<p>Many students are applying to USC from my high school. Am I directly competing with them or an I competing with every applicant across the country?</p>
<p>Another way of asking this is : Does USC limit the amount of students they accept from a certain location?</p>
<p>USC does not set limits or minimums on the number of applicants accepted from any particular school.</p>
<p>That said, there are a number of schools from which USC has historically accepted many students, and those schools are listed in the freshman profile <a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/apply/documents/FreshmanProfile2013FINAL.pdf[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/apply/documents/FreshmanProfile2013FINAL.pdf</a> . We can expect that those schools will continue to be well-represented at USC.</p>
<p>Also in the freshman profile is the information that students from 8,783 different high schools applied for admission to USC last year. At least one applicant was accepted from 3,181 of those schools, meaning that 5,602 of those high schools did not have a successful applicant to USC.</p>
<p>Your best bet is to not worry about your classmates or compare yourself to them. Carefully prepare your own application to best display your strengths and apply to academic and financial safeties in addition to USC. Read madbean’s excellent thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/1558825-what-my-chances-usc-final-answer.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/1558825-what-my-chances-usc-final-answer.html</a> to determine your own chances. </p>
<p>Do not become involved in the discussion and speculation among classmates about stats - maintain your privacy and your dignity by just staying out of it.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>You’re competing with everyone for a slot at USC, but don’t overthink it and obsess with your competition. Just control what you can control, and that’s your application and your grades. Worrying about other people is pointless and, as the cliche about track and field goes, you can’t run as fast as possible when you’re looking over your shoulder at other people. Every college will tell you that they admit students, not schools, and that the number of students admitted from any one school is going to fluctuate from year to year.</p>
<p>Beyond that, just reread ALameMom’s post. Very good.</p>
<p>I would agree. Quite a few of my daughter’s classmates looked at Naviance and realized how few students were chosen from their school in each of the previous years. Most years quite a few applied and only a few were taken. The year before there was a record number of applications and only one or two were accepted. </p>
<p>Undeterred, my daughter and her friends applied knowing the odds were low. That year their applications totaled about the same as the year before before and yet - more than half were accepted from that pool. @USCAlum is correct - they weren’t competing against each other (they all were applying to different degree programs). They were competing and being judged against the total application pool university wide.</p>
<p>It’s about the quality of student and how they fit in the overall make-up of the incoming class. This was a particularly strong group of motivated, passionate students.</p>
<p>Be yourself, do your best, and don’t look back no matter the outcome. But if you don’t apply - it’s already a definite “no.” If you do apply you at least have a fighting chance. Belief in self is always the start of any journey.</p>