<p>wow thanks usc for doing this now. the amount of hours i spent trying to deal with that crappy application! atleast it paid off!!!</p>
<p>but seriously the application sucked. it was so slow and froze constantly</p>
<p>I’m one of the few who think it’s a great idea. I had to pay quite a bit to send my transcripts and recommendations by snail mail since I live outside of the US. Now it can just be uploaded. But yes, applications will increase (perhaps something like an increase Columbia experienced) so I’m glad I applied last year. (: all the best juniors!!</p>
<p>Heybeautiful, you can just upload everything to USC, too! I haven’t sent a single thing to them via snail mail. On the other hand, I had to courier some of my documents to all of my Common App universities because of a screw-up that couldn’t be remedied. The common app isn’t very user-friendly to internationals and a fair number of the required details had me scouring Google for answers. Was a tedious process. I much prefer USC’s application system. It makes sense and it feels more personal.</p>
<p>Really? Oh, I had the exact opposite experience! Hahahaha!</p>
<p>I definitely think the USC application was more personalized and user-friendly. The quick takes were a fun, enjoyable component of an otherwise dull, tiring, and stressful process. I also think the application was more clear and allowed us to better explain our extracurricular and volunteer activities (IIRC, the Common App only had one line to briefly explain your activities).</p>
<p>It was pretty interesting for me, because I was accepted to USC and awarded a Presidential Scholarship, but I was not accepted to a single of my Common App schools (waitlisted at 3 and rejected at 4). :D</p>
<p>So usc is not going to have their own application anymore? how is it going to work for transfer students?</p>
<p>wow… This will DEFINITELY increase apps by a lot… acceptance rate might drop from 22% to 17%!
This might help USC rise even more in the rankings, but it is a little sad. I really liked their app.</p>
<p>I’m so glad I applied this year! 
the increase in apps will be huge…</p>
<p>haha you guys shouldn’t be angrry about this. So many kids want to go to USC that applications will go through the roof and drop USCs acceptance rate drastically. it’ll be huge for your beloved USNWR rankings</p>
<p>Yes thats right lower the acceptance rates lol</p>
<p>OUR beloved USNWR rankings? More like everyone’s, if you’re going to put it that way.</p>
<p>^ I was thinking the same thing! When last summer’s rankings came out, it seemed to me that there were dozens of threads on certain other forums and on the search and selection forum, and just a couple here. The general conbsensus on this forum is that USC, UCLA and UCB are all fine schools and students choosing among them have no bad choices.</p>
<p>For me, USC’s system felt super buggy. It wouldn’t warn me of logging off, so many times I tried to be careful and lost work. Also, I don’t know what the print out looks like to USC admissions staff but the one available to us was sub-par. (I mean, that part doesn’t matter, but it makes it difficult to check everything.)</p>
<p>The CommonApp has huge problems, don’t get me wrong, but in my experience it wasn’t too bad as long as you checked for truncation errors (which -for me- only were on the basic part and no supplements). The CommonApp provides huge (aka near infinite) flexibility for colleges in designing their own supplements. I very highly doubt that USC won’t do a supplement. That would be sad if they didn’t. In fact, I thought the quick takes were fun too! I’d even go so far as to bet, that USC will require a second essay on their supplement (in addition to the standard one) and even ask people to provide all their class info like they currently have to. (Which NO other school I applied to asked for. That part really sucked because they see it anyway.) I guess my experience comes from the fact that most of my schools used the Common App (9) and USC and MIT each had their own system, and MIT’s was the best of everything I used. The UC’s (3) even had the equivalent of supplements integrated into their system. I don’t think that combined app systems lead to a more dehumanized process. In fact, I think the cohesive nature is better for getting recommendations and counselor info because it’s much easier to do. (MIT and USC were my only 2 non-Common App schools which required recs and it was more work.)</p>
<p>What people don’t realize is that you can send a nearly unlimited amount of text info when you upload files to the common app. I added explanations to all my activities for the common app, even though it wasn’t really recommended by some schools. (Though I had special circumstances to describe as well.) Schools can even have additional upload boxes on their supplement pages. As far as what special supplements you can do: The common app has a system to handle this too. (Essentially you pick what your major is and you have options to fill out more.) Or you can do as UPenn does and just tell applicants to fill out only the parts that apply to them (because UPenn allows you to apply to multiple specific majors). The common app allows for document submission so SCA majors would just upload a script and even a video (I think the common app will allow schools to have large file limits, but maybe not). However, USC’s supplements are currently pretty separate and I suspect they’ll continue that process for a while.</p>
<p>As far as scholarship deadlines: The common app allows you to submit an application at any time. It tells you the deadlines, but doesn’t stop you from hitting submit once it’s passed. So USC will just do what they currently do: Sort all their applications by submission time. </p>
<p>USC’s application system currently is very simplistic. There’s still a lot of paper involved. I think USC will continue to work that way for a while, and the Common App really allows them to do that. Also, there’s nothing requiring them to abandon their current system, and I think they’ll still have both.</p>
<p>i think the USC system could’ve used some revamping because their portal in general seems to be glitchy, plus there’s no need for them to have a portal since they don’t do online notification, and common app allows you to confirm that your materials were sent/received.</p>
<p>that being said, i think the fact that USC had distinct essays, their quick takes, and their own application made my app that much stronger for showing my fit specifically to USC rather than cookie cutter essays…</p>
<p>
Actually, for what it’s worth, it’s more like high school students and inept high school counselors everywhere’s beloved ranking. And most people who have a clue know that the rankings are severely flawed. I think they do a great job, but its pretty difficult to quantify the difference between schools 10 through 35 and its pretty easy to game the system. I’ll see if I can find a link for an interesting article I read recently (though it only shows the biased side of those against the rankings, it’s still pretty eye-opening).</p>
<p>[Playing</a> with Numbers](<a href=“http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2000/0009.thompson.html]Playing”>http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2000/0009.thompson.html)
^^^
ahhh there it is
pretty good read all the way through in my opinion, even if you don’t agree with it</p>
<p>Well I think it speaks to the nature of rankings. People want to be able to brag about whatever they can. I mean the fact that you own a $2.5 million car may sound cool until you realize you can’t really drive it any faster down nearly every road. I think rankings are the same way. Obviously being up towards the top counts for ‘something’ (be it a cool factor or your own take) but at some point the education and the experience is all about you and what you feel like. </p>
<p>That said: I’m pretty convinced it was mostly a move for rankings on USC’s part. And I can’t really blame them. I mean Sample has made huge differences in how the university is viewed since he’s been there and this is another easy move for a few spots over the next few years.</p>
<p>I know this is sort of an old thread but I just happened to look up the number of applications that USC receives (with the current application system).For 2010, USC received over 35,000 applications, which is around the same number of applicants as Harvard. So, just estimating based Columbia’s 32% increase in the number of applications after adopting the Common App, if USC were to receive the same increase in applications, that would be over 47,000 applicants! Does anyone else find this number insane?</p>
<p>For the class that will enter this August SC received 37,164 applications for the freshmen class. That was posted in a website article. In addition, there were roughly 10,000 applications to transfer to SC. I do not have the official number of transfer applicants.
That is still quite a few applicants using the old system.</p>
<p>Univ. of Michigan also used the common application for the first time. Michigan uses rolling admissions. Their number of applicants rose, but not anything near Columbia’s rate. I am guessing USC’s applicant pool next year will be around 40,000 for freshmen admission.</p>
<p>I’m definitely expecting USC’s number of applications to increase because of the move to the Common App, but I’m not anticipating such a huge increase of 32%.</p>
<p>A 32% increase to 47,000 applicants would have a very significant effect on selectivity though. USC offered admission to 8,450 freshman this year and currently expects to stick to that number for future years. Doing some math (8450/47000) yields an acceptance rate of 18%!</p>
<p>The 8,450 number is based on this article: [Acceptance</a> rate continues to drop at USC|Daily Trojan](<a href=“http://dailytrojan.com/2011/04/14/acceptance-rate-continues-to-drop-at-usc/]Acceptance”>http://dailytrojan.com/2011/04/14/acceptance-rate-continues-to-drop-at-usc/)</p>