Chance me for USC, please?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
1

<p>Weighted GPA: 3.91, unweighted 3.8
SAT I: 2150 total, 680M + 700CR + 770W + 12 essay
SAT IIs: US History: 710, Latin: 600 (I know, awful. I'll be taking Lit and Bio to make up for it)
APs: APUSH - 4, AP Lit - 5, AP Calc BC - 5
Senior courseload: AP English, AP Euro, AP Latin, AP Bio, Russian language independent study (I will be teaching myself an accelerated year of UCLA's Russian program). This schedule would be very-most rigorous at my school
I am a female Pacific Islander, if that helps/hurts any.</p>

<p>GSA: member for 9th and 10th, leader for 11th and 12th.
Piano for 8 years -- recitals, practice, been paid a few times to provide background music for parties, various performances, accompanying my school's musicals
Guitar for 5 years -- practice, 2 rock bands
School orchestra: 9/10/11/12. I play guitar, piano, drums, and occasionally write arrangements
New World Youth Jazz Orchestra: 10
Tutoring at an underprivileged school: 9/10 (~80 hours)
Tutoring Latin at my school: 11/12
volunteering as a lobby pianist at Kaiser hospital: 11/12 (~150 hours)
Summer 2011: internship writing articles for a youthology/parenting site. This may extend into paid work or a continued internship during my senior year.</p>

<p>One of my teacher recs should be stellar, other one should be good. Outside rec will be fab. Don't know about my college counselor's rec. </p>

<p>Could anyone chance me, and tell me how I could improve my app?</p>

2

<p>You certainly have a chance, but my brother’s son, and my friend’s son both got rejected at USC, and they were good students, coming from very fancy private high schools, so based on this anecdotol evidence, it is getting very hard to get into USC.</p>

<p>My brother’s son got into Cornell.</p>

<p>My friend’s son got into Mich, and Wash U.</p>

<p>As I am sure you know, everyone applying will have similar stats, so then the admissions process becomes rather subjective.</p>

3

<p>You have a great portfolio (numbers + ECs) overall, but you are going to be very similar to MANY applicants. Do you have something extraordinary about yourself to help you stand out? (Besides the URM status?)</p>

<p>I think you might have a shot because of your ethnicity, but everything else is pretty standard for USC applicants. Find that “hook” to make you stand out from the crowd (try to get a rec letter from your internship or volunteer work in addition to your teachers?) and really try to make your essay a knockout. Good luck!</p>