Could I join the Trojan family? (Chances!)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
1

<p>Weighted GPA: ~4.05
Unweighted GPA: 3.6
Top 10%
Large competitive public school
One of the most difficult workloads available at my school</p>

<p>California Resident
Chinese American Male
First Generation College Student (if applicable)</p>

<p>College: CLAS</p>

<p>SAT I: 2080 (670 CR/670 M/740 W/12 essay) will retake, likely ~2200
SAT II: (660 Bio E/610 Lit/600 USH) will retake, likely ~700 on two subjects (Bio and Math II?)</p>

<p>Most important ECs:
·PMICU- Preliminary Military Intensive Conditioning Unit (9-Member,10-Disciplinary Officer, 11-Second Officer/VP, 12-First Officer/President)
·School Literary Magazine (10,11-Member, 12-Editor-in-Chief)
·Writing Club (10,11,12- Founder/President)
·Yearbook (11- Student Life Staff Member and web site designer, 12- Student Life Section Editor and web site designer)
·Newspaper (12-Staff Writer, web site designer)
·Red Cross Club (10- Treasurer/Co-founder, 11, 12 -Public Relations Officer)
·Track and Field (9,10- JV, 11,12-Varsity)
·Junior Statesmen of America (11- Member, 12-Vice President)
·National Honors Society (12) Senior only club; competitive application process
·Chinese School (pre-HS, 9,10,11,12)
·CSF (10,11)
·Piano (5 years)
·Published in school lit. mag and Tao House Anthology (local organization dedicated to keeping the spirit of famous playwright Eugene O'Neill's works alive)</p>

<p>Not sure if this counts for anything, but I've interviewed former SF Chronicle Washington Correspondent Marc Sandalow for journalism before. Guess it might be something I'd include elsewhere on the application.</p>

<p>Awards/Honors:
·Scholar Athlete Award
·Rotary Business Achievement Contest: Finalist (2004),Best Business Presentation (2005), 3rd place (2006)
·Business and Education Roundtable Honorable Mention in Creative Writing
·Academic Award (2004-2007)
·AP Scholar</p>

<p>OTHER:
150+ City/Miscellaneous volunteer hours
Stanford EPGY for Creative Writing
UC Berkeley Summer Session
Eugene O'Neill Student Days Creative Writing Workshop
California Yearbook Academy</p>

<p>WORK:
·Co-founded web design company to make web sites for local organizations (9,10,11,12- Cofounder/Vice President)</p>

<h2>·Natural Comfort Corp. - Translator/Copy Writer(9,10,11,12)</h2>

<p>I think my hook is in PMICU. In PMICU you must pass a qualifications test similar in difficulty to the tests required for most military academies. We work out, learn about the military, learn to march, learn battle tactics as well as military discipline. I guess co-founding a web design company would be another hook as well?</p>

<p>I've sent in Part I already, and my essays should be quite strong. I'm a potential English major after all. Teacher recommendations should be of a similar caliber.</p>

2

<p>Looks good- you should be ok.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for your help! So USC would be a match for me?</p>

<p>Any other opinions?</p>

4

<p>I would say maybe even a safety?</p>

5

<p>Thats comforting. :)</p>

<p>Lol, any chance at any scholarships then? ^^;;</p>

6

<p>scholarship has different criteria so it's hard to tell. Most the time they look at so called "leadership" but it's the trustees who decide what will be most emphasized.</p>

7

<p>So the general consensus seems to be USC is a low match/safety for me in terms of straight admissions and scholarships will depend on what the trustees emphasize.</p>

<p>I thought the merit-based scholarships were based on mostly the same criteria as those for admissions?</p>

8

<p>You never know. It's not an exact science- if it is, none of us here have figured it out.</p>

<p>Take a look at the Official Decisions 2011 thread. It seemed that most of the people who received scholarships got their acceptances before March 1. My S got his acceptance on March 6 and did not receive a scholarship (3.7UW, 2210 SAT.)
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=294755&highlight=official+decisions%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=294755&highlight=official+decisions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

9

<p>USC is definitely not a safety/low match for anybody, so I really don't know why you would assume that with 2 random opinions. But anyways, yes, try to get a higher SAT score if you can. 3.6 UW is a little low, I know the average of our freshman class was higher than that.</p>

10

<p>summerskter- Well I didn't "assume" it, I was just trying to summarize the opinions of the two posters. I wasn't too sure about my GPA either, but yeah, I just took the SAT I again yesterday and I think I did better. We'll see.</p>