<p>It’s the time of year when prospective Trojans begin asking about their chances for admission, so I thought it might be helpful to give some advice on how to get the best help possible. This forum is full of current students, alums and parents who are willing to “chance you” if given the right information (as opposed to other high school students who probably have no more of a clue than you do!). Here’s what will help:</p>
<li><p>It’s really hard to predict chances without an SAT reasoning or ACT score. Please provide it, along with PSAT/National Merit status and AP scores if you have those.</p></li>
<li><p>Give some context for your unweighted GPA (your school’s GPA scale, your relative position in the class, the difficulty of your courseload).</p></li>
<li><p>Tell us if you’re an under-represented minority (URM), a first generation college student, or low income enough that you would enhance the diversity of the student body. People don’t like to ask questions about those things, but they are hooks that can improve your chances significantly.</p></li>
<li><p>Tell us whether you intend to apply for a specific major. Some of them are very, very selective (e.g. around 4% for the production major in the School of Cinematic Arts). Your intended major makes a huge difference in your chances for admission.</p></li>
<li><p>We often see chances threads by “out of state” students. That makes us think you don’t know much about USC, which is a private institution that has no preferential treatment for in-state students. In fact, if you’re from Kotzebue, Alaska you probably have a startling advantage over your basic Angeleno! </p></li>
<li><p>To be honest, I personally don’t find a laundry list of EC’s to be that useful. But if you can tell us something about the plot-line of your life, that could be helpful. You want the adcoms to be able to slap a descriptive label on you, and that means your application should have a theme of some sort. Do you see yourself as a student leader/organizer type who has activities that go along with that identity? Are you a creative type who has performed or displayed art or composed music? Have you always been the person in your group who mediates disputes and helps people when they need you, and have you participated in groups that helped you develop those skills? You get the drift, I hope…</p></li>
<li><p>Keep in mind that none of us really knows, and we chance you somewhat reluctantly. So take it with a grain of salt! Admissions is something of a moving target. The latest round saw USC’s selectivity go down almost 4%, to 21%. For the most recent class, the average SAT score is 2108, an increase of 18 points over the previous year. The average GPA of admitted students is 3.8 unweighted.</p></li>
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<p>I hope other regulars here will add additional pointers. Newbies, feel free to post your chances query in this thread, or start a new one.</p>