@scarletred an admissions counselor told me there is one (as stated in post)
@hopefultiffany I think maybe that is specific to CS. Only info I see about placement exams for EE is for upper division courses that are crosslisted with CS.
Here are the placement exam requirements by major for transfer students:
https://orientation.usc.edu/transfer/summer/pre-orientation/#/2
Exams must be completed prior to Orientation.
according to that link there is no CS placement exam
also
“The Mathematics Placement Exam is intended for students who have not taken any college mathematics and want to take mathematics at USC”
Haven’t we all taken college mathematics?
They are referring to taking math at a college not AP classes. Some don’t have math in college cause of AP credit. For reference, my S in CS started in Calc III as freshman at USC based on placement exam and having taken AP BC Calc and Multivariable in hs.
i took calc 1 and im currently taking calc 2. will i have to take a placement exam?
Since were transfer students for engineering I just assumed everyone has taken a math class and they can just assign us a placement based on that
@jnunez32 I imagine this is the case unless for some reason your math credits won’t transfer over or you haven’t taken a math in college.
Yeah, I don’t think that information is relevant unless you haven’t completed your prereqs. e.g., i’ve taken calc 1-3, diff.EQ, discrete math, and complex analysis, but they’re going to have me take a placement test to see if I should be placed in calc 1 or precalc? lol obvi not true, especially since i’ll have met all math requirements for my major if i get in as a transfer (using the website to see how they previously awarded transfer credit to people from my university)
@scarletred I think the placement test is there for your benefit. From what I understand, the admissions lady told me was about the challenge exam where, “CS students have to take once they’re here on campus to determine where they’ll start in the CS coursework. If you pass the challenge exam there’s a higher chance, you’ll be able to complete the coursework faster. But, unfortunately, the exam is only given once you’re here so even if you were to take a bunch of transferable coursework prior to transfer – we’d still have this unknown (the challenge exam results) hanging over us”
Do we take the placement exam online or will we take it during our orientation?
expecting at least a few of us to hear back this week
Can u atleast link to a “CS placement exam”
@FutureGenius69, here’s what USC says regarding when to take placement exams:
“It is strongly recommended that you complete the online Math Placement Exam via the Pre-Orientation Checklist. If necessary, you may take a paper-and-pencil version of the Math Placement Exam on campus. Visit the USC Testing Services website for more information.”
They also recommend this for the chemistry placement exam. The Testing Services web page says online placement tests must be completed 10 days prior to orientation. I’m not sure what the requirement is if you opt for a written test.
@jnunez32 - There is not a CS placement exam, but per the USC transfer orientation website, CS majors that are new to USC are required to complete the math and chemistry placement exams, “regardless of previous coursework or standardized exam scores”.
@jnunez32 what do you mean at least? That’s all the info I know about placement tests.
On the website it says: The Mathematics Placement Exam is intended for students who have not taken any college mathematics and want to take mathematics at USC.
A math placement exam is required for all engineering majors, and for many on-engineering majors.
https://orientation.usc.edu/transfer/summer/pre-orientation/#/2
I don’t really think there’s any avoiding the math placement exam. Besides, if you’ve taken these courses before, you should easily be able to handle the exam 
The same goes for majors that require a foreign language (not that it applies to you guys). I may have taken foreign language at the college level, but I still had to take the placement exam in order to take foreign language at USC.
@zettasyntax this is dumb though what exactly is the point? If someone has As in all math classes up until differential equations and get placed into calc2 then this is just another USC cash grab bc ull have to take classes u already took before
@jnunez32 I understand where they’re coming from, in a sense. I don’t know how it works for math, but for the language placement exam there are options. Let’s say you’ve taken Spanish I and Spanish II in community college, but the placement exam says you still belong in Spanish II. You could still petition to enroll in Spanish III on the condition that you accept whatever grade you ultimately earn. I had such a student in my Spanish III course. If you’ve taken up to differential equations, you shouldn’t epically bomb the math exam. I had taken up to Spanish II and the placement exam correctly placed me into Spanish III. I think the placement exams serve their purpose.