Majors & Minors

This minor provides students with an overview of the field of real estate development - its principles, the urban context and history, finance, as well as the opportunity to select an elective. The minor requires 20 units, including four core courses and 4 units of electives. The minor is intended for any student with an interest in a career in real estate.

The Bachelor of Science degree program in Real Estate Finance and Development leverages the resources of two world-class institutions into a challenging, coherent real estate curriculum targeting the most highly motivated students.

Combining the Marshall School of Business's strengths in financial valuation and capital markets and the Sol Price School of Public Policy's tradition of excellence in development and urban land use, this degree offers rigorous foundational courses taught by elite research faculty. In addition, it offers a number of experiential-learning classes, which emphasize real-world opportunities in securities trading, real estate development, and valuation.

Students interested in the program enter the program as freshmen.

The degree cannot also be combined as an additional major in either accounting or business administration. The degree is administered by the Marshall School of Business.

This degree requires at least 128 units including USC's General Education Requirements.

The minor in real estate finance is available to all students except business administration, accounting, and real estate development majors. It provides students with training in the areas of business, finance, real estate law, design, and urban economics. It provides an opportunity for students to gain thorough exposure to the topics of real estate investing, finance and development. Upon successful completion of this minor, students will have achieved a basic understanding of the interplay of the various disciplines involved in contemporary real estate ownership and investment and how they impact the areas of the student's specific interests and expertise.

Those completing this minor will master techniques in valuing income-producing properties, analyze financial instruments such as mortgages and loans, understand the roles of debt and equity, gain insights into the processes of design and construction, as well as understand the dynamics of how real estate markets affect the underlying values of real property assets, as well as the role real estate markets play in the overall economy.

To enroll, students must have completed a minimum of 32 units of college-level course work and attained a minimum overall GPA of at least 2.75.

Successful completion of this minor requires 20 units including a minimum of 16 upper-division units in the minor and a cumulative GPA of 2.0 for the 20 units.

The department major requires REL 301 Introduction to the Study of Religion (preferably taken at the beginning of the student's major courses) and REL 401 Seminar in Religious Studies. Further, students must take six additional courses from the list below. The total unit requirement for the major is 32 units (at least 24 units must be upper-division).

Students taking the religion minor must enroll in REL 301 Introduction to the Study of Religion. In addition, they must complete four additional religion courses, at least three of which must be upper-division courses.

The total unit requirement for the minor is 20 units; 16 of those units must be upper-division.

Students who wish to focus their minor in Jewish studies must minor in Judaic Studies.

To resist genocide effectively, we need to understand its history — the factors that have brought it about and those that have enabled people to prevent, resist or recuperate from mass violence. This interdisciplinary minor draws upon USC faculty in a dozen academic units researching the causes, results and representations of attempted genocide as well as resistance to genocidal mass violence. Courses include attention to different definitions of genocide, its occurrence around the world and its representation in literature and the arts.

Course Requirements

The minor requires five courses (20 units); at least four must be at the upper-division level. As with all minors, students must choose at least four courses (16 units) outside their major department and four courses (16 units) that are not being used to satisfy any other subject requirement.

The minor in Risk Management provides students with the fundamental knowledge of risk management - a crucial component of contemporary management, corporate governance and decision making under uncertain conditions.

The required courses provide the foundation of the risk management framework and present alternative business models of insurance, the most common form of risk transfer. The electives provide opportunities to more deeply understand facets of risk and the environments in which they arise as well as specific methodologies of mitigation.

Industries currently seeking risk management professionals include entertainment, tech, aviation, hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, insurance and many others.

A student declaring the minor in Risk Management also has the opportunity to participate in the Risk Management Mentorship Program and be paired with a mentor from the risk management industry for the academic year. 

The minor is available to students in all schools and departments except for students pursuing the Business Administration (Risk Management) (BS) emphasis.

To declare this minor, students must have completed a minimum of 32 units of college-level course work and have a minimum overall GPA of 2.75.

Successful completion of the Risk Management Minor requires 16 units with a minimum GPA of 2.0 in the following courses:

Lower-division requirements for the major (RUSS 120, RUSS 150, RUSS 220 and choice of RUSS 250 or RUSS 255) plus three elective courses chosen from the following (at least two of the areas must be represented): Russian language (RUSS 310, RUSS 340); Russian literature and culture taught in Russian (SLL 321, RUSS 465); Russian literature, art and culture taught in translation (SLL 110g, SLL 330gp, SLL 344g, SLL 345g, SLL 348g, SLL 378); and translation (MDA 305).

Minimum units required: 28