AP Credit: California Community College to USC

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
1

I’m in my second semester of my senior year and am really close to graduating. I’ll be attending Palomar College in the fall for (hopefully) one year, after which I plan to transfer to USC as a sophomore (they allow transfers as long as you have completed 30 credits). Obviously USC is extremely competitive, so I do have several back up plans, but this question is focusing on plan A.

By the time I graduate, I will have completed six AP courses; AP Physics I, Biology, Government, Literature and Composition, Calculus AB, and Psychology. I got a 2 the Physics exam my junior year, though, so I know it won’t count for college credit. If I pass all of my exams this May, even though I’m not confident I’ll be passing that calc exam, I will have 13 transferable credits to Palomar College, which is great because my current course plan has me taking 30-34 credits over two semesters.

My question is: Palomar accepts credit for a score of 3 or higher, and I already know which courses I need to take to transfer to USC, but if those course requirements are met by AP classes, will USC accept them when I transfer? Or will I have to retake those classes, regardless of if I passed the exams, while at Palomar to meet the requirements? Because if I can, I’d be saving $600 in classes alone, not including the books I’d need for them.

2

I would post this question on link below because there are a lot of helpful transfer posters on that transfer thread. You are being smart to ask this question, because USC takes much less AP wise (pretty much just 4 and 5s) than say the UCs (who accept a lot of 3s) and I am not sure if the ones you then take at Palomar will transfer. If they do at all, it may just be elective credit versus applying the credit to a major, and at some point, you just have enough/too much elective credit and you still have to take other courses to meet your grad requirements for your major. Will leave it to the experts here:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/1903737-2017-2018-usc-transfer-p1.html

Also, don’t hesitate to call admissions and ask that question (select transfer applicant at the prompt) - not sure how helpful they are on general questions like this and it is a crazy busy time there - but it never hurts to try.

3

Look up the AP credit chart for your target 4 year schools, since they are likely to treat your AP credit by their own rules, not the rules of your prior college.