Chance a fearful junior?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Southern California
1

<p>All right, so I know you guys are all rejoicing or mourning over your own decisions. (Hopefully rejoicing!) But do you think you could spare a moment to chance some rather weird stats?</p>

<p>Female, white, junior at a good public school in NC. (I guess I'd classify it as "sends some grads to top schools".) Will need financial aid for sure, single mom with income around ~20k, although she's in grad school. (Haha, will that create "economic diversity"?)</p>

<p>SAT: 2240 (800CR, 700M, 740W - first try single sitting)
PSAT: 224 (hmm...I see a correlation.) Definitely enough for NMSF in my state.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.2 UW, 3.7 W
Class Rank: top third for certain, not exactly sure of the number</p>

<p>My horrendous GPA is mainly due to the fact that I failed one semester of PE and one of Art in freshman and sophomore years, respectively... PE I'll be retaking, so hopefully that will help, but there's not a whole lot I can do about Art. I have no excuses to make, LOL.</p>

<p>Junior Year 1st Semester:</p>

<p>Honors English III - A
Honors Global Issues - A
Honors Algebra II - A
AP US History - A
Journalism - A
Chemistry - B
AP French Language - A</p>

<p>2nd semester should be similar. Does the truly extreme upward trend count for anything? </p>

<p>Self-studying for the AP Psychology exam, since they didn't offer it at my school and I love psychology. </p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Amnesty International - Founder and Co-Prez
Movie Club - Founder and Co-Prez (lol this was just for fun)
Co-Founder and Co-Prez of a schoolwide tutoring organization
writer on the newspaper, possibly editor next year
I think my extreme devotion to Jane Austen should count as an EC.</p>

<p>Basically all of them were started this year, unfortunately. I know I don't have too many, but I really care deeply about all of them and devote a LOT of time to them.</p>

<p>As a side note, since the College Board went and cut AP French Lit, I'll probably be taking a French course at UNC next year. I'm really determined not to slack off on senior year, since I feel like I should prove that my sudden burst of scholarliness (is that even a word?) will be lasting.</p>

<p>Intend to apply to CLAS - any thoughts? Thank you so much, and I sincerely apologize for the length!</p>

2

<p>You are right that your GPA could be a problem. But this will help a little: PE is not included in your academic GPA. </p>

<p>Compare your stats to the latest Freshman profile:
<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/0910/FreshmanProfile2008v3.pdf[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/0910/FreshmanProfile2008v3.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>and also to some of those recently accepted:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/642272-stats-only-usc-decisons-2009-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/642272-stats-only-usc-decisons-2009-a.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Your good SAT score, ec’s, and essays, and upward trend could make a difference- good luck!</p>

3

<p>you have really great stats and will definitely be a competitive applicant. I would be surprised if you didn’t get in. Of course it wouldn’t hurt to work on your GPA.</p>

4

<p>I think you have a good chance of admittance, but probably for a spring admit. I have almost the same stats, w/ 3.3 UW and a somewhat higher SAT score and got into CLAS for spring.</p>

<p>My reason is that usually USC admits people for spring when they have awesome qualities of essay and short answers, ECs, etc, but their GPA or test scores are lower and USC doesn’t want to include that into their freshman profile (which only shows those for fall admits) so it won’t lower it’s rank.</p>

<p>Pull up your GPA with those good junior year grades and I think you have a good chance at fall too. Good luck! :)</p>

5

<p>@cc411 - Thanks for the info, that’s really helpful! If they take out non-academic courses, that should actually give my GPA quite a boost, since I don’t actually have a single C on my transcript and the F’s are in…well, non-academic classes. Does first-year art get taken out as well, by any chance? Haha…</p>

<p>@nastynate0315 - Thanks! I’m hoping they’ll see that I’ve really turned things around, but who knows.</p>

<p>@zizi201 - Hmm, that seems like a tough choice - I’m not sure what I’d do if I was admitted for spring. Congrats on your acceptance, though! And I’m doing my best with GPA, for sure. :slight_smile: Maybe my midyear transcript will help convince them as well, lol. </p>

<p>Hmm, let me calculate my GPA minus PE… Darn it, I don’t have my transcript with me. But what other classes count as non-academic?</p>

6

<p>Art will be counted, but luckily you are wising up and showing maturity as the years go on. Good job! </p>

<p>But those few F’s are going to worry adcoms. Not that they’ll think you are not smart–you are. But they will see a pattern of a student who shuts down and doesn’t do the barest minimum to pass. It is hard to get an F if you show up to class and have a good attitude. So you have exhibited the opposite. The biggest obstacle will be to convince USC and other schools that you have grown up and seen that mistake. You should write an essay to honestly explain why you let those F’s happen (admit your mistakes) and why they will never happen again. </p>

<p>Your case will be helped if you have teachers who have seen you grow and can write recs that talk about your work ethic, sense of maturity, etc. It’s not too early to be thinking about who you will ask to write those letters. If you have a teacher who is a big fan of yours, you may want to speak to them about your Freshman troubles and ask if they might write about their assessment of your current dedication to school and classes–even the ones you may not love.</p>

<p>Best of luck.</p>

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<p>I agree with everything madbean says. As a teacher, we make it hard to get an F, especially if you show up, do the work, and have a good attitude. Follow madbean’s recommendations about an essay and rec letters and you should do fine.</p>

8

<p>If you are an out-of-state student, I’d say the low GPA might be a disadvantage. Make sure you do an on-campus interview and get really good teacher rec’s. I think you have a good chance.</p>

9

<p>It doesn’t matter if he’s out of state or not. USC isn’t a public university.</p>

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<p>^ya unlike the UC’s USC doesn’t care if you live in California.</p>

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<p>madbean and msheft, I have some wonderful teachers in mind in whose classes I have worked very hard, so hopefully they’ll be able to do some convincing. Thank you so much for the advice! I’ll do my best to show USC that I really have turned over a new leaf.</p>

<p>wolftron, I’m pretty sure there’s no way I’m going to be able to do an on-campus interview, since we just don’t have the money to go flying all the way across the country. But as other people have said it doesn’t matter if I’m in-state, thank god!</p>

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<p>anonymityyy, I don’t know where you’re located, but USC offers interviews in major cities across the U.S. I live in Chicago and had one a couple of months ago. I think it would be a good way for the admission committee to get a glimpse and your personality. I think you’ll definitely get admitted to the school if you put forth the effort in your application. However, you could end up being admitted for the spring like I was. I’m pretty confident that you will get some form of acceptance. Unfortunately, I carry no credibility and am only one random dude on CC.</p>

13

<p>USC staff is pretty helpful, so you could probably convince them to a phone interview. At the very least it’ll show you’re definitely interested. I think any type of interview would be to your very very best interest, as it basically gives you a clean slate to explain your unusual grades instead of just delivering it raw and expecting them to interpret it the right way. Not sure if that was grammatically correct. Good luck.</p>

14

<p>How do you fail PE is a better question</p>

15

<p>Amputated leg?
Massive obesity?
Cement shoes?</p>

16

<p>I think you have a really good shot. </p>

<p>Keep working on your GPA! I personally feel that the upward trend does make a difference. If your GPA improves first semester of 12th Grade, send that as well! That is what my school does</p>

17

<p>Yeah if you can get straight a’s on your first semester of senior year with some difficult classes, I think they’ll let your freshman year grades pass. </p>

<p>Like others have mentioned, if you write an essay about how you’ve changed or have a teacher explain how you’ve changed, you’ll have an excellent shot at getting in. </p>

<p>I got in this year with much worse stats.</p>

18

<p>Thanks guys, I’ll look into setting up an interview near me when I’m applying - I think I’d be able to present myself pretty well and all.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Excused absences near the end of the semester, actually. xD </p>

<p>And I’m certainly going to do my best the first semester of senior year and fully intend to send those grades in.</p>

<p>Thank you all so much for your advice!</p>

19

<p>you have a great chance!</p>

20

<p>Wow, thanks! I wish I could be sure of that myself, haha.</p>