Hi, I currently attend the University of Wisconsin as a Freshman. I am an international student from Canada. I have only completed one semester of study but due to unforeseen family circumstances (Grandparents are extremely sick) I need to move to Los Angeles next year. I have well over 30 transferable credits since I took many AP exams ( 5 on AP micro, macro, human geography, world history, Chinese culture and 3 on AP English literature). I will also have sophmore standing at UW Madison. I assume this means I do not need to submit my standardized test scores (I have a 31 ACT got it the first time I took it and never retook) and they won’t look too thoroughly at my high school grades (they aren’t very good)? I’m guessing that I will have a 3.25 GPA for the first semester of my freshman year, but I took some very hard courses like Math 221 and comp sci (a semi weeder class) and some humanities courses. I think I did well on all my courses (three AB’s) except for comp sci where I was out of my depth and finished with a BC. With this in mind how likely do you think I could transfer to USC for economics? I am only part of one student org that mostly seeks to adapt international students to US life, and I don’t really know any instructors from the uni who can write recommendations but I have a good friend who graduated USC who can vouch for me as well as some high school teachers. I know my GPA is low compared to others but my courses were tough and I only have a semester in uni and didn’t really acclimate very quickly. I also already attend a similar level school. Thanks, any input is appreciated!
USC has a transfer acceptance rate of 29% and avg gpa of 3.7 for transfers. Over half are from cali community colleges with only around 25% being from schools outside cali. I think they will still look at your high school grades and gpa heavily since you have technically only completed one semester of college work, regardless of whether or not you have a sophomore standing. When looking at your college transcript, they will only see like 4 grades, so your high school stats will still play a major role.
Best of luck