Frequently Asked Questions
Operations Focus: Deals with planning and scheduling production activities, developing quality assurance procedures, designing facilities, and improving production systems. You learn to define problems in operations, identify causes, and develop solutions. Can be applied to all sectors of the economy.
Information Systems Focus: Deals with design and use of software tools (databases) that store information vital to business activities. Example: Amazon.com customer records and recommendation systems. Prepares you to work as liaison between business managers and software development engineers. You learn to identify business processes that rely on access to information, and to determine requirements for computer systems that store and retrieve the information. You will learn to build small information systems yourself. For larger systems, you will act as the customer representative to the software engineers.
If a course has a "D" designated after the 5-digit class number (such as 35100D), departmental clearance ("D-clearance") is required prior to registration. Students must request D-clearance for such courses through the online queue system. When a seat becomes available in a D-designated class, the student at the top of the queue is automatically notified through the student's USC email that D-clearance has been granted, allowing for that student to register using Web Registration. It is then the student's responsibility to go on Web Registration to schedule and register the cleared course. Detailed D-clearance instructions (PDF)
D-clearance queuing system website: https://myviterbi.usc.edu
Undergraduate students will receive a Degree Deficiency Summary Report by email from the advisor. Students should compare the information on the Deficiency Summary Report with a current STARS report. Both of these reports are available on OASIS.
Graduate students will submit a completed Application for graduation AFTER you register for your final semester but BEFORE the deadline to register and add or drop a course. The department will send an email each semester with the deadline. Check the current schedule of classes for exact dates. https://viterbigrad.usc.edu/academic-services/graduation-checklist/
Published on March 27th, 2017
Last updated on February 17th, 2022