Blending a strong academic foundation with the cultivation of professional skills, the USC Price School of Public Policy has introduced two new undergraduate degrees this fall — the Bachelor of Science in Public Policy and the Bachelor of Science in Urban Studies and Planning. Both programs will prepare students to successfully pursue graduate study or a career in the public, private and nonprofit sectors.
The Price School now offers three distinct undergraduate program options, with the new degrees replacing the broader Bachelor of Science in Policy, Planning and Development. Last fall, USC Price launched the interdisciplinary and comprehensive Bachelor of Science in Real Estate Development.
“Having three separate degrees gives students a much more distinct career-based focus,” said Professor Marlon Boarnet, chair of the department of urban planning and spatial analysis. “In every one of these areas, students can now deal with some of the uniqueness of their own field.”
Boarnet and Professor LaVonna Lewis, who previously served as director of undergraduate programs, co-chaired a committee that examined ways to improve the undergraduate degree, eventually leading to the proposal and establishment of the two new degrees.
“I think students who are really interested in taking a deep dive into urban issues such as affordable housing, social justice and the environment will love the urban studies degree,” said Carol Rush, associate dean for student affairs at USC Price. “And those who pursue a public policy degree will get a lot of analytical training to get solutions to some of our most pressing problems.”
The new degrees expand on the undergraduate tracks of study offered at Price. For the public policy degree, students will get the practical experience necessary to effectively engage communities and address solutions to large-scale problems in the areas of health policy and management, public policy and law, nonprofit management and advanced policy analysis.
“We’re sharpening the concentrations students can focus on, injecting more quantitative methods and other methods into the curriculum, but then also leveraging more partnerships,” said Professor Antonio Bento, chair of the department of policy analysis and real estate. “We will build on key social sciences, but with an eye on problems in the real world.”
In the urban studies and planning degree, students will get the tools needed to drive real and lasting change in urban environments with a focus on environmental policy and planning, international development, or urban planning.
Taking advantage of Los Angeles’ unique position as a major metropolitan area and economic center, the curriculum for each program incorporates an internship component and concludes with a semester-long capstone project to work with a client on a real-world issue.
“For students who really want to immerse themselves into urban questions, the urban studies and planning degree will give them a chance to focus on debates from economic development to infrastructure to social justice issues,” Boarnet said. “The city is really both the lab and policy setting for this degree, and students will be able to think about these problems in a tangible way.”
Each degree will also feature a required class in social justice, which is integral to the academic focus at USC Price.
“All urban issues are wrapped up with the question of social justice,” Boarnet said. “A lot of programs in the U.S. have some sort of elective class that can explore social justice issues. Having that topic be an elective really is not sufficient for the debates of our time, so I’m glad we can make it part of the core curriculum.”
In addition, the interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum will continue to be a hallmark, amid the Price School’s expansion to three undergraduate degree programs.
“While creating separate degrees, we were cognizant to preserve the interdisciplinary culture we have at Price,” Boarnet said. “I feel confident that we have done a good job building links into each program. The real estate degree has urban design and urban context courses as requirements, the policy degree has social justice, and the urban studies degree has applied economic analysis — all things that are a little unusual, but distinguish these degrees. Students will understand aspects of each degree, while acquiring a deeper mastery in their main area of interest.”