<p>USC’s academic courses are nearly all 4 units. USC’s standard tuition includes up to 18 units per semester. Students typically take four 4-unit academic courses per semester for 16 units, and they have 2 “extra” units for courses of interest - of which USC has many.</p>
<p>Varying universities generally have varying course numbering systems and unit allotments - did you assume that all 3,000+ universities in the US were obliged to follow Berkeley’s system? Another variance: Berkeley gives AP credit for scores of 3 and above while USC has a higher standard in that they only grant credit for scores of 4 and 5.</p>
<p>There are many differences between the two universities. Students, such as my daughter, who were accepted to both need to look carefully at all of the features that pertain to their studies - for her neither German nor Persian languages were a consideration, for example. Berkeley would have been “easier,” in that she would have received a year and a half of direct course credit for her AP courses (USC will only allow up to 1 year, or 32 units, of AP credit), but USC had Thematic Option, which allowed her to take challenging GE courses in classes of 9 to 24 students instead of the larger classes she would have encountered at Berkeley. She had many other reasons for choosing USC and I would be happy to list more if you are interested.</p>
<p>Did you have further questions about course credit allotments I can answer for you?</p>