<p>While under the Writing Supplement tab in the USC common app, I saw that there were many checkmarked tabs that said things like "9th Grade Mathematics Courses", "9th grade natural science courses, etc. Do I have to fill these out, since they're already checkmarked and I'm going to send in my transcript?</p>
<p>Our son received an unsolicited email from USC that said:</p>
<ol>
<li>Courses and grades
In our Writing Supplement we prompt first-year applicants to enter their high school courses and grades. We ask this primarily to give us more time to review your application, allowing us to form a more complete picture of you. This section might look cumbersome, but if you have your high school records handy it should be straightforward. Consult the Help boxes if necessary.</li>
</ol>
<p>2.1 So why are the green checkmarks pre-checked?
Some students have called us to ask about the green checkmarks in this section of the Writing Supplement. Don’t worry about this. The green checkmark is simply the Common App’s way of indicating that a required item is complete. Since these are optional items, they start as green. Simply make sure all your academic high school courses and grades are entered accurately.</p>
<p>I believe he got the email because he put USC on his list of schools on the Common App. There is apparently nothing about this on the USC webpage. I think we can conclude that USC wants you to fill out this section, but has done a poor job of communicating about it. Probably a lot of people will not fill it out. It would be rather burdensome if every school out there wanted the same info.</p>
<p>My guess is that this is a way for USC to get your grades into their computer so that they can run an analysis on them.</p>
<p>^Yes, my son got the same letter. They want you to list all your courses. The letter started off:</p>
<p>We received your name from the Common Application as a first-year applicant who has added USC to their list of colleges. In the hopes of easing the application process for you, I would like to point out a few items that might be unique to USC:</p>
<p>I have a question about this part: CommonApp allows the user to input 9-11th grade courses for 3 semesters. My school uses 2 semesters for grading. What do i put in the 3rd semester-name and the grade?</p>
<p>Also, what if you took 2 classes in 1 subject in 1 year? I took Geometry and Algebra 2 in 9th grade concurrently.</p>