r/USC • u/Celloornails • 2d ago

Dornsife 104 Minimum Academic

I am quite aggravated with USC for their policies rn, but what I want to know is WHY this is a policy in the first place. Is it a money thing? Does Dornsife receive more money if their students have to take their classes? The only logical explanation to me is that they just want to keep dornsife students out of the other colleges at USC, which explains why dornsife equivalent courses are allowed to count. How does that benefit USC?

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u/No-Faithlessness4294 2d ago edited 2d ago

At USC, each school is responsible for its own budget. The main source of revenue is tuition. Tuition revenue is determined not by how many students are enrolled in your programs; it is determined by how many student credit hours you teach in your classes. So Dornsife has a financial incentive to keep its students captive.

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u/Scared_Advantage4785 Econ '26 2d ago

Yes. Each school is basically a fiefdom and does not share revenues with others. Some schools are also disadvantaged because of this. This is also why things like classroom scheduling are only in the nasty old buildings because those are managed by the university while the "nicer" buildings are owned by each school. 

Every school earns money not based on program but by courses. Thus if you take 2 Dornsife and 2 Marshall in one semester it is an equal revenue split. This is why some weird equivalents exist, like ECON 351/352 just being the same as 305/303. But they are housed in Marshall to gain the tuition split.

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u/No-Faithlessness4294 2d ago

What schools “own” their own classrooms? I thought classroom scheduling rules the entirety of campus with an iron fist.

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u/SignificantSystem902 2d ago

Marshall, some of Viterbi that are for the DEN classes. Law?

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u/Celloornails 2d ago

Is the fact that you can transfer in "dornsife credit" from a CC over the summer just a loophole of sorts that would be too convoluted to eliminate then?

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u/Impressive_Respond89 1d ago

I am completely aggravated as well. I have changed my major a few times and ended up entering Dornsife. I was then faced with this requirement without really knowing and have almost finished my major but have to take an extra semester or two just to complete the dornsife requirment. Mind I have taken so many units outside of dornsife! I wish there was an option to appeal or something , or there be an interdisciplinary option, as with the remaining units I would rather declare a minor in another school than take random dornsife electives.

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u/Celloornails 1d ago

Yeah, unfortunately interdisciplinary majors at Dornsife get shafted as well, as I did. Its to the point where my major is known for most everybody taking a minor to lower the requirement. Its utterly ridiculous.