Accepted - Dana Dornsife school of Letters and Sciences - Spring 2018
Major: Chemistry
SGR - May 13
Package Received: July 20
Stats:
College transferring from: College of San Mateo
Entering as: Junior
GPA: 3.31 ( 7 withdrawls on my application, 1 F, 1 D, and 2 C’s )
Units completed: 60+
Pre-reqs completed: All
GEs completed: Five completed
Subjective:
Community Service Volunteer at ASPCA Humane Society
Job/Work Experience: Worked as the manager of a country club.
Essays: 9/10 Expressed my situation with brutal honesty
Letters of Recommendation: 2: One from a mathematics professor, and one from a Chem professor. Both were good I assume.
Other schools applied to: None
Comments: This admissions process was a grind like no other, and was two years in the making. I had multiple poor semesters in my community college run and feared that they would kill any chances of getting into USC. Counselors at my campus discouraged my high ambitions and told me to pursue more “realistic goals”. USC cares about your story and what potential you can tap into. I did not seek any guidance on which courses to take, and enrolled in the hardest classes I could to show my academic power. After a rocky career of community college I buckled down like never before and got straight A’s this past year.
Tips: People tend to give advice based on what would have helped them personally, so I suggest you take advice from many different sources.
My personal advice would be to:
- Don’t listen to any particular person about what is/isn’t possible. No one knows everything, and even counselors can’t tell you things for certain. They aren’t the ones who are in the room making admission decisions at USC. Scan the college confidential forums and look at people’s specific stories to gather your own understanding of things. Research the school, and get in touch with the people actually at the campus.
- Make grades the top priority. Transfer students have to show they can handle the academic curriculum at their school to prove they are able to do well at USC. If you can’t score perfect grades at a community college, then university academics will be even harder for you. Stay busy and have fun, but make sure your academics have the time to be excellent.
- Keep pushing. Fantasize about the goals you want to achieve and work your a$$ off to make them happen. Never saw an applicant with as many withdrawls or poor grades on their application like mine but I was still admitted.
Any prospective applicants are more than free to message me with any questions.
Fight on!
