<p>A few months ago, I recall a letter from President Nikias stating that 1 out 10 enrolled freshmen was a valedictorian and 1 in 12 was a National Merit Finalist. Does anyone have the same statistical breakdown related to the pool of kids accepted? Can we assume that figure is directly proportionate? Or did valedictorians and NMF make up a higher portion of the accepted pool? Anyone know where I can get these stats?</p>
<p>I have never seen specific information about the applicant pool other than general remarks about numbers of schools represented and some information about test scores.</p>
<p>The National Merit Foundation prints yearly statistics. For 2010 the numbers of NMScholars was printed and linked on the College Search forum on CC.</p>
<p>I’m going to need to see some data to back up those claims. It doesn’t sound right to me.</p>
<p>According to the profile there were 2931 freshmen enrolled in August 2011. Of that number 247 were listed as National Merit Scholars.</p>
<p>I was thinking more about the valedictorian. I don’t see how 1 in 10 were the top student in the school.</p>
<p>fastsauce,</p>
<p>Last year the National Merit Foundation announced the list of National Merit Scholars for the class entering in 2010 and where they were enrolled.</p>
<p>These were not numbers given out by SC, but by the Foundation.</p>
<p>!. Univ. of Chicago 268
2.Harvard
3. USC</p>
<p>Univ. of California at Berkeley
83</p>
<p>UCLA
21</p>
<p>fast sauce,</p>
<p>That would be 293 valedictorians. Why do you find that number too high? </p>
<p>Remember the Princeton Review has had USC as one of the top ten “Dream Schools” for the past few years. This is just one small sample, but at the Atlanta college information/admissions afternoon “workshop” in a major hotel the large reception room was full. The hotel staff had to add three rows of chairs to make room for all who attended in the fall of 2011.</p>
<p>The female Presidential Scholar for the state of Georgia is an enrolled freshmen at SC. A former male Presidential Scholar from Georgia is a Churchill Scholar at USC.</p>
<p>Thank you for this information. I guess I’m underrating USC a bit!</p>
<p>Hi fastsauce,</p>
<p>My information was in a letter directly from Nikias. Here’s an article about USC’s 2011 freshman class. Near the bottom it states that about 10% were valedictorians:</p>
<p>[USC’s</a> freshman class is most diverse ever - LA Daily News](<a href=“http://www.dailynews.com/education/ci_18995987]USC’s”>http://www.dailynews.com/education/ci_18995987)</p>
<p>I’m trying to find out what percentage of those accepted were valedictorians and/or NMF. The stats show that the numbers – in terms of test scores anyway – are higher for those accepted than those who enroll. So I trying to find out how much tougher the “accepted” group is than the “enrolled” group. (Honestly, I’m just trying to gauge my son’s chances of acceptance. ) He is first in his class (but it is a pretty small class). He is a NMF. And he is a legacy. Looking at the stats for enrolled students, I like his chances. (20% of the 2011 freshmen are SCions.) But you just never know. And with the competition increasing by at least 10K more applicants, I’m still very nervous.</p>
<p>I feel for you Legacymom, but suggest you just sit tight for a few more weeks. It sounds like he has everything going in his favor. Any guess we would make though still won’t make that big envelope arrive! Hugs to you. I know how tough it is to wait!</p>
<p>LOL – not much else I can do…'cept bite my nails. Thanks.</p>
<p>LegacyMom,
Take a deep breath. All you can do is wait right now. Private universities are costly. I do suggest your senior explore the opportunities for local scholarships in your home area. Check out civic, religious, ethnic, cultural, patriotic, historic, corporate and other groups that offer scholarships. A student from my area in Georgia had four local scholarships before she enrolled at SC. It all helps!</p>
<p>From other websites it appears that admitted student profiles in selective universities are higher than enrolled. Obviously, I have not studied every profile in the top 50 universities. Here is some information about the students admitted to SC for the 2011-2012 academic year. </p>
<p>Admitted students:</p>
<p>Number applied for the freshmen class: 37,210</p>
<p>Middle 50% SAT: 2020-2240</p>
<p>CR: 640-740
Math: 680-770
Writing: 670-760</p>
<p>Middle 50% ACT: 30-34</p>
<p>Average Unweighted GPA 3.8</p>
<p>From California: 49%
From other U.S. states: 38%
International: 13%</p>
<p>Women: 52%
Men: 48%</p>
<p>Thank Ga Girl,</p>
<p>I know, first hand, that USC can be expensive. I have a sophomore there now. At this point, I’m just worried about whether or not he’ll get in. I’ll worry about the expenses later…at least if he does get in, I know he’ll get the NMF presidential scholarship.</p>
<p>LegacyMom, I was right in your shoes exactly one year ago. Older S at USC, younger S awaiting admissions news. (However, our family are not legacies!) I’m sending positive vibes your S2 will get great news. He sounds awesome.</p>
<p>Sometimes waiting truly is the hardest part.</p>
<p>Hang in there! Some more data:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1112/USCFreshmanProfile2011.pdf[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1112/USCFreshmanProfile2011.pdf</a></p>
<p>Another cool stat on the topic of 1 in 10: I am 1 in 10 accepted students that was outside of the top 10% for class rank 
I’m glad that USC was able to look past that number and be truly hollistic in review. I’m also glad that USC gets so many applications that they’re able to pick and choose and produce such a talented bunch of students.</p>
<p>Congratulations Seahawks506!</p>
<p>It should be noted that many HS’s do not report rank. Students from those HS’s are <em>not</em> counted for this 9 out of 10 in top 10% statistic. In other words, all universities can only report on students ranks when those ranks have been reported.</p>
<p>This works to the advantage of great students coming from extremely competitive high schools. T</p>
<p>Another nice fact: I reported class rank and was one of ten students who was outside the top 10%. And I am proof that USC looks very holistically; I received a Trustee Scholarship nomination. It’s proof that USC doesn’t only play the numbers game.</p>
<p>There are schools for the highly gifted in some states where a fairly small number of students are selected to live and study with others in a rigorous school environment. The students take all honors or college level classes. </p>
<p>In some cases these are called “Governor’s Schools”. Class rank would have little meaning at this sort of high school.</p>
<p>LegacyMom,
I believe that you mentioned in another thread that your son applied to the CS games program. I do know the following stats about the CS games program:
- there are 140 CS games undergrads
- there are 100 CS games grad students
- freshmen entering the CS games program have the highest average SAT scores of freshmen entering the engineering school (Viterbi)</p>
<p>This information is from a speech by Michael Zyda, Director, USC GamePipe Laboratory, who created the BS in Computer Science (Games) and MS in Computer Science (Game Development) cross-disciplinary degree programs.</p>
<p>The speech was given at UC Berkeley in October 2011. You can view it here:
[citrisuc's</a> Channel - YouTube](<a href=“CITRIS - YouTube”>CITRIS - YouTube)</p>