<p>I'm a transfer student, on my 5th semester in community college with a 3.4 GPA. I have talked to or heard from several sources that say GPA is not nearly as important as the porfolio, however, so what I'm wondering about is what USC looks for in the portfolio? I have always been a creative type person, I wrote stories in my free time since I was like 7 years old, have been singer/guitarist/pianist in a band from freshman year in high school to now (I'm 20) that I write most of the music for, I have filmed/edited/directed/written/composed music for several movies/projects (nothing big, though), have written some short screenplays, etc. What would be good to include in my personal statement, written work, short film, etc for the portfolio? As I would consider myself to be a naturally creative person, not one that is simply "interested in movies" and thinks being a director sounds cool, how could I go about convincing them I am the type of person they are looking for for Film Production?</p>
<p>deadline’s past. i believe it was dec 1st, correct?</p>
<p>I got an email from them that said “Due to the processing lag, if you are not able to upload your materials by December 1, you will have until December 7th to do so. If you still have trouble submitting your supplemental materials after December 7th, please contact us immediately.”</p>
<p>so you’ve got till tuesday at midnight</p>
<p>The deadline for the USC app was Dec 1, but, once you apply, you have until Dec 7 to submit supplements because they need to process your app and send you an email, and allow you to access the special part of USConnect that allows you to submit.</p>
<p>reelfilm is a transfer… the deadline for us is February 1st. ;)</p>
<p>SCA looks for dedication a lot, so you’ve definitely got that. If you can work in the “I want to be a director, and not just because I think movies are cool” angle into one of the personal essays, that’s definitely a help. I’m a student there for interactive media right now and I’m pretty sure my emphasis on wanting to make games because I’m inclined to work in the medium and not just cause “hurf durf vidja gaems” helped a lot.</p>
<p>As for the app, I’d say send one big, awesome film or script you’ve worked on for the quality sample and list all the other creative work you’ve done in the portfolio section. If I remember correctly you don’t need to send your entire portfolio, just a list of works.</p>
<p>Flintlock-
Thanks alot for the information! Yea, I bet letting them know you are actually passionate about a major in SCA would help alot. What were some of your stats when you applied? Such as GPA, amount of units, etc. Were you a transfer? And if you wouldn’t mind telling me, what did you do for your portfolio? Thanks again for the help, and any further help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>dreamupsided0wn- what major are you applying for? Have you worked on your portfolio yet?</p>
<p>reelfilm, I know 2 undergrads and one that just got her masters is film production. They all felt it was their ability to write and passion for “stories” that shined in their portfolios. Less about the Visual Sample film, with regard to their film techniques (which USC wants to teach you) and more about the applicant’s writing and storytelling skills, as well as overall creativity. Based on that, it would seem you are a very good match</p>
<p>reelfilm - I wasn’t a transfer, and my GPA was pretty bad but I took rigorous courses. The cool thing about SCA is that they don’t look at your grades. It’s almost all based on the supplement and portfolio. If you have a good enough SCA app, they WILL argue in your favor for you to come. (: I’m in Interactive Media, so my quality sample was an 80-page illustrated game design document, which was overkill, but necessary to wow them enough to make up for my terrible grades. Most other people I know submitted mid-length films (30 minutes to an hour) or a screenplay/short story.</p>
<p>norcalimom- Thanks for letting me know about the great information, that will definitely help when I do the portfolio work!</p>
<p>Flintlock- Great to hear your story, gives me alot more hope considering grades aren’t my strongest area. Good job getting in and working towards your goals, glad to see USC cares mostly about creativity, not grades.</p>
<p>@Flintlock: Although SCA doesn’t take grades into much consideration, doesn’t USC? What I’m trying to say is, don’t you have to apply to USC first and then once accepted, apply to SCA? So if your grades were “pretty bad”, how did you get accepted into USC in first place?</p>
<p>Of course we don’t ever know the entire story behind how USC’s holistic admissions plus the weight SCA & other creative majors’ admissions places on the portfolio may impact final decisions. Flintlock is probably a fairly rare bird, in that she had incredible experience in this field, put together an impressive portfolio (she posted that it included an illustrated 80-page game design document, for example), and it can be assumed that SCA’s aim to include more women in IMD (in her year, there were 3 out of about 18) may have worked to mitigate her low GPA. We can’t know if other tips were also at play, but there are many good reasons why she was selected and has thrived at IMD. </p>
<p>On the one hand, I hope that other kids will not read her story and take it to mean ALL students with sub-3.0 GPAs will breeze through admissions. That is far from true! Since USC’s overall incoming freshman class last year had an average GPA of 3.8, they certainly are not admitting more than a very few very low GPA students among the 200-plus admissions they send out. But OTOH, it’s good for those super talented/high achieving creative kids out there to realize there may be, in fact, hope for them at SCA. They probably have a harder bar to clear in certain ways, but it’s not impossible.</p>
<p>Flintlock, if you are around and posting these days, have you found your experience in non-SCA classes to be fine, too? Are there any additional facts you can offer, such as were you included in pre-college classes for prep, or offered tutoring help if desired or other support, as I have heard about others? Or just left on your own?</p>
<p>Wow, our D’s portfolio didn’t include anything nearly as long as a 30-60 minute film or 80 page book. She submitted what was requested and was accepted. Her transfer grades were 3.8 1st semester but dropped 2nd semester. She was offered spring admission, so she had one more opportunity to take classes at cheaper CC tuition before entering USC.</p>
<p>In general, she has been fine with the academics at USC, but time management can be an issue, especially when she gets sick later in the term.</p>