<p>Got rejected with..</p>
<p>4.15 GPA</p>
<p>2180 SAT (CR=760, M=740)</p>
<p>AP Biology-4 AP PHYSC-4, AP US History-5, AP Chem-4</p>
<p>Taking calc and english tests this year.</p>
<p>Class Rank 2/130 (Salutatorian) </p>
<p>Class president
Various other ECs</p>
<p>Hardest schedule my school allows.</p>
<p>I'm from detroit.</p>
<p>Don't mean to sound arrogant but USc was a safety for me.. But I got rejected.. ARGGH</p>
<p>Some care should be taken when determining which schools appear “safe.” I think we’ve seen most schools in the top 30 (and more!) of the dreaded USN&WR are not really safe for anyone–although many may be considered good 50/50 or better tries if a person has scores/gpa in the top quartile for previous classes. But not a lock. With so many excellent applicants, it may come down to how much care you take with the application, essays, and short answers. If you dash them off, consider how well they may stack up against others who put a lot of effort on each one.</p>
<p>Hope you had some other schools that accepted you. Making up a well-balanced list is key, so if there are juniors reading these threads, take note.</p>
<p>Posted this same idea in another thread but…</p>
<p>The USC admissions board isn’t stupid; they can tell if a student, no matter how intelligent and impressive on paper, doesn’t have an emotional investment in or desire to attend USC. You mention the school was a “safety” – so maybe you didn’t really show your best writing in the essays, or maybe a certain arrogance was apparent in your word choices, the way you talked about the school, the way you answered the questions, etc.</p>
<p>Any admissions board at a selective school can pick through BS. Why accept a student who appears like they don’t really value the school they’re applying to anyway? You have to admit it makes sense. I would much rather give a spot to a student who has a 1980 SAT and 3.8 GPA who demonstrates a real passion for attending USC than someone with near-perfect scores who considers the school “a safety.”</p>
<p>EDIT: </p>
<p>I poked around your other posts and saw these are the stats you posted on other boards:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not sure which is true – but if the stats I just looked at are true, you were rejected for low GPA/scores. Sorry!</p>
<p>lol talking about ■■■■■■■■ around with diff stats…good observation up there :)</p>
<p>jakey54,
Zelda and I agree on this one. For the USC class entering in fall of 2010 the combined SAT scores of admitted students were: 2030-2240.</p>
<p>USC looked at me holistically and that’s why I was the only one accepted in my entire class even though I only rank in like the top 6 or 7%. Our top person in our class was even rejected. This also was the most competitive year with 37,000+ applicants and only 23% admission.</p>
<p>Sorry you were rejected and your ego is slightly bruised but if USC was your safety then I’m sure you got into a better school.</p>
<p>I don’t think the program matters. If you are rejected by ur intended major, you will still be considered as undecided into the CLAS. I think i read somewhere that choosing a major won’t decrease your chance of admission.</p>
<p>haha USC a safety with those stats?</p>
<p>whatever, seems like its just a ■■■■■ anyway</p>
<p>It wasn’t a ■■■■■. More than one person uses this account. I felt like I put in a fair amount of effort to my application. I mean, I know it was a competitive year. But I’m pretty sure they accepted a lot of students with lower stats than mine. Oh well… Probably going to Georgetown. Congrats to admitted students!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>OK. <em>shrug</em> All other posts contain the same stats are there are no posts on any highly ranked schools – mostly 2nd or 3rd tier, so I’m sticking with the trolly ■■■■■ idea.</p>
<p>Comments:</p>
<ul>
<li>a 4.15 GPA is irrelevant - USC uses unweighted. The average UNweighted last year was 3.8.</li>
<li>the SATs you list fall in the average range for admitted students last year</li>
<li>if you considered USC a “safety” given the above information, you did not do your research.</li>
<li>College Confidential terms of service prohibit more than one person posting on a single account.</li>
<li>If USC was nothing more than a “safety” to you, why would your rejection bother you? Attend one of the schools you preferred from the start.</li>
</ul>
<p>Oh man, alamemom coming in with the big guns.</p>
<p>My unweighted GPA was well above 3.8, something like 3.99. Just because it was a “safety” does not mean I wouldn’t have gone given the chance. Sure, it wasn’t my top choice, but I definitely liked it. I just looked at the admitted student profile. The GPA unweighted is 3.8. The SAT averages for fall admits are as followed:</p>
<p>Critical Reading: 640-740<br>
Math: 680-770
Writing: 660-760</p>
<p>I was above the 75th percentile for CR and near the 75th percentile for Math. My writing was within the average range of admitted students. </p>
<p>I wasn’t a shoe-in (not many are for USC) but I feel as though I was certainly qualified. I actually did get into my top two (Georgetown and Duke, both of which are higher ranked than USC). I’m not trying to offend anyone, USC is a great school and I guess isn’t really a “safety” for anyone. I just was a little surprised that I got into Duke but not USC.</p>
<p>Well you began the post as “Arbitrary Admissions”, which definitely carries a negative connotation. If you weren’t meaning to “offend” anyone why would you post that on the USC board where many students are excited about being admitted just to rant how your ego got bruised?
I’ll leave this one for alamemom though.
Congrats, go to your higher ranked schools.</p>
<p>haha! That post was a bit un-alamemom-like, wasn’t it? As I am zooming around this forum, typing my fingers to the bone on alllllll those financial aid questions (and often the same ones over and over and over… 
but I’m still smilin’), I tend to get a bit straight-to-the-point. I didn’t recall being quite so blunt, but when I re-read it does have a “big gun” flair.</p>
<p>In general, I am very sympathetic to applicants who get bad news, but in this case I am not apologizing - the OP violated the College Confidential terms of service, (and thanks to Zelda’s detective work) we know that any stats he/she posts are suspect and he/she has the arrogance to call USC his/her safety.</p>
<p>P.S. the middle 50% of SAT scores was 2020-2230. The scores you list as “yours” fall in that average range. <a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1011/FreshmanProfile2010.pdf[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1011/FreshmanProfile2010.pdf</a> Interesting that you do not know your unweighted GPA and can only give an estimate.</p>
<p>Best of luck at those super-dee-duper schools to which you say you were accepted ;)</p>
<p>Fun thread.</p>
<p>Let me apologize for violating the ever-sacred CC terms of use. It wasn’t solely my opinion that USC was a “safety”. I had talked with my counselor and a college adviser, both of which said I had strong chances. I realize this year was a competitive one at USC, though. Perhaps the record number of applicants contributed to my rejection. All I was saying is that there were many applicants with lower stats than mine who got in. It’s just a little disheartening to know that I was academically stronger than many who got in, yet I was denied. This is the case for many applicants at many schools, though. I know admission boards look beyond the numbers. </p>
<p>I realize I was in the middle range holistically, but I was much nearer the 75th percentile than the 25th. In short, I had higher stats than the average USC applicant. </p>
<p>I intend on going to one of the “super-dee-duper” colleges I got into.
I wasn’t acknowledging that Duke and Georgetown are higher ranked to brag, but rather to prove that I was qualified for USC.</p>
<p>Congrats to all USC, Duke and Georgetown admits! All three are outstanding schools!</p>
<p>lolz 10char</p>
<p>The bottom line is, when you apply to top colleges along the lines of USC, NOTHING is a safety. I don’t care how smart you are. People with your stats get rejected all the time. Stranger things have happened.</p>
<p>But, congrats on your other achievements. You have some great schools to choose from.</p>
<p>Jakey54, congratulations to you on your acceptances. I know the admissions at my kids’ school were all over the map, this year. A couple of kids were accepted to Berkeley, denied to lesser state schools. The valedictorian denied to all Ivies and accepted to Stanford. Who knows? It was a tough year and lots of kids have found themselves in your position. You’re in good company.</p>
<p>Having said that, you have some great options! Too bad a few people got super dee duper snarky on here. </p>
<p>Signed, an 'SC Marshall School of Business Alum with a child headed to Duke in August.</p>
<p>^ I agree that it is a shame when snarky posters come on a school’s forum just to insult the school by calling it a safety and insult those accepted by saying their admission was arbitrary. And when they use made-up qualifications for their snarky post it makes it super-dee-duper snarky. </p>
<p>Congrats on your son’s admissions!</p>