Hey everyone. Thanks for the replies. My university is a pure engineering college, so we don’t have a common writing sequence comparable to USC’s. I emailed my USC adviser regarding my worries, and she told me that because I’m coming from an out of state 4-year university, the writing requirement would be waived from my application because we don’t have a similar writing sequence. If i were to be admitted, I would just need to complete the writing requirement at USC.
I am applying for econ Major and I am taking econ 1 honors this quarter and taking econ 2 honors spring quarter. At the time of submission I had 23 quarter units completed with a 4.0 gpa. 6 out of 8 GE courses will be done by spring plus all major reqs (59 quarter units will be done by spring). Also have 1 proff recommendation.
For the SAT I emailed the USC admission counselor for my area and even though IL have more than 30, SEM or 45 quarter units by spring she said I should send them. It was a 1780.
Anyone know what my chances of are? do I at least have a good chance of getting a SGR?
@Skepta you might, most sophomore applicants get a sgr
@cassidylynnn funny thing is @zettasyntax had a 3.9gpa with a 4.0gpa spring semester and was admitted for spring lol. So there could be other factors not just stats
@pomeranian4rich yeah I know the essays are important. I spent weeks revising them and think that they’re pretty good. Overall, I think they are better than most essays I have ever written just because this is something that matters so much to me. Another thing they obviously care about is how challenging your classes are. Obviously I am not taking classes that are higher than 200-level classes because at my school, there is a rule that you have to have 60 units completed before registering in any upper division classes–lame; there is a pretty good mix of 100-level and 200-level classes scattered throughout my schedule from the past 3 semesters including this semester. Idk of what kind of rigor the classes were that @zettasyntax took when they applied but maybe that was one of the reasons for spring admission or essays that weren’t as good as they could have been. Of course it is hard to say. Might also depend on how much space is available for the intended major.
@nmwcorvette I’m currently at De anza college ! I am a first year student at de anza and at the time of submitting my app I had 23 quarter units with a 4.00 gpa. IL have 59 quarter units done by spring, and all major reqs plus 6/8 GEs done by spring. I am applying for econ, and am taking econ 1 honors this quarter and will be taking econ 2 honors. Also got 1 professor recommendation.
My SAT was 1780, which I was told to send.
Do you have an idea of what my chances might be?
@Skepta You have a good chance of getting a sgr. and just a side note that usc doesn’t take into consideration if you’re taking honors classes or in a honors program. So if you’re struggling to get an A right now I suggest taking regular classes.
@guitar333 Good stats, but I don’t think there’s a guarantee just with a 4.0 considering there are so many applicants who are going to have 4.0’s applying to Viterbi. After all if you are in Engineering, you’re dealing with a smart pool of applicants. While I hear from this thread that GE’s are so important, I would say that most applies to Marshall and other schools. But for Viterbi, you should focus on the Math, Science and English requirements and fill in the rest of your schedule with Gen Ed’s whenever possible. I’m also a CS applicant who has a 4.0 who finished up to Diff Eqn/Linear Algebra and my Physics. I’ll have about 55 units so I don’t know what year they’ll put me as. Also, expect a Spring Grade request especially since ur a first year. Best of Luck!
Is everyone here taking a mix of 100 and 200 classes? Hope that won’t hurt me, all the 200s on my articulation agreement have non transferable prerequisites lol
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@penntousc My transfer GE requirements are different because I enrolled in Spring of 2015, but for my writing requirement it states:
“All undergraduates at USC are required to take two writing courses: one lower-division and one upper-division course. The upper-division course must be taken at USC. Before being admitted, however, successful transfer applicants will complete a course equivalent to the lower-division requirement, WRIT 130. Usually the second course in an English- language college composition sequence satisfies this requirement.”
Seems like you just need to take the most advanced writing course, rather than two. In my case, I was able to skip the novice class (ENL 105, Intro to College Writing) and start the more advanced class ENL 110, Foundations of Writing. Would I be screwed in this case?
@mkjmkj no you should be fine, I placed above the intro one as well, completed comp 1 last semester and comp 2 this semester, and my comp 2 is equivalent to USC’s WRIT130 on the articulation agreement
@penntousc I’m a bit nervous because my college doesn’t have any comp 1/comp 2 classes. Just intro to college writing and foundations of writing. There’s also Literature I and II, and Advanced Writing. I haven’t taken either of those three, am I in trouble?
@mkjmkj I know Intro to College Writing is a transferable course so I’m guessing maybe your Foundations of Writing fulfills the requirement… If not, they’ll understand that your college doesn’t offer anything else.
@mkjmkj it’s either foundations of writing or advanced writing, but like @et8818 said they might waive the requirement for you if you explain that there’s no clear equivalent
@itslife123 “But for Viterbi, you should focus on the Math, Science and English requirements and fill in the rest of your schedule with Gen Ed’s whenever possible.”
I couldn’t agree with you more- and the truth is, you’re right. If anyone happened to watch the live chat that Viterbi admissions reps hosted recently, they made it abundantly clear…
Take those math courses and do well and them. (You -need- to have credits from a Writing classes, Calc 2 done or in progress, and preferably two semesters worth of lab-based classes. This is straight from the horse’s mouth)
As for the GE’s, technically you don’t have to have even -one- to be admitted to Viterbi. While they help in the long run, not having all of them shouldn’t stop you from applying.
They also stressed that "W"s are something to be avoided and will seriously weigh down your application.
@pomeranian4rich I wish. I basically just stayed at home playing videos games. I was job hunting, but by the time I lined up an interview for the county job I wanted, school had already started =|
@cassidylynnn I know. It doesn’t make sense (to me anyway) to offer spring admission to junior applicants (especially ones that are over the maximum allowed units). I wish they would admit more sophomore applicants as spring admits since I believe they actually have more flexibility. I was considered a sophomore for USC too the first time I applied. I had 60 (or 61) units, so I was a junior by UCLA’s requirements, but not USC’s. I also actually hear that if anybody is randomly selected to move up to fall admission, it’s usually freshmen spring admits.
I don’t think my essays were that weak because I basically used a tweaked version of my admission essay and it landed me a scholarship interview lol. Maybe it could have been class rigor. My spring 2015 schedule wasn’t as demanding as my spring 2014 semester. I was only lacking a foreign language, but other than that, I had all of my GEs completed. I suppose my classes weren’t all that rigorous, but some of them were motivated by me trying for a different major (and I didn’t even get admitted for it, lol).
I took:
-econ (micro)
-archaeology
-cultural anthropology
-spanish II
-art history
@zettasyntax that seems like a pretty normal class schedule. I mean what do they expect us to take, 300-level classes? Yeah right… most 300-level classes don’t transfer over, and what’s the point of taking them if you don’t have to? Lol. Im an econ major coming from a 4 year university and right now my schedule is
-Business and Econ Stats
-Intro to Philosophy
-Calc 1 (already took business calc but it doesn’t have a course equivalent to USC’s business calc so I’m taking this just in case because it actually is a course equivalent on the articulation agreement)
-Spanish 4
-Environmental Biology w/lab
My schedule is definitely way harder than last semester’s schedule. Extremely terrified because it hasn’t even started yet (I start tomorrow–weird).
Hey everyone, I am applying to transfer to USC for my sophomore year from The Ohio State University. I am an art major, and I really want to get into the animation or media studies program in SCA… but I know that’s really hard. I would like to say my portfolio is alright, I have a lot of still figure drawings and realistic but funny drawings along with a final stop motion animation for one of my classes last semester. By the end of this semester I should have around 60 credits and I earned a 4.0 last semester. Also by the end of this semester I will have taken the first and second year writing requirements for Ohio State, art history, and cultural anthropology but I am confused on what other GEs USC wants to see there transfer applicants take. I was also wondering how drastic the drop in merit scholarships for transfers vs. freshman applicants is because I would need a lot of help to afford USC if I got in???
this is a very random question, but on the commonapp where you paste your personal statement, you can’t tab/indent for new paragraphs. when i go to edit it, it shows that there is one blank line in between each paragraph but when I’m done editing there is no break within paragraphs unless I make two blank lines. would you recommend leaving it like that or adding an additional blank line (2) to show a break? i don’t know if the people who read it see it in a different format on their computer