USC offers world-class undergraduate and graduate programs in the exciting field of public relations, one of the fastest growing and most rewarding professions in today's information based global economy.
The USC PR sequences have produced thousands of highly skilled practitioners working at the top of the field. Graduates are heavily recruited, with most heading straight from graduation to great jobs.
The professional experience they acquired through top notch internships certainly contributes to their success, as does the enormously powerful USC alumni network.
One of the strengths that distinguishes USC's PR sequences from many other communications programs is that they are practical and "hands on" in nature, designed around the needs of career-minded students and the profession.
While other programs emphasize theory and research that is more academic in nature, ours lean decidedly toward the practical. Public relations is growing at such an explosive pace that the demand for well-trained staff has far outstripped the available supply. This has created tremendous opportunity for graduates of USC's PR programs, who are considered to be among the best prepared, anywhere. Several factors are driving the explosive growth in public relations:
- Organizations of all types have discovered that the relationships they establish and maintain with their key constituencies can have a profound effect on the accomplishment of their business objectives. Public relations plays a key role in this relationship-building function.
- The growth of the global economy has been accompanied by the creation of worldwide communications challenges and opportunities. It is public relations professionals, with training such as that offered by USC, who meet those challenges and capitalize on those opportunities.
- Today's 24/7 news cycle and aggressive media environment have created a demand for professional communicators who can serve as the interfacers between organizations and media of all types. This too is the role of public relations.
New internet-based technologies have revolutionized the field of communications. Today virtually all of us have at our fingertips the capability to distribute information on a global scale. This has made yesterday's public relations skills obsolete and created great demand for cutting-edge training, like that offered at USC.
Graduates of USC's public relations sequences are particularly well equipped to benefit from this growth because:
- Outstanding PR practitioners, serving as full and part-time faculty, provide them with practical, "real world" training. Proving the merits of this approach, USC PR student Sarah Mast won the first-ever "Public Relations Student of the Year Award" from PR Week magazine, vanquishing competitors from around the country and winning national acclaim.
- They learn both the tactical skills (writing, understanding of media, etc.) needed to succeed on a day-to-day basis and the "big picture'" strategic orientation that organizations of all types are seeking to help them deal with today's increasingly complex communications challenges.
- They are able to learn from and join the Los Angeles communications community, one of the largest, most dynamic and fastest growing in the world.
- They become part of the large and influential "Trojan Family" alumni network, which reaches into the highest levels of the worldwide communications industry.
- They are able to participate in USC's fast growing student chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), which enjoys great support from the professional community.
- They gain a clear understanding of how cutting-edge technologies are bringing about dramatic change in the communications profession.
Degree Programs in Public Relations:
Biographies of Public Relations & Journalism Faculty