Hi I’m a bit confused about the USC major system. I imagine it is standard for Universities like this, but I am used to small liberal art colleges, and was hoping someone could help explain the process.
1.) Are majors declared in admission binding? As in, if I apply to Dornslife, can I still get a minor in Roski school of art and design?
2.) If I have to apply to Roski after being accepted, do I have to have a portfolio ready before arriving on campus?
3.) Can I take classes in other schools (like Roski or Annenberg) without going through the application process each time?
ANy help would be greatly appreciated
Majors are NEVER binding at USC. Changing majors is the beautifully easy thing and great thing about USC. You are admitted to a major, unless admitted undeclared. In many cases it is a simple visit to your advisor to change majors with just a signature on the advisors ipad.
However, having said all that - majors within art, performing art schools and engineering etc., have strict criteria to get in, so you can’t go into Dornsife as a history major, then just swing into the School of Cinematic Arts or Engineering, etc., you would have to get approval and check certain boxes.
Yes, you can take classes in other schools. So yes, for example, a Computational Linguitics major in Dornsife can take Screenwriting. Just have to watch the requirements of each class and some may be harder to get into and priority given to majors if they are “the cool” class of that major. Minors are a breeze - you can minor in almost anything in any school.
Just a side note, while easy to change majors, the idea of applicants playing the major game on their application generally backfires - meaning those that try to apply to an “easier” major then change when they get there - it is pretty obvious when an application doesn’t fit what the person is applying to. The passion or interest won’t be there.
CADREAMIN covered everything nicely 
Here’s just a bit of my personal experience to add some more info.
I knew a guy that started out as an engineering major, but he switched to history during his sophomore year. Just because you’re admitted to one school doesn’t mean you are stuck there forever There was a girl in my CSCI 201 class that was minoring in dance, so yes, you can pretty much take up any minor regardless of the school that houses it. A CS major minoring in dance is one of the more unique combos I’ve heard - which is probably why USC did a story on this girl 
It was called “Pirouettes and Programming” or something like that. And as was also stated above, while it easy to take up any minor, the same can’t be said of majors. I personally have not met any student that was admitted outside of Kaufman become a dance major later on in their academic career.