对于获得硕士学位的学生，博士学位要求的最低课程学分数为40个单位。在794博士论文中，不得获得超过四个这样的单元。对于未获得硕士学位的学生，课程要求的最低学分为60学分，其中最多8学分的794博士论文。合格的考试委员会可能需要进行其他课程工作，以确保在学生的专业领域有足够的背景知识。学位授予的单位数量中至少有三分之二必须为500级或更高。尽管在南加州大学尝试的所有研究生工作的官方最低GPA为3.0，但除非研究生GPA大大高于最低GPA（在该部门修读的研究生课程中约为3.25或更高），否则本部门不会认为具有
The department offers a degree leading to the PhD in epidemiology. This program may be an extension of the applied biostatistics and epidemiology MS program and is especially aimed at persons with a strong background in medicine: in particular, students enrolled in the MD program of the Keck School of Medicine who wish to interrupt their MD studies after two years to complete a PhD degree. This program is designed to produce an epidemiologist with in-depth statistical skills. The program requires a solid core of courses in methodological aspects of statistics and in statistical thinking as applied to medicine, as well as a solid grounding in epidemiological methods and in certain medical disciplines.