The University of Southern California is a medium-sized private comprehensive national university, founded in 1880, located in downtown Los Angeles, a metropolis in the western United States. It is the oldest private research university in California. As a global metropolis, Los Angeles attracts people from all over the world. The University of Southern California in Los Angeles has become the university with the largest number of international students among American universities.
The University of Southern California will take advantage of the favorable environment in Los Angeles to set up research and agricultural research institutions along the coast of Asia and the Pacific. According to the classification of universities published by Carnegie Education Foundation in 2005, USC was classified as a "research university with very active research activities".