Advising at Viterbi 


At Viterbi, advising services are a partnership between your academic department advisors, as well as by the Graduate Academic Services and Programs (known as Graduate ASP) office. Academic departments oversee traditional academic advising, which includes advising on your program, requirements, course registration, academic plan etc. Graduate ASP serves as a more general office that can answer more general USC and Viterbi-wide inquiries.


Department Academic Advisors

Department Academic Advisors are specialized units that provide program-specific academic advising on the following topics: 

    • Degree requirements 
    • Graduation timeline
    • Course recommendations/course planning
    • On-campus D-clearances
    • STARS Report updates
    • Change of Major
    • RA/TA Funding
    • Departmental Fellowship 

VGASP Advisors 

Viterbi Graduate Academic Services & Programs (VGASP) is a centralized office that manages and advises on Viterbi-wide policies and procedures such as: 

    • Academic eligibility* for the following processes: 
      1. Curricular Practical Training (CPT)
      2. Optional Practical Training (OPT)
      3. Leave of Absence (LOA)
      4. Academic Difficulty & Medical Reduced Course Load (RCL)
      5. Program Extension (PE)
      6. Progressive Degree Program I-20 (PDP I-20)
    • DEN D-clearances & Petitions 
    • Ph.D. Exam/Defense 
    • Grad School Fellowship
    • MS and Ph.D. Progress Review 
    • General USC and/or Viterbi-wide questions

Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering
Astronautical Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Computer Science / Data Science
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Industrial & Systems Engineering

Academic Department Advisors


Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering
Astronautical Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Computer Science
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Industrial & Systems Engineering


Please note that:

    1. Financial Engineering is housed within the Electrical and Computer Engineering department.
    2. Petroleum Engineering is housed within the Chemical Engineering & Materials Science department.
    3. System Architecting & Engineering is housed within the Astronautical Engineering department.
    4. Green Technologies is housed within Civil and Environmental Engineering. 

VASE Academic Services Advisors

Meet with a Graduate Academic Services Advisor

To ensure you have all your questions answered during your meeting with an advisor, research your questions and set expectations of what you hope to be answered at the end of your appointment.

Our office will be closed on November 28-29 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Our drop-in hours will resume on Monday, December 2, 2025.

Published on August 4th, 2023Last updated on November 27th, 2024