I want to go to USC. I live in
Mississippi. I know that’s an
unrepresented state for USC. If I’m the only one that applies at my school will this have a positive or negative effect on me?
Your competition is not the set of kids from your HS. It’s the kids from Mississippi, and, more generally, the kids from Mississippi and surrounding states. Whether or not there are other apps from your HS, USC could care less. That’s not the pool from their point of view.
If there would be any effect, I’d say positive. I don’t think it means your chances are increased because colleges aren’t obliged to choose x amounts of students from each school; if they end up taking, say, 10 students from school B and no students from school A, it’s fine because they don’t need to take any students from a school if that’s the way it turns out. That being said, if your school has a history of sending people to USC (I think you can check naviance if your school used it to see the past 5-6 years data on accepted students from your school), then maybe you’re in luck because your school has a good reputation and, referring to statistics, you’d have a higher chance of getting through due to the streak of acceptances.
What if my school has never sent a student to USC? It’s only been around since 2006.
you are not grasping the concept of how small your school and one applicant from it are in comparison to all the applicants you might be competing with
Hence an excellent USC applicant!! (says the UCLA grad)