Tips for admission? Currently a OOS junior with a subpar (3.5 gpa) but plan to go to cc to get in USC

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
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Tips would be greatly appreciated to get into usc, has been my dream school for a year,

I’m a junior, and my gpa isn’t nothing to brag about, my freshman year I had 3.5 at the end, sophomore first semester when covid hit, I went through some bad mental health issues, I failed ap modern world history and my cumulative gpa went to a 2.875

I have a really good grade trend, second semester I got a 3.7 and finished my math credits, and first semester junior year, got all As and a BH in pre calc, so my grades have been constantly improving with me making school a top priority

But the best gpa I can get unweighted is a little bit less than a 3.7, and weighted maybe a 3.9, and idk if I should even apply to usc with bad grades like that, cuz I doubt they’ll accept me

I’ve been trying to up my chances by doing things outside of school, I’m a musician, expert on guitar and a good pianist, I live in oregon, and I want my intended majors to be in music or in science, so I’m trying to get some volunteer hours at ohsu, and Omsi for science, trying to join a youth symphony and start posting on social media of me playing music, and I want to volunteer at oregons youthline because they helped me last year when I needed it

But my bad gpa and failing grade are deferring me from even trying to apply, so I plan to go to a cc here in oregon, probably Portland community college (they have articulation history with usc) and then try for usc or if I absolutely have to, might just move and go to a cali cc

But, I just really wanna get some input from others, some advice on how to max my chances at usc, I think I’m capable of getting a 4.0 in community college, as long as I make school a top priority, but even then, is that enough? Advice for ways to max chances as a usc out of state community college transfer, is hugely appreciated

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What made USC your dream school?

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Their school of music, and dornsife college, those are the two things I want to go to college for, I love music, it’s my passion and what I want to commit my time into, and I’m fascinated with science, science classes have always been my favorite in school, so if for some reason I could not do music, I would do science, and uscs schools for those are what caught me, especially Thornton school of music, not too many schools of music on the west and especially in oregon, but Thornton is something else, a dream to me

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Do you know what your budget is for university? Do you know whether you can afford four full years at USC without taking on any debt? Have you run the NPC for USC?

If you are going to be a music major, then you should try quite hard to avoid taking on any debt for a bachelor’s degree. If you end up majoring in some specific science (you will need to eventually pick one, but you have a lot of time) even then avoiding debt would be better if you reasonably can.

Oregon has some very good in-state public universities. If you are from Oregon, then you are also eligible for the WUE schools, although which schools give you how much of a break on cost will depend upon your major and is an area where I do not know the details.

I think that you should keep up your improvement in high school, keep an open mind wrt potential universities, and find out what your budget is.

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I agree with figuring out what your budget is for college. Also, what happens if you go to community college for two years and then still don’t get an acceptance to USC?

You didn’t ask for a list of other schools to consider, but I’m going to give you a few. You seem to want to stay in the western U.S. and want to study music and sciences. Have you looked at the University of Idaho? It’s in the WUE exchange so you would probably be able to get in-state tuition here, and they have a very strong music program.

Also, have you checked out the music programs at Oregon State and U. of Oregon? Oregon State offers a Music major (for BA/BS…less intense) and a Bachelor of Music program (more intense, requires an audition for entry). Oregon’s music program claims to have the largest full-time, in-residence faculty north of Los Angeles on the west coast. Oregon offers BA, BS, and BM options, all of which require an audition for entry.

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USC is a private school which means that they charge a good deal of money to attend. The current cost of attendance is $81,659. Cost and Financial Aid | USC Undergraduate Admission

Financial aid for transfers is not that great. They do have some funding but it is very limited and tends to favor very low income students (need-based). Merit scholarships are competitive and very hard to get.

California residents can apply to the State to cover some private school funding, in the form of CalGrants and the Blue/Gold scholarship, but those are only for eligible instate residents. As a nonresident, you don’t qualify for that funding.

So where is your funding coming from to attend USC?

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Cost is not a concern for me right now, I’ll be able to figure it out, Ik I will, my concern is admission

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Cost isn’t a concern, if I had to go to another school, I’d travel to the east for their music schools, which I’d like to avoid but if I had to I would, Thornton is my top choice because of its distance, but I could go to berklee or New England conservatory of music if I got accepted there and not Thornton

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My main concern is admission to Thornton, Ik I’m a very skilled musician, it’s just my subpar academic records, a failing grade and a 3.5 gpa that makes me think I’d get rejected from Thornton and usc admission

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Thornton is extremely competitive - cream of the crop musicians. What do you mean when you say you are an “expert” on guitar? What experience do you have? What type of musical resume have you built? If you just found USC last year and are scrambling for extra curriculars to show your expertise, I’m not sure it will be enough.

If you decided to apply into some sort of science in Dornslife, you should have top grades in math and science courses. What type of science are you interested in and what do you see yourself doing with that science in the future?

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I used to have a guitar teacher who started his bachelor’s degree at Berklee, ran out of money, and needed to finish at his in-state public university. He would have been far better off to have started at his in-state public university in the first place. He was needing to give a very large number of guitar lessons before he could pay off his debt.

Later I had a different guitar teacher who was getting his master’s degree at Berklee. He could afford it, and liked it quite a bit. One daughter took a summer class at Berklee and also liked it a lot, but she did not take on any debt to do it (nor to get her B.Sc. at a different university).

Avoiding debt is important. When you get to the point where you are paying your own bills (or at least trying to pay your own bills) this will become much clearer.

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Cost is not a concern for me, my biggest concern is admission to Thornton, because of my lackluster gpa

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There’s no such thing. Either you can afford it or you can’t. That’s something you need to know before you apply. I would run the net price calculator and bring the results to your parents. If they run and hide under the bed, then you’ll know.

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People will stop asking about cost if you share what other schools you will be applying to. If you have an academic and financial safety that you are willing to attend, then we can have a conversation about applying to this reach school. If you are “USC or bust,” you need to take a step back and figure out what you will do if you spend two years at community college and don’t get into USC.

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There isn’t many competitions I could enter for on guitar in my area, but this is my 10th year of playing guitar, I practiced 4 hours a day daily for many years, and can play works of tommy Emmanuel and of the likes, for piano I got a merit on abrsm grade 5 theory, and am planning to do grade 7 performance, grade 8 performance, arms, and diprsm, I’ve been in orchestra since 6th grade, and have been in the highest levels since 7th grade

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Other places I’ve considered in the west area, are university of oregon as a safety, or university of Washington, I also considered Curtis institute of music, Juliard, unt for music, Cleveland institute of music, New England conservatory of music, berklee, or the colleges in London, but I don’t want to travel that far, which is why I want usc Thornton, or university of Washington

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I am inclined to step back and try to actually answer your question.

A GPA of 3.5 is quite good. COVID has also messed things up for quite a few students. However, this GPA is low for the University of Southern California (which I have been assuming all along is the USC that you are referring to, there is another USC). This makes it quite difficult to predict your chances. It seems like it is probably worth an application (ignoring the cost issue) but you will need to apply to other schools where admissions is more likely.

For the Berklee College of Music (much closer to my side of the country) a GPA of 3.5 is fine. Admissions will be much more dependent upon your musical ability. However, I would only recommend Berklee if you are definitely going to major in something very close to music (such as music performance, music administration, music production, …). There is no way that I would go there to study physics or biology.

You mentioned at some point that you are finishing up your math credits. I will point out that quite a few math majors are also quite good at music, but there are more jobs for math majors. I have on more than one occasion attended some music event and been surprised to see someone I know from working in high tech get up on stage and play.

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USC Thornton has the following programs for guitar: classical guitar, jazz studies, and popular music. All three require a prescreening process and audition. If you post which of these three areas you are interested in, and feel that you can provide a good audition for, I can find the links that will show you the audition requirements and the required curriculum for accepted students.

As others have said, Thornton is one of the premiere music schools in the country, especially for guitar. Many of the other students applying will be very, very accomplished. It is always good to have other schools you are interested in.

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I wasn’t familiar with Tommy Emmanuel so I just watched a clip of his playing. His style of music seems more folk/country/bluegrass-y to me, at least in the clip that I saw. Another university with an excellent music program is Belmont in Nashville, which would also offer you the sciences that you’re interested in. The IBMA (Bluegrass Music Foundation) maintains a list of colleges with bluegrass programs, and I would recommend researching several of them (particularly East Tennessee State and Morehead State in KY). Lawrence is another top music program that has some offerings in this style of music, and would also offer the sciences for you. Berklee was the only one of the colleges/conservatories you mentioned with any info on the bluegrass database.

Whenever a student comes to CC and their list contains only schools that are highly selective and where admission is unlikely, people recommend building a balanced college list. Students generally only apply to the most competitive programs if they think they have a decent chance of acceptance. But that means that 95% of the people who are denied admission are highly qualified applicants. If your list only contains the most competitive music programs in the country (or world), then there may be heartache at the end of the process.

So right now you have U. of Oregon and U. of Washington. I’m not familiar with Washington’s music program, but Oregon requires an audition for entry. Does Oregon have rolling admissions? How early can you get a response from them as to your acceptance?

Also, several people have mentioned this, but what is the budget? What does your family feel comfortable paying for?

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Sorry…but you need to sort out what you can pay annually FIRST.

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