It’s a new home, a different environment with growing expectations amid a transition in time and place. For some, the roadmap was already set out by generations before them, and for others, the journey was theirs to shape.

Out of 11,019 applications, only 21.6% were admitted as a USC transfer in Fall 2024. Getting into an institution is one thing, but adjusting and making the move worthwhile is a whole journey in itself.

Erica Schug, a senior majoring in neuroscience, found a second chance at USC to pursue her passions in health research and neurotechnology. During the middle of her freshman year, Schug watched YouTube videos about people transferring to prepare for her own journey.

“I started looking into [schools] that were known to have good transfer programs, that were really friendly to their transfers and had a big transfer community so I wouldn’t feel alone,” Schug said. “[It was] pretty much [just] like high school college apps all over again, but now it was just for the transfer process.”

Schug found herself gravitating toward freshmen as they navigated each of their first years together.

“I’m practically a freshman again. I really don’t know what I’m doing, but then I also think that I was just so grateful to be here,” Schug said. “I never would’ve thought I’d be here at USC, [it] just completely changed my life around so I think that just made me really excited.”

Billy Davis IV, a sophomore majoring in business administration, made an effort to take courses tailored to USC during his first year of college at the University of San Diego, aiming to follow a lineage of former Trojans.

“I have a lot of family who either went to USC or have been huge USC fans for a long time, so it’s been a part of a large period of my life and it’s also got all the programs that I would like within a school,” Davis said.

Though being accepted into USC meant a childhood dream fulfilled, the adjustment process was anything but easy.

“I met some people who are also transfers, but it was still difficult to meet people because a lot of them had established friend groups,” Davis said. “I made a lot of connections in my last school, and I knew that the [depth] of that connection would be hard to get into because I knew most people had those deep bonds already.”

Davis decided to dive in head first and become involved with organizations aligned with his passion for business, as well as general student organizations.

“There’s people from every discipline in there, and I think that diversity of experience … is really nice because you can see what USC is all about from every single angle,” Davis said. “I would say, as of now at USC, my closest friendships are with people either that I sat next to in classes or that I worked with in clubs.”

Sophie Hameed, a junior majoring in human development and aging, entered the transfer portal on the second day of freshman year, wanting to return to her hometown of Los Angeles from a small town college in St. Louis.

“I remember I went to one of those transfer info sessions and [was] so upset and being like ‘Wow, all these people go to a real college,’” Hameed said. “Another thing I really wanted was an actual sense of that college community and the ability to also study humanities.”

Hameed put her eggs in one basket, applying only to USC and planning to attend community college as a backup.

“I went back and forth about it, and I actually didn’t write my application until the day it was due,” Hameed said. “It was very rushed. I didn’t think it was very good. “

After submitting her spring grades, the gerontology student eagerly returned to California and found a different experience at USC than what she had built up in her mind.

“A really big thing that maybe more transfers should think about that I wish I thought about more is that it’s okay for everything to not be perfect all of the time,” Hameed said. “Even when you finally get to what you were wishing for, you’re still going to have struggles in different things, just in a different light.”

Throughout each step of the USC transfer process, Hameed kept the mentality of “failure as redirection.”

“I would’ve wanted to know [that] it’s okay to take time for yourself,” Hameed said. “Even though there is a rush to catch up and get involved in everything, it’s also just as important to take care of yourself and slow down sometimes.”