<p>Just wanted to say-- I was admitted to USC as a Presidential scholarship finalist and am VERY far from the top 10% of my class. So, that’s clearly not a make-it-or-break-it factor to the USC admin people (as opposed to, say, UMiami, where class rank was the only reason I didn’t get a better merit scholarship, as I met and exceeded all the other numerical cutoffs for their various scholarships…).</p>
<p>Yay for holistic review! And their admissions people are very nice-- I even met the man who admitted me and chatted for a while! I so wanted to ask him why he recommended me over other people who are more qualified than I am but didn’t get the scholarship invite… lol</p>
<p>Madbean, thanks again.</p>
<p>BigTexDad,</p>
<p>Yikes! Now I’m even more nervous…even if he gets into USC, there is no guarantee he’ll get into that major with those stats!</p>
<p>icesk8girl, what are your stats?</p>
<p>@collegeorama: ummm 3.9 UW GPA, 5 APs soph & junior year, 4 more APs this year, 2300 SAT (800 verbal and writing, 700 math… haha i suck at math), a few SAT subject tests all 700+. ECs pretty standard, except I’m a figure skater which is unusual but I’m not very good so idk if that helps. Nonprofit involvement, started a club, had a couple random internships, lots of babysitting-- nothing spectacular. I’m barely top…quintile? Whatever 20% is. So never count yourself out! I thought I had about a 50-50 shot at USC period, def didn’t expect to be a scholarship finalist!</p>
<p>Probs can’t go unless I get bumped to Trustee though, which after my disastrous interview is pretty much not happening. Boo expensive SoCal private school tuition :(</p>
<p>Yikes! What happened at the interview??? Can’t be that bad!</p>
<p>they asked a bunch of random, hard questions unrelated to my potential major/anything relevant to my application…like about current international events… and didn’t even ask my why I wanted to go to USC, the question for which I would’ve had a pretty kickass answer too! 
</p>
<p>Oh and if this helps anyone, somebody told me that last year, of the Presidential finalists, ~9% got no $$, ~66% got Presidential, ~10% got bumped to Trustee, and ~15% got bumped down (I assume to Dean’s). Not sure if that data’s accurate but the girl who told me assured me she had an inside source haha.</p>
<p>icesk8t,</p>
<p>Don’t sell yourself short. I’m pretty sure USC places more value on test scores than GPA and rank. Test scores are a universal bench mark, whereas GPA and rank can be really meaningless because the context is so different. Congrats and good luck. And don’t assume you won’t be able to afford USC without a Trustee or Presidential Scholarship. My son got a very generous grants. Loans certainly hurt a little, but if you really want to be at USC it can be done. Fight on!</p>
<p>icesk8girl–good luck to you. Don’t count yourself out yet. Your grades/scores are outstanding and if they don’t place you into your HS’s top 10%, I suspect there may be serious grade inflation at your school. </p>
<p>As for that, I think USC takes into consideration the rigor of the HS when looking at GPA. After decades, they have a good basis to analyze how students from certain sending schools do once they matriculate to USC. I believe they dip a little lower on GPA stats for kids from extremely rigorous HSs and may look for corroborating SAT and SATII scores on kids from notably highly grade inflated HSs or HSs they do not know well.</p>
<p>Also, your insider scoop on the # of Pres finalists and their outcomes is the first we’ve seen such figures posted on CC in my recollection. Of course, it may be just rumors and such, but it’s interesting to contemplate. Thanks for posting–and good luck.</p>
<p>Oh god, yes there’s a lot of grade inflation at my school and it’s pretty competitive… I was considered a bit of a slacker for only taking 3 APs last year and 2 the year before actually. Top 10% is those who not only took 5-6 APs last year, but also had the foresight to take “Honors” classes as freshies and sophs that are weighted as APs when determining rank… as in, an A in Honors Choir (there’s no non-honors choir)=a 5.0 whereas an A in band= a 4.0. Times that by 6 for 3 yrs of grades and if all other classes/grades are the same, the singer is ranked many percentage points higher than the clarinet player… </p>
<p>Don’t trust what I said about the Pres finalists and outcomes though! I just heard that from an Explore host… I don’t know where she got the numbers.</p>
<p>^^Your story about honors choir (A=5.0) is one reason USC looks at unweighted gpa plus rigor of courseload. I’ve heard the head of admissions state they are happy to see 5 or 6 APs total. And did you self-report your AP scores from junior year? If they were 4-5s, it certainly shows a lot more than someone who may take 10 APs and get mostly 3s. Thanks for posting your details. It helps when other USC applicants in the future can see exactly how a holistic review works–sifting the meaningful data from the less helpful fluff.</p>