USC Admission System's Affect on Decisions

<p>Wow - be grateful you have the ability to apply to any college, and get in! There are tons of students who may never have the opportunity to go to such a great place like USC or Wellesley.</p>

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I received the letter from USC saying that I didn't qualify for the scholarships on the same day I received a big package from UC Berkeley saying that I qualified for the Regents - needless to say, I was sold over to UC Berkeley and drifted further and further away from USC.</p>

<p>I have above-the-average stats for USC - 4.0 UW, 4.7 W, 34 ACT, good extracurriculars, 1/688 in rank.. etc etc.. I'm confused.

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<p>Not to be rude, but with your stats, you are easily a shoo-in for several UC regents but not so much for USC scholarships. No offense, and I'm sure this probably doesn't apply to you, but USC actually look at you holistically rather than just stats. I don't think I am lying when I say that the UCs mainly make their decisions on GPA; I mean come on, if you have a 4.0 GPA (or a 3.8+ from my school), you're a automatic in for Cal. Yea, you might not get regents, but you're definitely IN. That's not true for privates, whose selection choices widely differ because they actually care about what you do OUTSIDE of school or special circumstances or leadership roles. Unlike the UCs, most privates (especially a nice one like USC) care about their alumni group. Afterall, a lot of a good school's prestige comes from their alumni population. Why do you think they offer special positions for applicants with legacy?</p>

<p>The UCs, on the other hand, don't even look at legacy. I guess in a way, that's good; but really, it boils down to that after you graduate, people are going to care less that you went to their school in terms of looking for jobs. If you graduate from Cal, someone might hire you because you went to Cal, and not because you are a fellow alumni (which, needless to say, usually offers mediocre jobs at first because they don't know what kind of character you are exactly). On the other hand, I know that if you graduated from USC, a wide range of selections of jobs automatically opens up for you because your employers were USC graduates as well. At privates, people bond more, even people that have never met each other. I can't say the same for the UCs, because they barely care about one's character before acceptance. If you have a 4.0, then (as long as you don't write about axe murders) you're pretty much in. (the ELC program proves this fair and square) (Yah, they don't even care about SATs even though the new writing section was solely created for them. You can have a 1800-1900 and still get into Berkeley.)</p>

<p>I think you exaggerated the "4.0 + gets in automatically" thing a bit, I know some people (non axe-murderers!) who got rejected from UCLA last year. It's not that easy.</p>

<p>However, you are correct to some degree, and I agree with a lot of what else you said.</p>

<p>^azhao525</p>

<p>I understand what you mean, yes, but I spent more time on the USC app than I did for any other school and I thought it showed my character blah blah blah.</p>

<p>I DO have some good extracurriculars, it's not like I'm a study bug - and I had ridiculously strong rec letters demonstrating my leadership skills - but I'm not here to argue over whether I deserve to be in USC or not.</p>

<p>"I can't say the same for the UCs, because they barely care about one's character before acceptance."</p>

<p>^I don't think that it's right to just judge right off the bat like that. It might be true that UC's use a grading point system and care more about stats than privates do, but to say that they "barely care about one's character" is ridiculous.</p>

<p>Oh and your statement "if you have a 4.0 GPA (or a 3.8+ from my school), you're a automatic in for Cal" can be disproven by many rejectees, including a friend of mine who got rejected from both Cal and UCLA with a 4.3 GPA.</p>

<p>Oh, and,
for exactly the reasons you stated about alumni and closeness and what-not, I really want to go to a private university.</p>

<p>And that's why I was especially dejected to know that I still haven't gotten accepted into USC because I applied to a bunch of prestigious universities in the East coast that are much more competitive and now I'm very worried...</p>

<p>But I guess according to you I must be just "public school" or "UC" material so..well whatever.</p>