representative to attend meetings of the Executive Committee which oversees policy making, budget, and faculty hiring. Students give their input on curricular matters as members of the Curriculum Committee. Students are also chosen to sit on the board of the Architectural Guild.

The USC chapter of AIAS aims to provide a forum for students to interact outside of the classroom while reinforcing the education they are receiving at the School of Architecture. The chapter includes non-members in their activities to enhance the community of students as a whole. They also have a strong commitment to serving the greater community of which USC is a part. They participate in University sponsored programs as well as their own. "Christmas in April," where students help to rebuild and repair buildings and homes in the area, is one such University-based program.

Forum 2000, the AIAS’ national convention, was held in Los Angeles. The USC chapter of AIAS worked with the other area chapters to plan this exciting event. Architecture students from all over the US came together to share ideas and learn more about their profession as well as the Los Angeles area.

The Community Outreach Program is a joint effort of AIAS and ARQU. Members of these two organizations, with other interested students, visit our local elementary schools and hold architectural workshops. The goal is to expose these students, who are from mostly under represented groups, to the idea of attending college and the possibilities that the field of architecture offers them.

ARQU coordinates a student-mentoring program that connects new students with those in the upper classes. The idea is to build a stronger community within the School of Architecture populace and help incoming students make the transition from high school or community college to university.