D-clearance
Each academic department handles their own “departmental clearance” to control the registration of specific courses or course sections. If a section number ends in ‘D’, you’ll need to contact the department to request permission to add the course.
Before requesting D-clearance, verify that you satisfy the prerequisites for the course and there are no time conflicts between it and your other courses. These will create errors in OASIS whether or not the D-clearance is granted.
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For lower-division (100-200) math courses, complete this form.
For upper-division (300-400) math courses, complete this form.
Sections can be on D-clearance for a variety of reasons, so our office may request more information as needed.
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In the week leading up to each semester’s drop deadline, all MATH courses will go on D-clearance and require the course instructor’s permission to add. The forms are the same as above, but they must be completed by the course instructor using their USC email account to verify their approval.
Students must email the course instructor to ask their permission to add, give them the information requested in the form, and make a plan for how you will catch up with the course and its current assignments.
Course sections at capacity
Webreg does not have built-in wait list functions, and academic departments can’t enroll individual students in courses. If there is an open seat in a course section, any student with access to Webreg may enroll themselves. Seats will change hands often and with increasing rapidity leading into each new semester, all the way up to Friday of Week 3. Students trying to get a seat in a full section need to watch the Schedule of Classes closely.
The only mechanism departments have to control enrollment in full sections is D-clearance, which limits the pool of students who can take open seats if they become available. We often use this for courses in which all sections are at capacity. Among the D-clearance requests our staff will prioritize students by major and time-to-graduation.
Obtaining D-clearance does not guarantee a seat in any section, it only gives students the ability to add if a seat becomes available.
Prerequisite Waivers
Academic departments may only waive prerequisites for their own courses. And mechanically, the waiver is granted from the course the student wishes to enroll in, not from the prerequisite course. For example, the Math department can waive any prerequisites for any MATH course, but if a PHYS course has a Math prerequisite, only the Physics department can waive that prerequisite.
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To waive a prerequisite based on a nationally-recognized standardized test score, find information about the specific test further down this page.
To waive a prerequisite based on a college-level math course outside USC, see the section for transfer students.
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Contact your academic advisor, who can help you make the request to the appropriate department. They will contact the Math department directly if they need an opinion beyond the information on this page.
USC Math Placement Exam
The USC Math Placement Exam is administered by Dornsife’s Division of Foreign Languages and students can register here. For all questions about the placement exam, email placement@usc.edu.
The exam only covers Precalculus topics. Exam results automatically update students’ permissions in OASIS to allow them to register for the appropriate math course, though this process can take up to 10 business days during orientation.
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Scores of 00-12 will place students into Math 040
Scores of 13-21 will place students into Math 108 or Math 117
Scores of 22-40 will place students into Math 125 or Math 118.
AP Exams
Transfer Credit Services awards 4 units of USC elective credit for scores of 4 or 5 on AP exams (details), but they do not update prerequisites automatically in OASIS.
Instead, email mathinfo@usc.edu with subject line “Standardized Test Scores”, and Cc your academic advisor. Include the following in the body of your email:
- Your Student ID number,
- The section number of the MATH course you’d like to add,
- The section number of one of the two discussions listed directly after that lecture,
- Proof of your test score.
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Scores of 0-3 should take the USC Placement Exam as described above.
You had some difficulty in your previous Calculus course and we will reassess your prerequisite knowledge.
Scores of 4-5 will waive Math 125 prerequisites and major requirements, allowing students to enroll in Math 126, 208, 307, or any other course with a Math 125 prerequisite.
It’s very likely that you’ve seen some of the Math 126 content in your previous courses, especially the early material. But there is more content in Math 126 that you haven’t seen, and Math 126 is much more rigorous than a typical high school Calculus course.
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A score of 4 will waive Math 125 prerequisites and major requirements, allowing students to enroll in Math 126, 208, 307, or any other course with a Math 125 prerequisite.
It’s likely that you’ve seen most of the Math 126 content but have not sufficiently mastered it.
A score of 5 will waive Math 126 prerequisites and major requirements, allowing students to enroll in Math 226, 225, 290, or any other course with a Math 126 prerequisite.
You have demonstrated a sufficient knowledge of Calculus 1 and 2 to meet those prerequisites for other courses.
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There is a new AP Precalculus Exam as of 2023/24. It’s likely that a passing score on this exam will place students into Math 125/118, but details still need to be reviewed and no credit is awarded at present.
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Not sitting for an AP exam can only be interpreted as a no-pass (NP) regardless of a student’s letter grades in their high school’s calculus or precalculus courses. Such students are expected to take the USC Math Placement Exam.
IB Exams
There are two IB courses available at two levels each*:
USC does not consider SL courses for credit or placement purposes. See Transfer Credit Services information on credit for IB HL coursework here. See Viterbi’s placement information for IB HL exams here. Semi-standard IB textbooks can be found here.
For MATH placement, email mathinfo@usc.edu with subject line “Standardized Test Scores”, and Cc your academic advisor. Include the following in the body of your email:
- Your Student ID number,
- The section number of the MATH course you’d like to add,
- The section number of one of the two discussions listed directly after that lecture,
- Proof of your test score.
*since Aug 2019, with first assessments in May 2021.
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Scores of 0-4 should take the USC Placement Exam as described above.
You had some difficulty in your previous Calculus course and we will reassess your prerequisite knowledge.
Scores of 5–7 will waive Math 125 prerequisites and major requirements, allowing students to enroll in Math 126, 208, 307, or any other course with a Math 125 prerequisite.
It’s very likely that you’ve seen some of the Math 126 content in your previous courses, especially in the Analysis and Approaches course. But there is more content in Math 126 that you haven’t seen, and Math 126 is much more rigorous than a typical high school Calculus course.
A-Level Exams
See Transfer Credit Services information on credit for A-level exams here. See Viterbi’s placement information for A-level exams here.
For MATH placement*, email mathinfo@usc.edu with subject line “Standardized Test Scores”, and Cc your academic advisor. Include the following in the body of your email:
- Your Student ID number,
- The section number of the MATH course you’d like to add,
- The section number of one of the two discussions listed directly after that lecture,
- Proof of your test score.
*Note that A-level scores are typically reported in mid-August, which can make registration difficult for freshmen in their first Fall semester.
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Scores below a B should take the USC Placement Exam as described above.
You had some difficulty in your previous Calculus course and we will reassess your prerequisite knowledge.
Scores of B or better will waive Math 125 prerequisites and major requirements, allowing students to enroll in Math 126, 208, 307, or any other course with a Math 125 prerequisite.
It’s very likely that you’ve seen some of the Math 126 content in your previous courses, especially the early material. But there is more content in Math 126 that you haven’t seen, and Math 126 is much more rigorous than a typical high school Calculus course.
Transfer Information
All incoming USC students should obtain a Transfer Credit Report (TCR) from Transfer Credit Services. They are in close communication with the Math department and use the same standards in determining course equivalence. They keep an extensive database of past articulation decisions, and another specifically for local community colleges.
TCS is the only office that awards USC units for past coursework. They will only assess lower-division courses that appear on an official college/university transcript. USC does not award units for courses taken while a student is still in high school.
However, TCS does not grant prerequisite waivers for individual courses as they must be waived from the course’s home department.
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Email mathinfo@usc.edu with subject line “TCR Prerequisite Waiver”, and Cc your academic advisor. Include the following in the body of your email:
- Your Student ID number,
- The section number of the MATH course you’d like to add,
- The section number of one of the two discussions listed directly after that lecture,
- A PDF copy of your Transfer Credit Report.
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Students can appeal a TCS decision with a petition directly to the TCS office. Appeals should address the specific reasons that TCS denied equivalence. For example, if TCS found that a past course did not cover “Topic X”, you must provide clear documentation that “Topic X” was indeed covered in the course you attended, perhaps with an official course syllabus or a copy of the graded final exam.
In some circumstances academic departments may decide to waive prerequisites even if TCS denies course equivalence or does not assess the past coursework. For example, if required material is split between several previous courses, or for advanced (beyond Calc 1) courses taken in high school. In such cases, the student’s academic advisor should email the Math DUS for consultation.
Graduate Courses
For an undergraduate students to take graduate courses as undergraduate electives, their major department must send written approval to the Office of the Registrar.
The Math department will only approve 500-level electives for MATH/AMCM juniors or seniors, and only for courses that do not have an undergraduate equivalent. For example, undergraduate students should take Math 425A/B rather than Math 525A/B.
If you are interested in taking a graduate course, contact your academic advisor. You will also need written approval from the graduate course instructor to verify your readiness for the course.