<p>I always thought that USC was out of my reach, but now I've decided to apply seeing as someone with identical, yes identical, GPA and ACT from my school got accepted to USC. Here's my info:</p>
<p>State: NJ
School: (Public, listed in top 4% of all public schools in the nation)
GPA: 3.53
ACT: 29 w/ 10 on Writing
SAT: never taken, never will
SAT II: 650 on US History
I've taken 2 AP Classes
4 years English
4 years Math
4 years Science (I got a C+ in physics, will that hurt?)
4 years Latin
5 years History (2 history courses senior year, 1 AP)</p>
<p>Extracurricular Activities:
4 years Cross Country, 3 of which are varsity
4 years Winter Track, 3 varsity
4 years Spring Track, 3 varsity
Writer for the School Newspaper for Senior year (nationally recognized, very prestigious, one of only a few weekly papers and no prior review, which is also very rare).
Broadcast Journalism- reporter for the broadcast journalism program as well for next year.
Secretary of the Latin Club senior year
4 years Latin Club
2 years TV-Film Club
2 years Young Republicans club
3 summers working at my church (Roman Catholic)
Washington Workshops Model Congress one summer
Georgetown Summer Program of Journalism one summer
Cooking school birthday party assistant Nov. 2009-present</p>
<p>MOST IMPORANT: I KNOW MY STATS ARE LOW, IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO TO HELP MY CHANCES, SUCH AS AN INTERVIEW OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT? USC IS MY NUMERO UNO CHIOCE.</p>
<p>I’ve realized that as your average high school student, I’m not particularly qualified to chance you. So I’m no help there.</p>
<p>But I don’t think an interview will help you out too much. I was reading an interview with the Dean of Admissions at USC, and he said that only a very small portion of applicants do interviews, and the acceptance rate for applicants who interviewed is actually lower than those who didn’t (I’m guessing because a lot of interviewees are doing the interview in an attempt to make up for a part of their application that is lacking.) So it doesn’t sound like interviews really hold much weight.</p>
<p>It’s risky to compare students based on stats. Instead of an interview, focus on your essays and making your ECs reflect some core interest- and leadership (or responsibility.) You don’t know how the other guy presented him/herself or, frankly, if it was a borderline admit based on some fluke. What you can control is the quality of your app.</p>
<p>(I’m guessing because a lot of interviewees are doing the interview in an attempt to make up for a part of their application that is lacking.)</p>
<p>americanslang, Many of the interviewees are local applicants and these are done on campus. It’s possible that they are not all as competitive as many of the OOS applicants, but I really don’t think you can say interviewees in general are trying to compensate for having less stellar qualifications.</p>
<p>Your athletic EC’s and summer programs are really strong, however, your GPA, ACT score, lack of AP courses, makes USC a bit of a reach school for you, imo. What is your rank or approximate decile? This may be the most revealing stat of all.</p>