<p>Academic Performance
GPA on 4 scale: 3.79 unweighted</p>
<p>Testing
SAT Math: 710 (Will retake)
SAT Critical Reading: 700 (Will retake)
SAT Writing: 770 (Will retake)
SAT II Physics: Will take as soon as possible
SAT II Math I: Will take as soon as possible
AP World History: 5
AP Psychology: 5
AP US History: 5
AP English Language: 5
AP English Literature: Will be taking senior year
AP BC Calculus: Will be taking senior year
AP US Government: Will be taking senior year
AP Economics (Macro and Micro): Will be taking senior year
AP Biology: Will be taking senior year
All my other classes during high school have been honors class save for non-honors Spanish in 9th grade before transferring to honors Spanish once I got into 10th grade.</p>
<p>Extra-Curriculars
Fencing Team (11,12)
Key Club (10,11,12)
ARISTA Honor Society -Local NHS chapter (11,12)
NY Blood Center Volunteer - (11,12)
FBLA (11, early 12) but I decided it wasn't the club for me so I left.
Volunteer to help teach and watch children on Sundays at my church (11, 12)</p>
<p>Major: Computer Science
Minor: Possibly Business
Pre-Dental requirement courses.</p>
<p>Ethnicity: Chinese
Home State: New York</p>
<p>Miscellaneous (Outside School/Non-Academic)
Self learning Japanese and Chinese (Mandarin) for a year so far for fun.
Piano lessons for 2 years on my own accord followed by self-learning for a year and counting. I am at not performance level by any means.</p>
<p>Chances are good but at your level, it’s a crapshoot who gets in. Apply to a lot of your favorite schools like USC and you’ll get into a few of them. It’s a numbers game. </p>
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<p>Wow. A rennaisance man.</p>
<p>The one thing worth adding is that while you have plenty of tangibles, I can’t help but wonder what your intangibles are, as in what makes you tick and why you’d want to go all the way across the country to USC. There are plenty of good schools that offer comp sci degrees, so why USC? That’s one big thing that matters in the application process. Is there something about USC’s engineering school that resonates with you or have you always dreamed of going to school in the ghetto or you have some fascination with college football? There are plenty of reasons to come to USC but the university has plenty of qualified applicants, so you have to ask yourself why specifically you want to come to USC. Beyond the numbers, that’s the kind of stuff that gets you admitted to a competitive school.</p>
<p>Just how bad is the surrounding area? Is the entire immediate surrounding area bad as you say?</p>
<p>Also, where in the application essay will I tell the college why I want to go to them most or instead of other colleges? The essay?</p>
<p>Sent from my Xoom using CC</p>
<p>This is no joke, but some faculty at Stanford and Yale actually choose admits randomly, including pushing boxes of printed applications down the stairs and choosing ones that fall out. It’s only a matter of time before USC does the same…IMO.</p>
<p>Seattle TW…you crack me up :)</p>
<p>LOL well I once saw a movie studio president essentially say the same thing, that he could’ve made another separate pile of scripts and the results would’ve been the same. You’d like to believe that that’s not possible but it probably is.</p>
<p>J814Wong, sorry for the smug joke about the neighborhood. It’s a somewhat downtrodden urban neighborhood that’s gentrifying. It’s really not THAT bad, but frankly since the majority of students (who populate boards like this) come from nice suburbs it can be a bit of a shock.</p>
<p>I never had a problem with it. The bottom line is that you’re not in the suburbs anymore and you have to just not be stupid, especially late at night. Watch your back and you’ll be fine. This is not unique to USC; urban schools like Penn and the University of Chicago have the same issues, but if you don’t want the city then there are plenty of schools like Iowa and all the LACs in upstate New York for you to apply to. Don’t worry about the neighborhood - that should be the least of your concerns.</p>
<p>The essay is the big place where you show them that you want to go to USC (or MIT or Stanford or whatever) but the other way you show them (a lot of schools do this) is by having contact with them. You inquire, get on their mailing list, meet their admissions reps at high school visits and college fairs (and get that person’s business card), and especially - if you can - with a campus visit.</p>
<p>I think the big thing is that you convey your sincere interest (while not stalking them Fatal Attraction-style) by maintaining contact with them and by writing sincere essays that will infer your genuine interest in the school. You can’t fake that stuff (hopefully) and when the admissions folks look at that in sum, that will help sway them towards you rather than the other gazillion qualified kids.</p>
<p>j814wong- a few suggestions:</p>
<p>1- take the Math II subject test, not Math I - which is too easy.
2- If you have NOT taken AP Physics, which apparently you have not, do NOT attempt to take the Physics subject test. Instead take the US History, or English Lang subject tests which correlate well with the classes you have already taken.
3- Why are you NOT taking AP Physics your senior year? You say you want to be a CS major, but your choice of Senior classes do not show an interest or strength in STEM type classes. I advise you to take AP Physics instead of AP US . Government your Sr year. You will need to have that class under your belt if you get into USC and wish to major in CS, and want to avoid wasting a lot of time and $$ taking basic entry level college physics classes to get up to speed when you get here. The CS dept is in the school of engineering and there are a lot of advanced level math and physics classes that you must take in order to get a CS degree.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions. However, AP GOV is mandatory at my school after having taken AP US history. Furthermore, my school is limiting the ammount of periods i can have totally as part of some NY state rule that recently came to pass. My only choice in my current course list is to drop AP Calculus BC to AB which is one period shorter. Then assuming the Physics class is one period due to budget cuts, i may be able to get in it.</p>
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