The “Request for Pre-approval to transfer course work to USC” can be found in the “Course Transfer” section on the main services page of your OASIS account, which can be accessed through the myUSC portal.
If you are currently enrolled, have completed coursework at USC, and have access to OASIS, you can use the online process. The first page of the pre-approval process lists the types of requests that cannot be submitted online and for which a paper pre-approval request or a “Request for Exception to Residence” will be needed. Spring admits in their first term at USC will also need to use the paper pre-approval request as they have not yet completed course work at USC.
Please note that disqualified students can use neither the online nor paper pre-approval request. They must meet with an Academic Review and Retention counselor before planning to take coursework elsewhere.
No. The credit listed on an agreement or history presumes that courses are taken in the traditional on-campus classroom format. As detailed on the limitations page, ALL courses intended to be taken abroad require use of the paper pre-approval form. Courses offered on a study abroad program may differ from an on-campus version of the same course, and USC reviews these overseas versions on a case-by-case basis each summer. You should provide as much detailed information about the program as possible when submitting the paper request. Any delay in providing this information will delay the processing of your request.
You must select a state and then a school within the chosen state where the summer course(s) will be taken. The articulation history or agreement for the selected school will then be displayed.
Please note that the agreements and histories display all courses that have ever been reviewed by Degree Progress. This does not guarantee that any specific course will be offered in the current summer term at the requested institution. Please review your transfer school’s summer schedule of classes before submitting your pre-approval request.
If the school is not listed, it usually means that we have never received any coursework in transfer from that school before. In these cases, a paper pre-approval form must be submitted. This can be downloaded from our website.
Since USC students cannot fulfill GE requirements, nor the writing requirement, with transfer courses after starting at USC, the GE and writing sections of the articulation histories and agreements are not displayed.
This depends on the school you have chosen. If you are seeking credit from a California Community College with which we have an articulation agreement, in most cases, courses not displayed will not transfer. Our articulation agreements with the California Community Colleges are comprehensive and generally list ALL possible transferable courses. If you are requesting coursework from a community college outside of California or from a four-year institution, you should continue to scroll down to the end of history where there will be an opportunity to enter missing courses (see picture below).
If nothing appears on your TCR, you most likely did not actually submit your request. If the courses you selected do not show in the “Submitted Pre-approval Requests” section at the bottom of this screen, you should go through the online process again and be sure to “submit all selected courses for review”.
The requested courses will appear on your Transfer Credit Report. You are notified of this at the end of the pre-approval process after you have submitted the request. We do not mail information or contact you in any other way.
No. The pre-approval process is not intended for students to “shop” for credit. Please submit for pre-approval only courses in which you plan to register. You should review the transfer institution’s summer schedule of classes to determine what courses will be offered in the current summer term.
Only a specific number of courses will be allowed before you will be restricted from submitting further pre-approvals and are instead referred to contact Degree Progress regarding your summer plans.
This depends on what courses were requested.
- If you clicked on a course that was already listed on the agreement or history, your TCR should be updated within five to 10 minutes.
- If you added missing coursework, this will be displayed on your TCR as “Course not found” in the “Require further review” Section. Evaluation of unknown coursework will generally be completed in 10-15 business days. This will be displayed on the TCR as shown below:
No. A large number of students wish to complete courses at different institutions every summer. You should begin the pre-approval process well in advance of any deadlines at the transfer institution. Pre-approvals are processed in the order received, and during busy periods we may need more than the stated 10-15 business day period of evaluation. However, all requests will be processed as quickly as possible.
After the course is completed, you should submit your official transcript.
Official transcripts (hard copy) should be mailed to:
USC Registrar One Stop Center
615 Childs Way, TRO 101
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0912
Official transcripts (secure pdf/electronic) should be e-mailed to:
USC Admissions
etrans@usc.edu
If possible, please have the other institution reference your ten digit USC student ID number.
No. The pre-approval process simply lets you know in advance how many remaining units you are eligible to transfer in and what credit you will receive at USC for your requested courses. You are not obligated to take any course you have pre-approved.
No. We prefer that all eligible students complete the online process. Paper forms are only necessary when the online process cannot be used, as described in the limitations screen on the first page.
No; “0.0 **” is displayed for a pre-approved course because units granted for a course can vary and are dependent upon the transfer institution. You will earn the number of units noted on the transcript of the institution where you take the course (quarter units, for schools on a quarter calendar, are converted to semester units by dividing by 1.5).
Please be aware that evaluation notes may be included in your pre-approval. Your TCR may indicate that a petition is required to determine if units will be granted, or that a syllabus is needed to determine if subject credit will be granted (see example below).
This is not necessary. You should select what you think will be an equivalent course, and Degree Progress will let you know via your TCR how the course will transfer to USC. In general, the third-semester foreign language requirement is fulfilled by a third-semester language course in transfer. However, in some cases it may be necessary to complete a fourth-semester course. Students planning to attend a school on the quarter system will need to take a fifth-quarter course to complete this requirement.
Courses that are not evaluated as a USC equivalent or as meeting a subject requirement, such as “SPAN 10300” in the example below, will only be displayed in the “Courses Available for Transfer” section. Courses that fulfill a requirement, like SPAN 201A, will also be displayed in a separate section of the TCR under “Language Requirement”. If a course is equivalent to a USC course, that information will be displayed in the “Equivalent to USC courses” section of the TCR.
The TCR can only display a limited number of characters per line. If two or more courses are required to earn equivalence, only the first two will be displayed on the TCR with “+” indicating that other courses are required (see example below).
If you do not remember all courses that are required, you can revisit the online process and check the history for those courses before you register (see below). Please exit the process before submitting courses so that a duplicate pre-approval is not generated.
No. It is only available to enrolled students. Please visit the Spring Admits FAQ page for more information.