Chances at USC J-School

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Southern California
21

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Personally, I don't think you should mention you go a tough school because A) You probably have no idea what a hard school is, unless you've been to over 10 schools.... B) So many people say this that it probably has lost all meaning to the admission's officers.... and C) the admission's officers know what schools are difficult, and which ones are known to be easy.

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<p>I agree that it's not likely to help a great deal, but if it's true and you mention it in an un-obtrusive (read: whiny) way, it's probably not going to hurt. Perhaps I'm slightly defensive because I am in that situation. I've only been to one high school, but we were on Newsweek's top 100 for a while. More concretely, I've gotten 4's and 5's on APs in classes where I got B's and C's three times. I'm not an anomaly here, and it's not because I'm lazy - our teachers grade by the philosophy that a "C" is average. But yet, because I'm in a very small magnet program inside a larger (and failing) public school, most college admissions officers I've talked to know almost nothing about my school. This year, our counselor has actually started sending out separate profiles of our program, which should help a little.</p>

<p>Obviously, I have no idea what the OP's situation is or if this is even a problem for him/her (sorry). But if it is the case, briefly mentioning it to provide perspective isn't the worst idea.</p>

<p>...and this is getting off-topic and ridiculously prolific, so I'm just going to shut up now.</p>

22

<p>Honestly, like I said... you are on the borderline because of your GPA and SAT score... you still have time to bring them out! They're the only things holding you away from USC. </p>

<p>Besides those, your resume looks great. </p>

<p>(Don't jeopardize your admission by playing the "unique student" case! You're much safer if you just work a little harder and bring up your stats.)</p>

23

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For reference, USC's 2005 CDS states that 47% and 44% of their undergraduate admits for that year had SAT scores from 500-599 in verbal and math respectively, which actually puts you in an average(ish) range for the university (extrapolating as if those were average section scores, putting that range somewhere from 1500-1800 on the 2400 scale composite).

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<p>I'm pretty sure you have the wrong USC. Those stats sound more in line with the University of South Carolina.</p>

24

<p>You may be right... ;)</p>

<p><em>embarassing</em> That's what I get for googling "USC Common Data Set" and not paying attention past the website color scheme...</p>

<p>But nonetheless, my opinion of his chances stands.</p>

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<p>I'll keep working hard!</p>