Also, I had 2 letters of recommendation; One from my high school chemistry professor and one from a doctor I shadowed. Given I have never seen them, I would assume they are both strong letters.
@sagaciousforever Since you are an applicant from Pepperdine, I am not sure where you are getting information on TTP. The above statement re SGR and TTP is simply not true. And that stronger applicants hear first. Neither of these statements are true. Many TTPs are accepted without SGRs and just one semester or quarter reported.
Maybe you are confusing USC with the UCs and other schools you applied to? I see you posted this same post below in the UCLA, UCB and USC threads; it does not apply to USC:
Schools operate differently.
@jj1999 - with a 4.0 first semester/quarter report you are unlikely to get an SGR. Your acceptance to USC is as close to guaranteed as one can be.
@blueskies2day I’m still expecting a SGR because my HS GPA was pedestrian and even with a 4.0 and TTP and my pre reqs done, theres a limited body of work since im only a freshman
@blueskies2day what do you think about my daughter’s chances? she dose not have TTP and I posted her stats about 30 minutes ago. Thank you in advance
@blueskies2day we’ll see… But when u look at the discussion from last year, u can see that many highly competitive students got accepted from late march to april. U know that 4.0 is not always highly competitive…
@hkiiim But TTPs aren’t competing with the regular applicants. Yes in regular applicant land, there are plenty of 4.0 and each one is competing. In TTP land, they just need to hit their marks and a 4.0 TTP applicant that took the right classes is in.
@jj1999 @tommy9998 we should meet up since we all go to pcc ?
hi everyone, this is my first time using CC so if I make a mistake in the way I send this or if this is annoying, my apologies. Would someone be able to chance me? I’m super unsure as to where I stand for admissions and I would love some honest, unbiased opinions because I’ve been nervous about this since february
-School: San Diego State
-Grade: Current Sophomore
-Major: Political Science, Pre-Law Track
-TTP: No
-GPA: ~3.6
-Units: ~64 (I’m pretty sure?), all of my lower division GE’s for my major have been completed and I’m currently in all rigorous upper division classes for my major and have all A’s in my major classes with the exception of 2 B’s both in lower division Poli Sci classes
-Member of the Weber Honors College
-Letter of Rec: From my upper division literature professor who I was super close with and did very well in her class
Main Essay Topic (not sure if important but i’ll include anyways): basically about how I am gay, how that correlates to my career path in advocacy law and LGBT rights and how USC will provide the environment both as an institution itself but also it’s location in LA to allow me to succeed in my goals.
-I’ve yet to hear from USC regarding a grade request but I’m unsure if that’s a bad thing?
long story short, on a scale of 1-10 what are your guesses at my chances? I’m feeling a solid 5 for myself but maybe I’m crazy
when does USC send their decisions by?
@blueskies2day I am pretty sure my statement of the sophomore’s SGR is true. If you are a rising sophomore applicant who has a perfect (or nearly perfect) first-semester college GPA and high school stats, you will most likely not to get an SGR. I’ve not heard this from anyone but I’ve checked almost all the accepted students’ stats from Fall 2015 to Fall 2018 spreads.
I provided the wrong information on USC’s email notification, as we will be notified via email one day (or maybe two days? but it will be a short amount of days) after the portal updates. USC mails the letters first, updates the portal, and then sends the email to ensure all applicants see the notification/decisions. So I apologize for getting that wrong! Some UCs send an email before they update their portal status.
I also have no proof for explaining “the stronger you are the earlier you will hear back”. This is simply my conclusion after checking admitted students’ spreads from Fall 2015 to Fall 2018. There is a trend that you will hear back earlier if you are admitted/rejected right away. An SGR will significantly delay the final decision date, so I am not wrong on that.
Just out of curiosity, are you a parent of a successful transfer or a current applicant?
Yesterday, I asked my friend who got in as a junior (last year). He did not complete the first writing at Pepperdine or CC and he got into Marshall. So my admission counselor is right that you can still be admitted without that first writing requirement completed.
@blueskies2day Yes, you are right that the strongest applicants don’t necessarily hear back first. But I believe that the majority of the strongest applicants will hear back first. I think that it takes longer for USC to make a decision only if they are not sure about admitting you or not ( that’s why they send SGR or postpone your decision).
Think out this in a logical way, if USC thinks you are a perfect fit to their community why would they send you SGR? Wouldn’t it be easier for both you and them if they accept you right away? Another reason for SGR is that they want to see more grades from you (it should mean a good thing because at least they are considering you).
Also, I should use “fit” instead of “strong”. One of my friends had a 3.9 from Pepperdine but he heard back in July last year without an SGR. This does not mean he is not strong.
I have checked so many USC transfer spreads from the past few years and inevitably the most competitive applicants hear back first.
This is just my opinion and I am not saying it is right. Other applicants have their own judgments and opinions as well so they do not have to believe me.
I just wanted to say that it’s kind of pointless to ask people to chance you on here. I’m pretty sure no one in this discussion works for the admissions committee and will be deciding if you get in or not. Also there’s so much more than just stats that go into USC’s decision to offer admission to a student or else everyone with a high gpa would be admitted. It sucks but we just have to wait it out
May I have some comments regarding the GPA to get into USC as a transfer?
The class profile shows a 3.46 GPA as the average of transfer applicants and 3.74 as the average of admits (https://admission.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/Transfer-Profile-18_19.pdf).
I don’t see any minimum GPA listed on the USC website for transfers. Is there a minimum?
The American University in Paris states: “Earn a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.4 in USC-transferable courses, with no individual grade below C (2.0). You might notice that the Trojan Transfer Plan typically requires a 3.6 GPA or higher; USC grants a modest dispensation on the GPA expectation given the experiential benefits of living and studying abroad.”
Assuming 3.6 is the minimum for TTP, I would expect non-TTP students to be held to at least a similar minimum.
Given this info, wouldn’t nearly all the applicants below 3.6 be denied? Assuming mean is similar to median, more than half the applicants have no chance for admission? That would take the admit rate from 24% to over 50%. for students with at least 3.6. [The TTP students in Europe only need 3.4, but there were only 100 of them enrolled, so a small number]
Comments are appreciated. Thanks.
^^ key word being “average”.
An “average” profile of 3.46 gpa or 3.74 for admit rate.
If those are actual averages, then the minimum cannot be 3.6 as there have been many students admitted with 4.0+ gpa.
Also, if you read through the stats of those previously admitted, there have been admits with lower gpa’s than 3.6.
I, personally, have never seen or heard of a published “minimum” gpa admission requirement.
As it has been stated throughout this and other threads, USC considers many other factors in determining a student’s admission.
Has anyone else received an application to apply for scholarships?
@maheralsakkaf honestly, you say you’re thinking a solid 5? I’m thinking a solid 8. you show really solid grades. since you’re coming from a 4 year, you’re evaluated a little differently in regards to GPA and all of that. I wouldn’t worry too much. you sound like you have a great chance, but with USC we can never know for sure until you get the package in the mail. how are you on completion of your pre-reqs? you got this! don’t stress! in regards to grade requests, we’ve all been saying the same thing. nobody has heard anything yet so I wouldn’t worry.
@IMHOPING there’s no minimum GPA for USC. they just have a GPA that most of their transfers have who are admitted which is a 3.7. but you do not have to have a 3.7 to get in, it’s just having that may increase your chances a little bit. higher the better.
@vinukh I did! I got an email from SCA a few weeks ago inviting me to apply for their scholarships.
is it only SCA applicants that get the scholarship application?
when i went to a transfer information session at usc, the counselor presenting told me that while a 27% acceptance rate isn’t incredibly high, you also have to think about the overall pool of applicants. This is almost exactly what he told me:
Let’s say that we have an application pool of 100 students. USC /really/ cares about students being able to graduate in 4 years, so they want to make sure that transfers have completed as many GE’s and prereqs as possible. Let’s say that 30 of those applicants will not have completed enough GEs or any of the prereqs because they didn’t care enough to read through the brochure and see what they needed to do. So we kick those applicants out of the running. That brings us down to 70 applicants now. And then a good portion will not have a competitive enough GPA (for our sake, lets say anything below a 3.4 since 3.7 falls exactly between 3.4 and 4.0), and are applying because their parents made them or just for the hell of it. That’s another 30 students we’re taking out of the application pool. That brings us down to 40 applicants. Now 10 of those students were not taking full course loads every semester or had several Ws on their transcript. So we reject those students. That brings us down to the final 30, and almost all of those students will get in.
The point he is trying to make, is that the transfer admission process is so incredibly different from first-years. With first-year applicants, they have more than enough qualified students that would attend and thrive at USC, so they have to be picky. But for transfers, that’s not exactly the case. What they really want to see is that you wanted to go there so badly that you made sure to take the right classes and you worked hard in enough in those classes to maintain a high GPA. Great essays, letters of recs, and/or extracurriculars WILL make you a stronger applicant so that you can protect yourself from one of the very few, unlucky students that barely made the cut, but overall, USC just wants you to do exactly what they ask transfers to do in any transfer brochure.