I’m applying to USC as a transfer and long story short its gonna be a long semester. I’m taking 5 courses (engineering double major) and honestly only see myself getting one A this semester. Even the language course I took is gonna be tough for me, I don’t know why I strayed from the Romance languages!!
I am more involved in clubs and groups and volunteering and I’m doing an engineering project all of which I was not involved in when I got rejected originally. I’m also taking more “rigorous” courses and besides the language they’re all on the engineering track.
So my question:
let’s say I get below a 3.5… like a 3.2 or something, are my chances of getting into USC shot? Do they really look at you holistically?
Also if you look at my other desperate questions you’ll see I’m moving to California in January so I’m 99% sure I’ll end up going to community college there (because if not USC I’ll go to a state school in california)
So bonus question does coming from a california CC boost chances vs coming from other schools?
I’m desperate here.
GPA is no. 1. Unlike high school, your EC is not worth much as a transfer student. The average GPA for transfers for Fall 2018 was 3.74. Below a 3.5 GPA would be a tough climb. Concentrate on you grades, not activities. Same for a top tier UC (UCLA; UCB; UCSD from a CA cc.
^^^ True dat, both posts. GPA and taking correct classes is almost everything. Less holistic for transfers, aside from demographics that are what they are anyway. Read everything USC puts out on transferring, the info (Transfer Guide, etc) they make available is very thorough.
Another vote in the high GPA bucket here. USC can be more holistic than say UCLA where pretty much any CS student that doesn’t have a 3.9+ GPA is certain to be rejected. However, this is pretty rare and even more so for Viterbi majors. I’ve seen cases where people that are considerably below the 3.7 GPA have been admitted, but they are typically non-traditional students and/or have other unique qualities - and it’s usually not a Viterbi applicant.
Our daughter was accepted to MSB at USC as a transfer student last year for junior year with a 3.91 GPA. She did not end up attending, as she also was admitted to 2 other highly ranked schools. Definitely seemed that her GPA was the single biggest factor in her acceptance.