USC Appeal Inquiries

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
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hi! I was recently rejected from USC as a senior in high school class of 2026 and I have appealed my decision. However, I’m not even sure if the committee will review my application again as I read that they usually only overturn decisions if there was an error in your transcript. I think my biggest flaw was my grades. Although my overall GPA is around 3.9, I had an IB4 history grade in my senior year.

what I included in my appeal that’s new is:

  • I created a podcast that tackles the Asian American high school experience
  • My music youtube channel has over 170k subs and 11Million views (i didn’t include this in my original application but it was mentioned in my common app. back then I had 10K subscribers)
  • I was featured on Glamour Magazine’s youtube channel because of my video
  • I participated in a red carpet event with medical device companies such as cynosure, BTL, and thermiva and I aided the reps to promote their products and expose them to different treatments

do you think usc will even look at my appeal? i’m hoping to get a trojan transfer plan because I’m ok with going to my state school for a year but do I have any chances to being granted one?

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They don’t give TTP to those appealing that I have heard of, it’s acceptance (spring or fall), or rejection. But they can do what they want of course. Will be interesting to see how many are granted this year, although we don’t hear about that till much later. Sometime under 10 are successful and 10-20 would be a usual year. The only year it was out of the ordinary big was the scandal year when they had space to fill.

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They probably will look at the appeal, but they can’t guarantee any reversals of their decisions unless there was something technical that either school may have missed: transcript issues, test results, etc.

All of the universities received record numbers of applications. They had to cull through the thousands of apps and accept students that they needed for their 2026 class. USC looks to legacies, athletes (for their huge teams), URM students, and, being in LA, celebrities or their children.

USC is also known to entice National Merit winners with significant scholarships. These are top test scorers in everything. They also look to build a class for fit and may specifically look for: an artist, a gymnast, a top swimmer, a tuba player from the Midwest, an international cellist, a tennis player, etc. After those students are selected, the seats become VERY limited.

Also, from what my friends in admissions tell me, a number of uni’s in California have been focusing on students who serve their local communities via public projects (i.e. Scouts, volunteers in environmental causes, long-term food bank, soup kitchens, and homeless shelter help). Then, they try to find like-minded students for “fit”.

From your EC’s, there appear to be a lot of “I” and “My” projects. I really don’t know how the types of activities, listed here, may or may not have impacted the acceptances this year because we don’t know how the adcoms selected this year’s students.

Hopefully, you had some safeties. Reversals of rejections are rare.

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You should not expect to get accepted based on the appeal. To me this looks unlikely.

It sounds like you have been accepted to your in-state public university. Can you tell us what university this is and what your major or likely majors might be?

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thank you so much for this response!! Im obv not expecting anything because it’s extremely competitive. In my appeal letter i talked a lot about how I want to give back to the community and help those who are also first gen low income! My original app had mainly volunteer work so I added other ECs for my appeal!

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Im from NY and I committed to stonybrook! They have a pretty strong STEM department And I will b majoring in biochem and maybe double majoring in music

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I wish that more people would understand how strong the SUNY schools are.
My eldest daughter received her engineering degree from SUNY Buffalo. She returned back to SoCal after graduation and implemented a number of engineering “strategy flowcharts” in her designs.
She is killing it here in SoCal! She has impressed everyone, everywhere she has worked, and moved up so fast, making big bucks in the process. It’s all about how you use what the colleges have prepared you to do as a professional.

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Does anyone know if USC plans to move any spring admits to fall this year?

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More than likely, no. There’s a reason for the Spring admits. My neighbor’s daughter was a Spring admit. They encouraged her to start at the local CCC and have some units under her belt.

These students had a separate orientation and met their entering classmates online. She was able to get a little bit more time at home and graduated with her classmates.

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Any luck?