If you are California dreaming, transferring to USC might be an excellent option for you. The University of Southern California is a private research institution in the heart of Los Angeles. It is especially known for its film and media programs (c’mon, it's in LA) but has a lot of great programs—we mean a lot. They have over 350 majors and minors.
USC is an excellent choice for transfer students because it generally takes many of them. Last year, they admitted over 2300 transfers. That being said, they get a lot of transfer applicants, and their transfer acceptance rate was only about 24%. This is notably higher than their first-year acceptance rate, which is only around 10%. That being said, most transfer applicants don’t get in. It is still very competitive, and you need to put in some work if you are serious about USC.
Thankfully, we are here to break it down for you.
Check USC’s Requirements
You will need to submit a couple of things, including your high school and college transcripts. Depending on your major, you may also need an audition, portfolio, letters of recommendation or writing samples.
All applicants will need to complete an equivalent course to their writing requirement (Writing 130) and math, at least through Algebra II (this can be from high school.) While they don't have any other specific class requirements, they do want you to generally take classes that correspond with their core requirements. They publish a great guide on how to choose courses specifically, which you can find here. We highly recommend checking your own classes against their recommendations.
Get Really Good Grades
Admitted transfers to USC have an average college GPA of 3.79. Honestly, we recommend shooting for a 4.0. Getting good grades will show USC that you have this whole college thing figured out and will succeed as a transfer. TLDR: Grades are really important. We even advise choosing classes that you will likely do well in. For example, if you struggled with AP Calc during your senior year of high school, it probably isn’t a great idea to take an advanced math course (unless you need to for your intended major). Try to choose classes you will excel in and stay on top of your grades.
College classes are challenging; if you find yourself slipping, get help. Check the tutoring center. Join a study group. Our biggest tip is to go to office hours! You will get your questions answered and connect better with your professors. It’s a win-win.
Develop Your Niche
Getting good grades is not enough. You also need to tell a compelling story with your extracurriculars. You need to show you are a motivated, community-oriented, and involved student. You want to join a couple of carefully chosen extracurriculars to show this. Your extracurriculars should also connect to what you want to study. For example, if you're going to study art history, volunteering for your school’s student gallery, interning at a museum, and/or writing for the arts section of the school paper will look good on your resume. No matter what you want to study, you should try to get involved in research. Ask your professors if they need assistance on anything they are working on, or go to the undergraduate research center. Getting research experience will look impressive, which is exactly what you want.
Write Good Essays
You need to write stand-out essays if you want to get into USC. They ask for two essays and then some fill-in-the-blank style short answers. We have a breakdown of how to answer the short questions here as they are the same as the short answers asked to first-year applicants. But let’s quickly talk about the other two.
Please provide a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve. You can type directly into the box, or you can paste text from another source. (Approximately 650 words)
Okay, first thing is first: paste from another source. You want to be able to edit, save, and spell-check this, which means you should write it elsewhere and copy/paste it in.
This question is a little bit tricky to answer because of the next question they ask. You need to differentiate the two as they are more similar than they might look at first. The first step in answering this is coming up with a good reason that you want to transfer specifically to USC.
Often, when we first talk to hopeful transfers, their reason for wanting to transfer is something like, “Well, it is a better/more prestigious school.” That won’t work here. It is shallow and unspecific. You also don’t want to trash your current school, but you need to find something about it that doesn’t align with your goals in a way that USC does. For example, maybe you go to a very rural school and want USC’s urban environment to get more involved in your community/pursue internships. How will that involvement help your academic or professional goals? What has lead you to wanting opportunities like this? We need to know these stories.
You also need to bring up what you hope to study and how it connects to your goals. You will also have to talk about this in the next question, so you should be mindful in not writing the same exact thing twice. Hopefully, you have a lot to say about your academic interests and passions. This essay should focus on how what you want to study connects to larger goals. You will get into the nitty gritty in the next essay but academics need to be part of your rationale for transferring.
Describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests and why you want to explore them at USC specifically. Please feel free to address your first- and second-choice major selections. (Approximately 250 words)
In the last essay, you should have already spoken about what you want to study and why you are passionate about it. This essay should be all about the specific opportunities in the major at USC. We recommend at least speaking to two higher level classes and a professor you would love to assist. You should show the overlap between your interests/past academic experiences and the opportunities that USC has. Tell them why these are the perfect academic opportunities for you.
If you do these essays right, the reader should walk away with the idea that you would be the perfect student for USC and USC is the best place for you.
It is hard to get into USC but with some work and determination you can boost your chances. If you are struggling with the transfer process, we can help with all things college acceptances!
Contact us today for bespoke application help.