I know UCLA’s applicant pool is a lot bigger and this has probably been discussed before, but do you think USC or UCLA is more holistic, or is it pointless to compare? I ask because I just filled out the supplemental request for UCLA which apparently means I’m borderline (out of state though, so I wouldn’t be able to go anyways unless I get all the outside scholarships I applied for). I can just feel in my heart that I’m not going to get into USC because I was really nervous around the admissions counselor I met with and made a fool of myself and had computer issues and had to retype my essays and made three grammatical typos. Do many people have experience getting into UCLA and not USC or vice versa? My test scores and GPA are not super high for either school, but I believe that my background/essays regarding my disability and sexuality may have been the pull for supplemental info from UCLA, and I’m wondering if USC would value something similar?
I’m really sorry if these are dumb questions, I’m just really stressed out.
If your GPA and test scores are not “even”, it may be of interest that UCs including UCLA tend to emphasize GPA more, while USC is said to emphasize test scores more.
Both also are divided into divisions (“College of Engineering”, etc.) so your choice of major/division may affect your admission chances.
My UC GPA is around 4.1ish (out of state), 28 ACT, USC is 3.76/4.66 before midyear grades (straight A’s and 5 AP for the semester); I applied undeclared humanities to UCLA and communications for USC. So I really don’t know.