<p>I'm debating whether or not to apply to USC, so a couple of questions:
How is life at USC in general? Fun? Lots of things to do?
How is the Engineering school? Are there research opportunities? Hard to get a high GPA? Are there engineering competitions?</p>
<p>Anyway, me:
2140 sat (800 M, 650CR, 690W )
3.5 GPA from a highly selective school which doesnt rank (all they see is 2nd tier out of 4)
bunch of Math and science competition winner
cross country
model UN
Lots of dedicated comm serv including religious school which i helped start
New Jersey student</p>
<p>My S is a freshman, undeclared engineer & so far seems very happy at USC. He has been very busy the entire time he's there (since 8/16 move-in day). One of the fun things they did was watch the stars on the red carpet arrive for the Academy Awards. Another thing they have done is walk around Little Tokyo & Chinatown to watch filming. There has been a lot of live entertainment on campus as well.
The engineering school is one of the top 10 in the nation (at least the graduate division). There are research opportunities described in more detail here:
<a href="http://viterbi.usc.edu/students/undergrad/research/%5B/url%5D">http://viterbi.usc.edu/students/undergrad/research/</a></p>
<p>I think you have a chance of getting in, especially if you're able to interview & make a great impression. My S was fortunate enough to interview with the associate dean of engineering, who came to his HS. Your HS college counselor can probably give you more guidance about how others from your HS with similar stats have fared getting into USC. Being frm NJ should help you, as they like geographic diversity & have many applicants & students from the west, fewer from the east.</p>
<p>HImom, do you mean the Emmys? I didn't think that this year's Academy Awards have been presented yet.</p>
<p>idlaunva, is your GPA weighted or unweighted? What does your course load look like=have you taken a lot of honors/AP/IB classes? Could you tell us more about your ECs like your community service?</p>
<p>Yeah, my son said it was the emmy's, but it was amusing to read from a kid who couldn't tell one movie star from another if he passed them in the street or sat next to them EVER. Could probably tell if he came across a sports or news personality, but NOT movie star types. <grin></grin></p>
<p>well my GPA is pretty horrible, its UW... my school is extremely competitive so they do only 1 GPA and everyone takes the same Honors core classes
my schedule is really strong in the sciences with 10 science courses and 4 math courses, 3 of which are college level (AP Calc, Single Variable Calc, Linear Algebra)</p>
<p>as for Extra curriculars, ive placed high in a lot of math competitions such as mandelbrot, arml, amc etc i also do science olympiad
my main comm serv comes from a sunday religious school i helped start, i became a teacher there
my total comm serv hours would be about 400</p>
<p>last thing i hav an internship at merrill lynch</p>
<p>Your unweighte GPA is near my son's weighted GPA--at the end of junior year it was 3.6 (he got some Cs). Your ECs & comm svc sound good, as do your awards. You definitely should apply if you're interested. I'm sure your school will have a good profile they'll include with your app to explain how competitve your school is.</p>