Does USC have really strict requirements? Can my activities outweigh my academics?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
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<p>I have a 3.3 unweighted and 3.6 weighted gpa (not counting first semester senior year) and I was wondering if USC really takes grades into a very high consideration? </p>

<p>There was a lot of stress during these 2 years with divorce (my parents went to court and all that jazz but never actually divorced b/c they thought itd be better for me and my brother but idk if it would count) and stuff so I was thinking of talking to my counselor about getting a little slack cuz of that but idk if it would count because my parents never actually did divorce. </p>

<p>I'm very active in community events and hold several officer positions in clubs but my SAT scores are barely a 1800. I really want to get into this school because I want to major in pharmaceuticals and software engineering and it's also one of the 3 schools who has pre-pharm in Cali (or so i heard). </p>

<p>Will what I do outside of school be able to make up for my academics (my clubs, coding classes, volunteering)? I'm kind of scared, if I don't get in idk where I want to go..i'm still very new to the whole applying to college thing and my parents want me to at least get into a uc somewhere if not a pretty high ranking private</p>

<p>What do you guys think? Any advice? ..Thank you</p>

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<p>While they use a holistic process (look at entire application) grades are very important. Your issue won’t get you any “slack” in applying, people deal with all kinds of things…I can’t tell from your post/wording, so not sure if you are confused (or perhaps you have it straight), but USC is not a UC, it is a high ranking private school. Pharmaceuticals and software engineering are both rigorous programs, not sure majoring in both makes sense unless you want to spend a lot of years and $$$ there…</p>

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<p>You’re asking us to “chance” you which is something no one can really do. USC is taking less than 20% of it’s applicants (just under 18% to be exact) and I suspect that number will get tighter as more and more students apply.</p>

<p>The best you can do is try. The rest is up to USC.</p>