Questions about SCA admissions

madbean
Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:07:10 +0000

A couple of thoughts here:


The SCA admissions committee reviews your portfolio and when they get the files down to the ones they are most interested in, they look at things like grades, scores, etc. From past experience, they know the range of stats that will be admissible to USC academically, and will eliminate the very gifted film students who will not pass that hurdle. No one posting on CC knows what that range of permissible might be, alas.


At the same time SCA is reviewing their candidates, USC admissions is also reading files. Some students will be deemed admissible on the basis of their high academic, EC, overall stats, and if SCA passes on them, they will be offered admission to their 2nd choice major or undeclared. For certain borderline cases–if SCA is really determined to have them at SCA, they can meet with general admissions and try to make a case for the student they want. SCA will only do this for a very few, however, and most often that student is admitted with extra academic support–including a program they attend the summer before freshman year. This is the same as any highly talent-based program/major at USC–including superior athletes, musicians, actors, etc. The level of talent and proven ability/awards must be extremely high plus the candidate will often have other desired attributes in diversity, national/international honors, etc. The point is: a student will have a hard time succeeding in the academic classes required at USC if they are not prepared, motivated, and show a history of doing well in balancing school work and creative projects.


In the past, SCA enrolls a freshman class of around 75 Crit Studies, 50 Production, 26 Screenwriting, 26 animation and 15 Interactive Media majors. They admit a number slightly higher to take into account yield–which is very high in SCA.
Over the course of each year, a small number of SCA students change majors or leave USC. Those are the spots that open up for transfer students. These may be filled by internal (USC students in other majors) or external transfers. Perhaps 2-3 transfers in IMD and animation soph and junior years, perhaps 5-10 in Production and Critical Studies. Of course SCA knows the number they have to admit as transfers to matriculate the correct number of students to fill those spots. These are guesses based on anecdotal evidence over the past few years. Others may have more realistic numbers to offer.