<p>@Cminor, I can look it over if you want and tell you what I think. I was having a similar issue, I don’t know how much of my essay should be reflective of an individual voice when we have a specific point to be making. It’s harder to make it stand out in those regards when you’re trying to actually make a statement.</p>
<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>So I’m currently studying Int’l Affairs at the George Washington University, interested in transferring in as a Junior (I’m currently a sophomore) as an Environmental Studies (B.S.) Major. My gpa at the moment is pretty bad, (around a 3.1-3.2), but I have a 4.0 as of this semester, and it should bring my overall GPA up to a 3.3-3.4 before transfer if I can maintain it. If I have an extremely positive upward trend - 2.96/3.3/[4.0], and had a serious family illness last year which contributed to my low gpa, how will I be assessed?. Does USC take these sort of extenuating circumstances into account? If it helps, I also interned with the Sierra Club last summer, and am pretty involved with student orgs on my campus, especially those related to the environment.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback! Super nervous but I really want to get out of here.</p>
<p>Wow I feel like I shouldn’t even apply to USC. My high school transcripts are terrible and I won’t have 30 credits by this fall to avoid the high school transcripts/SAT thing. I will have 15 credits by December and I’m pretty sure my gpa will be a 3.65</p>
<p>@Uptownmalik101: I have crappy high school grades and I won’t make the 30 credit deadline before Spring, and I’m still applying. You never know. Might as well give it a go. =]</p>
<p>@Cminor: Thank you so much! I will be sending both you and teddygrams my essay when I finish it! =]</p>
<p>@gousc92: You know it doesn’t matter how many credits you have done when you send the application, right? It’s how many are finished by the end of the spring semester that counts.</p>
<p>@teddygrams: Yeah, I do. I was just putting my stats in perspective.</p>
<p>@teddygrams
wait, what? So… basically the end of this wholeeee year? I’ll have 36 credits by the end of my whole freshman year… would I still send in my transcripts? lol oh goodness my SATs were utter crap whilst I have more hope in my HS GPA -_-</p>
<p>@gousc92 & @uptownmalik101: YAY! you two too! I also have crappy hs grades 
But I’m trying because who knows? Maybe something about me will catch their attention, and who knows, maybe you’ll catch theirs! haha positivity!</p>
<p>@ lullabies: Right, by the end of the spring semester is the “30 credits” thing that you hear about. You could technically send your application with only one credit, but if you have 29 on the way, you meet the 30 creds. (though, obviously, this is highly unrecommended). Also though, be aware, it’s ONLY 30 transferrable credits. It is not credits in general. So if you have 31 credits in total, but only one that actually transfers, then you obviously do NOT meet the 30 creds. </p>
<p>Bear in mind, from what I’ve been told by advisors, the 30 is not a direct cutoff, it’s about what they’re looking for. They weigh your HS record less and less by how many college credits you have, so if you have, like, 15 transferrable creds., they’ll probably weigh about 50% of what you’ve done your first year against what you’ve done in high school. </p>
<p>My HS grades weren’t good either, I think that’s the general transfer profile. Kids who didn’t do so well in high school, usually tried and failed to get into USC once before, and are now trying to get a stronger record. (if not the majority of applicants, it’s definitely the CC crowd, haha.)</p>
<p>@lullabies: I have to admit, I’m happy to know there are others who are in the same situation as me! lol
@teddygrams: Oh man please tell me you are 100% sure that is correct because I will have 35 credits by the spring!..I just don’t want to spend $70 on an app and get rejected immediately, I would rather save my $70 and the embarrassment lol</p>
<p>I am definitely sure that it’s BY THE END of spring semester, look it up just to be positive. Although, I think you’d have to get SGR’d. For instance, I have to take writing 102 next semester, so when i send the app, all it will have on it is that writing 102 is “in progress” (which most people would have if they’re sophomore transfers and had to take 101 this semester). So they’d have to send an SGR to you (if they don’t flat out reject you based on that semester) if only because you’re still completing a requirement–though they’d also, of course, want to make sure your grades are still up to par.</p>
<p>Sorry about the late reply…I am actually at UC Santa Cruz on the TTP.</p>
<p>I was reading an old USC transfer thread a couple of months back and I’m pretty sure you have to have 30 credits before you apply. Because if you think about it would be a little to risky for them to evaluate the 30 credits thing by the end of the spring semester. For example if someone was just going to make the 30 credit mark by the end of the spring semester and stated it in their application but had to drop a course they would fall below it., thus it would mess up how they evaluated that one student and make things more complicated for them, so they would just look at the credits that are on ur transcript that you have already earned. </p>
<p>Hope that made sense. 
But then again I could be wrong but I know this was a big topic too in the last USC thread too. I’ll try to find the link.</p>
<p>i really hope it’s by the time we get admitted. i understand that the 30 cred policy doesn’t really make sense but i’m taking 15 this year and 15 spring semester. they’d have to understand that it would be rather difficult that freshmen would have 30 completed by the time they apply. that would sort of deject any hope that people like myself, and supposedly many others, who didn’t have the high school grades/scores to get in out of high school… wah.</p>
<p>I’m fairly certain it would have to be at the end of the spring semester, not just because i know someone who got accepted with bad HS grades as a sophomore last year or because I’d heard from an advisor (you can’t really ALWAYS believe advisors, sometimes they say different things), but it seems like it would HAVE to be by the end of spring. Think about it rationally: USC offers admission to sophomores for transfer. It’s nearly impossible to get over 30 credits within ONE semester straight out of high school (as APs and credit gained before HS graduation doesn’t count). Knowing this, why would they even offer transfer to sophomores? Look at the UCs, which DON’T offer admission to sophomores, they all require 60something credits. It seems completely pointless to offer transfers to sophomores only if they have over 30 credits by the end of one semester, unless the whole point was to only admit sophomores who had good enough HS transcripts in the first place, which could be, but sounds unlikely.</p>
<p>@Teddygrams:
Yeah I definitely agree with you. I didn’t even do 30 credits at my university. The only way I had a little over the amount because I came in with credits. But regardless they are going to look at you high school transcripts it just depends I guess how much they take into account. But be careful cause I found requirements for different majors like architecture and they if u do have less than 30 by the time of applying than they look at ur high school and test scores more. But I think I found some websites that will be able to help us out a little bit. </p>
<p>[USC</a> Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“404 page not found | University of South Carolina”>404 page not found | University of South Carolina)
This is a really good site cause it also tells you the required GPAs for each major and requirements for transfers. I also found this from the site: </p>
<p>Complete high-school records, including SAT or ACT scores* if less than 30 semester hours (45 quarter hours) of college-level work have been attempted in a regionally accredited college or university</p>
<p>This is also an old CC thread that I found too that talked a little about the credit thing: </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/761802-usc-transfer-question.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/761802-usc-transfer-question.html</a></p>
<p>BlackRose. I believe you might’ve mistaken the USC for University of South Carolina instead of University of Southern California.</p>
<p>Do you guys know if they weigh anything on the amount of GE’s you’ve completed? I think I may have done 3/5 but highly questioning whether or not they count or will transfer.</p>
<p>ragingzero: haha yeah I did sorry! i posted this pretty late at night so i didn’t really see it, i’ll try to find the other link then. thanks for telling me.</p>
<p>idk if this has been answered already but do you need to submit SAT’s for USC if you have 30+ credits already?</p>
<p>based boy, no you don’t need to submit it if you have over 30 credits.</p>