<p>Here is student's schedule and grades.</p>
<p>9th:
AP Human Geography A
Advanced English 9 A
Algebra II/Trig A
Biology A
Drama A
PE 9 A
French III A</p>
<p>10th:
AP European History A
AP Psychology A
Advanced English 10 A
Math Analysis A
French IV A
PE 10 A
Chemistry A</p>
<p>11th:
At regular school:
AP English 11 A
AP US History A
AP French B</p>
<p>At magnet school for science/tech in afternoon; one of 92 in his afternoon class:
Advanced Chem Analysis B
Calculus (covered both AB and BC) B
Research Methods/Ethics A</p>
<p>12th:
Left magnet school due to lower grades there.
AP English 12 A
AP Environ Science A
AP US Gov A
AP Statistics A
AP Comparative Gov A
AP Micro/Macroeconomics (one per semester; eighth class) A
AP Art History A
AP World History A</p>
<p>Over summer: Econ/Personal Finance (A), Physics (A)</p>
<p>2220 on SAT (800 writing, 790 reading, 630 math). Planning to retake. Will take ACT in April, SAT II (math, chemistry, US history) in June.</p>
<p>VP of Debate team, member of Scholastic Bowl for two years, Tutoring and Nat'l Math Honor, started a Film Club, member of National Honor and National English Honor. </p>
<p>Ranked 14th in class of 290. GPA of 4.3 weighted. </p>
<p>Also has an uncle who attends USC currently. </p>
<p>What is the student planning to major in? (film?). What’s his or her unweighted GPA?</p>
<p>The student’s stats look good (based on the info provided) indicating a good chance.</p>
<p>A few things:
- Remember that USC focuses very heavily on the writing supplement. A student can look good statistically but if they don’t bring something different to the table (which the student would show through the supplemental essays), then the adcom won’t even think twice before rejecting them.</p>
<p>2) The student has many EC’s but they’re all primarily academic. I would suggest injecting some variety into the EC portion of the app (i.e. if the student has more involvement in the arts, sports, community service, etc.) as well as limiting the number of them he or she lists on the application. I know this sounds counterintuitive but USC looks for a good combination of depth and breadth in a student’s extracurricular activities. Starting a film club is a good thing to put on the app. I’d say that 4 EC’s (with 2 or 3 being leadership positions) should be fine. Just make sure the student shows their passion in whatever it is they want to do. Make sure they show that they have practiced their passion in their EC’s. (For example, a business student may try to start a non-profit organization). Put these things on the application.</p>
<p>3) HAVE A PERSONALITY! The student should express their own personality in their essays. They do not want a robot who spits out A’s, they want a real human being.</p>
<p>I think that if you discover a cure for cancer and win a first place award at the Sundance Film Festival you have a legitimate chance.</p>
<p>The chances for “any” student getting into USC is low as they turn down 80% of the applicant pool. That includes a number of students who have impeccable credentials.</p>
<p>Colleges care less about how much you did and more about why you did it. They’re trying to build a class that is diverse in interests. With 43,000 applications the student is going to be up against peers who also started clubs, have interesting extracurricular activities, etc.</p>
<p>Don’t try to guess what USC looks for. I suspect it changes every year depending on who else is in the pile. Good grades and scores are only part of the picture. And it may surprise people that sometimes those students are overlooked for someone with less than perfect scores (but still within range) who had a strong passion for something outside of the classroom and was able to demonstrate it.</p>
<p>As a mom of a possible USC Trustee Scholar, I would say you are on the right track. I would definitely recommend retaking the SAT to see if you could improve your math score. This years Trustee Scholar pool had an average SAT score of 2350. These are the kids that are being looked at for full academic merit-based scholarship. So keep up the hard work, study for the SATIIs, definitely take the ACT, retake the SAT, and apply early before for the merit scholarships. Good Luck!</p>