The. University of Southern California. (USC), founded in 1880, is located in the heart of downtown L.A. With more than 25,000 employees, USC is the largest private employer in the City of Los Angeles. The university is comprised of twenty-one different schools and academic units that serve more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Since 2009, the university has operated an academic health system known as Keck Medicine of USC, which ...