does anyone have any idea about the acceptance rate. Also if I do get it, is it worth turning down other schools for?
I heard most ppl get in
Acceptance to Thematic Option is very competitive.
It’s like the best of a LAC classroom experience (small classes of intellectual peers, top top professors) while attending a large diverse cosmopolitan university. If you are looking for a broad range of very challenging and excellent courses, meeting a group of like-minded students, and getting very personal advisement, TO is great. It’s geared towards students who want to do the reading, want to participate in class discussions, and think.
Two conflicting answers haha.
It’s competitive but there is one important thing to realize: they don’t have access to/look at your main USC application at all. You’re on equal ground for the application process, and they decide admission based purely on the essays.
Additionally, remember that TO is not going to show up on your diploma or anything should you take it, so it won’t have a tangible effect on your career. That being said, it can enhance the type of experience you have at USC and is definitely a hook IF you think it’s right for you.
Someone said at an explore session that they accept like 90% of the people. But info may be misheard? If you want to do the work, it’s great, and you’ll probably get in because it’ll show in your TO app. Plus, generally the only ppl that apply are the ones who are genuinely interested in. It (or are being forced by their parents, in which case, they either don’t get in, or get in and end up hating it)
WOw why so many?
They accept about 200 freshmen. From USC, “Last year, almost 52,000 students applied for 3,100 places in the incoming first-year class.” So I would say selection is competitive.
Some students think the program is a GPA killer so they avoid it.
I been on this thread for 4 plus years and never seen anyone post a 90% acceptance rate. I have seen a competitive process with people posting both acceptances and denials. Even T/P scholars are denied each year (as reported by these students).
Thank you. That’s what I figured. Wish they would publish actual numbers so we can adjust our expectations accordingly.
There are two numbers posted on the USC website. One page says 196 and the other is 200.
Yes, we know the number in TO- we do not know the number denied.
I’ve never seen the number applying to TO either. But there is a certain self-selection in the works. TO is an honors program in workload, mentorship, rigorous writing, etc, but the word “Honors” is not even in its title, nor, as mentioned earlier, is the TO distinction noted on the diploma. The point (for TO) is to attract students who genuinely are interested in this sort of rigor, involved peers, and intense discussion-based coursework, rather than (ahem) those who are more attracted to honors and prestige. After spending all of HS carefully collecting resume-worthy awards, some students self-select out when there is no big outward payoff. And as I’ve posted elsewhere, there are many extremely smart and intellectual students who simply want to put all of their time into pursuing internships, get more deeply involved in major-related ECs, or have more time to work on their overall gpa (for grad school placement) for whom TO seems like one commitment too many. All that is to say, there may not be a ton of kids for whom TO is the best fit–and while the program has a limited number of spots (therefore, selective), it’s not about selectivity for prestige’s sake.
Thank you for the reply. Like you pointed out, I do not want to be in TO for the prestige. I visited campus today and most students didn’t think anything of thematic option and definitely didn’t regard it as an honors program. I want to get in this program because it genuinely sounds amazing and the brochure that they sent included the classes in it and they are amazing. Rather than taking intro to biology I can take an interesting interdisciplinary class with the best professors.
Thematic Option is not a GPA buster at all. My daughter heard this from students before getting into the program and found it to be true: TO professors are aware of the extra reading and writing the students put in voluntarily by being in the program, and final grading is typically fair and not to be worried about as long as you are a conscientious student . Another plus is that the 2 writing classes are done in the first year and with regularly scheduled one on one conferencing with the professor so that you really get great instruction in college writing which will help in all your classes to follow.
Everyone I know who’s in TO gets B’s and A’s on their papers. Then again, they’re all T/P scholars, so the sample might be too small…
I was more addressing the competitiveness of Getting in. I do think it’s a very self selecting pool but I know I got the invite because I got over 1500 on my reading and writing SAT combined score.
My child was invited and did not get in. His friends say it is tough, some like it, others are killing themselves.
I think I figured out the 90% acceptance rate vs. the “very selective” discrepancy. The very high rates were said to those at ExploreUSC, interviewing for the Trustee Scholarship (myself included). If I remember correctly they said “the majority of you should be accepted”, but this was informal-ish and I think directed only at that particular high-achieving group. The brochure, however, said it was selective and students typically had a near perfect GPA in high school and 2150+ on the SAT. So, as that was the case for the group that day, they felt they could say that even though it was obviously misleading.
Anyway, anybody else out there super excited for TO?!