| CR or NC | Credit or No Credit, in courses approved to be graded only that way | Neither counts in your GPA. CR means C− quality or better; NC means less than that. You can take a course CR/NC only if it’s listed as offered that way. An incomplete or missing grade in a CR/NC course that you don’t resolve within a year becomes an NC, which still stays out of your GPA. Rule |
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| P or NP | Pass or No Pass, when you choose that option for a letter-graded course | Neither counts in your GPA. P means C− or better; NP means D+ or below. Up to 24 P/NP units count toward your degree, and at most 4 of them toward general education. You can’t use P/NP for a minor, and for your major only with your department’s written approval. The catalogue lets you pick P/NP until the 20 percent mark of the session and switch from P/NP back to a letter grade until the 45 percent mark; the Registrar’s Grades page says P/NP is available only through the add deadline. The catalogue says WRIT 130, 150 and 340 don’t meet the writing requirement if taken P/NP; the Registrar’s page says P/NP isn’t available in 390 or 490 courses or in WRIT-140 or 340. If you commit an academic integrity violation in a P/NP course, your instructor may give you a penalty letter grade instead. Rule |
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| W | Withdrawn: you dropped the course after the early drop period | Doesn’t count in your GPA. The catalogue says you can drop without penalty until the 20 percent mark; a drop between the 20 and 45 percent marks leaves no trace on your transcript but you still pay; after the 45 percent mark you get a W; and nothing can be dropped after the 80 percent mark. The Registrar’s Grades page puts it differently: drops by the end of week 3 leave no record, later drops get a W, the drop deadline is the end of week 12, and petitions after that are rarely approved. You can’t withdraw from a course in which you committed, or are accused of, an academic integrity violation. Withdrawing from at least 8 units in one semester or 16 units overall means mandatory advisement, once, before you can enroll again. Rule |
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| UW | Unofficial withdrawal: you stopped going to class before the drop deadline but never dropped | Counts as 0 grade points, the same as an F. Rule |
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| IN | Incomplete: a documented illness or other emergency after week 12 kept you from finishing | Doesn’t count in your GPA while it’s an IN. You start the arrangement, and your instructor must agree before the final exam. You finish only the work the emergency kept you from doing; you can’t complete an IN by registering for the course again. You have one calendar year, and some academic units set shorter limits. You can petition CAPP for more time, but extensions are rarely approved if you’ve enrolled in later semesters. An IN must be removed before your Dean’s List eligibility is decided for that semester. Rule |
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| IX | Lapsed incomplete: an IN you didn’t finish within the year | Counts as 0 grade points, like an F. An unfinished IN in a Credit/No Credit or Pass/No Pass course lapses to NC or NP instead and stays out of your GPA; the Registrar also excepts thesis and dissertation courses. Rule |
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| MG | Missing grade, which the Registrar says an instructor should give only when an academic integrity violation is suspected | Doesn’t count in your GPA while it’s an MG. You have one calendar year to resolve it; if you don’t, it becomes a UW and counts as 0 grade points. You must resolve it before a degree is awarded, or it turns into a UW. In a Credit/No Credit or Pass/No Pass course, an unresolved MG becomes NC or NP and stays out of your GPA. Rule |
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| IP | In progress, for a course that runs longer than one semester | Doesn’t count in your GPA. If you don’t complete the course, the IP becomes an NC. The Registrar also uses IP when a disability accommodation gives you time past the end of the semester. Rule |
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| NS | Not submitted: your instructor didn’t turn in a final grade | An administrative mark. Neither the catalogue nor the Registrar says how an NS counts in your GPA. Once your record is closed, because you finished your program or stopped attending, an NS can’t be resolved. Rule |
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| V | Audit: you attend a course without credit or a grade | An audit earns no credit and doesn’t appear on your transcript, so it never touches your GPA. You must choose it in the first three weeks, you pay the full tuition rate, and it doesn’t count toward full-time enrollment or financial aid. Rule |
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| Repeated course | You took the same course again | You can’t repeat a course for grade point credit if you earned a B− or better, and you never earn a course’s units twice. You also can’t repeat a prerequisite after completing the course it leads to. If you entered USC as a first-time freshman, you can repeat up to three courses from your first two semesters in which you got a D+ or lower (including UW and IX), and only the new grade counts in your GPA, even if it’s lower. Both attempts and both grades stay on your transcript. You must retake the course at USC for a letter grade, the same course can be replaced only once, and a grade given as a Student Conduct sanction can’t be replaced this way. If you entered in spring after starting as a first-time freshman elsewhere that fall, you get two such repeats from your first USC semester; if you entered as a transfer student, you get one. Other retakes of a D+ or lower count both grades in your GPA. To retake a C+, C or C− and have the new grade calculated in your GPA, you must petition CAPP before you re-register; approval after the fact isn’t granted. The catalogue doesn’t say whether the first grade then leaves your GPA. No petition is needed if you got a C− in a course where your major or minor requires a C or higher: the new grade is calculated in your GPA. Rule |
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| Transfer credit | Grades from another college | Grades you earn at another college don’t enter your USC GPA. Your transfer GPA and your USC GPA are kept separate until USC checks whether you can graduate and earn graduation honors, and both must reach the required averages. Every transferable grade counts in your transfer GPA, including a D or lower, but a course graded below C− (1.7) earns neither subject nor unit credit. If you repeated a transferable course after a D+ or lower, both grades count in your transfer GPA; if your first grade was C− or higher, only the first one counts. USC doesn’t honor other colleges’ academic renewal or forgiveness programs. A summer course elsewhere needs a C− or higher to transfer. AP and IB exams and college courses taken before you finished high school can give you up to 32 elective units combined, with at most 16 from the college courses, and some AP and international exams meet general education requirements. You get no degree credit for a transferred course you already completed with credit at USC, and all upper-division courses for your major must be taken at USC. Rule |
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