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Welcome back to our five-part series on transferring to USC Viterbi! Today’s post is Part 3 – Transferable Courses.

Previous posts:

If you’re looking for the complete guide to transferring, make sure to check out the video at the bottom and visit the page How to Transfer. Since the Fall 2019 application is quickly approaching (February 1st!), make sure to reach out to us at viterbiadmission@usc.edu if you have any questions!

Part 3: Transferable Courses

So, which classes transfer for credit at USC? You can find them all using either the articulation histories page or the articulation agreements page on our website. You can find those here. “Articulation what?” you might ask. At USC, we have a department dedicated to determining which classes taught at other schools transfer for credit (or “articulate”) at USC. This is the Articulation Department. If a transfer student is coming from a four-year school or community college outside of California, the Articulation Department looks at the student’s transcripts and determines which classes might be equivalent to classes at USC. For each class, a USC professor compares his or her own class’s syllabus with the syllabus for the class in question. If the professor determines the classes are equivalent, the Articulation Department is notified, and the classes are added to an articulation history, which is a list of classes at a particular school which have historically transferred for credit at USC. These classes are not guaranteed to transfer, but as long as there were no major changes to the curriculum, the chances of receiving credit are still pretty high. You will receive more information about transferring courses for credit after admission.

On the other hand, if a transfer student is coming from a community college inside California, the Articulation Department uses an articulation agreement to determine if a course from a given school transfers for credit at USC. These agreements have already been established between USC and the California community college system, so classes on this list are guaranteed to transfer for credit at USC.

That’s all for now! Stay tuned for Part 4 – Application Checklist coming soon.

If you have any questions about our programs or the application process, please call us at (213) 740-4530, or email at viterbi.admission@usc.edu.

Viterbi Admission