Hello! I have kind of a lot to say but I’ll try and make it brief! I am a prospective transfer applicant for USC and I was wondering whether it would be worth it to transfer. I wanted to attend USC as a freshman, but was rejected. I did apply to UT Austin and was accepted (yay). Unfortunately, I want to change my major into BME, however internal transfers at UT are really tough and getting into BME as an internal transfer is highly competitive. Not only this, but once I get in, the curriculum and courses are dense and only offered once a year, so the fastest I can graduate is by may 2020 (5 years instead of 4, not ideal bc I’m premed and poor). Other alternate plans are maybe to also apply for mechanical or chemical engineering, however these are also of course, extremely competitive.
So, I’ve tried to change my mind from that and do something like the new public health program at UT. Apparently, the professor is really really terrible, which wouldn’t bother me, except that he teaches ALL the PBH classes. SO, this brings us to looking into transferring. One of the reasons I liked USC was because of its flexible degree plans and the fact that I could possibly explore both their amazing global health program AND a discipline in Viterbi’s engineering. This first semester at UT has been great, however my GPA is rather low (3.1). That was from a semester of classes like calculus, chemistry, and bio. And although next semester I’m taking all maths and sciences, I will definitely not let any personal problems I’m currently dealing with get in the way…and I will raise my GPA.
NOW, the question is, is it worth applying to USC as a transfer, despite my first semester’s rather low GPA? I do really think that USC can give me the flexible, yet cohesive undergrad experience I desire, but I’m not sure how competitive I am.
A couple more questions: Is it particularly easier to get into USC as Global Health or Engineering? Or does that not matter in regards to gaining acceptance into the university? I’d like to do both somehow (whether that’d be double majoring or some sort of international health minor). Maybe some other ways to make me more competitive, besides raising my GPA