Ying Wu and Ming Qu, 23-year-old international graduate students, were murdered April 11 while sitting in a BMW about a mile from campus. The killer has not been caught.
The lawsuit accuses USC of hiding behind the word "urban" in its online application form and not saying the school is in a high-crime residential area.
The suit alleges, "USC is not one of the safest U.S. universities and colleges and does not provide 24-hour law enforcement services in the surrounding neighborhoods and is in a high crime area."
The university said it remains deeply saddened by the deaths but will move to throw the lawsuit out.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
