<p>I am currently a sophomore in High School. I have always wanted to attend USC, but I recently looked into the acceptance rate and its around 20%. I would really appreciate if you looked at my current grades and give me tips on how to accomplish this goal. I am aware that my chance so far is very slim but please bare with me.</p>
<p>Freshman Year- Ranked Private high school (they did not weigh GPA)
GPA- 3.0
Sports- JV soccer
Clubs- Invisible children, latin america club, jewish student club, biology club, geometry club</p>
<p>TRANSFERRED SCHOOLS</p>
<p>Sophomore Year Public school (3 honors classes)
1st semester GPA - 3.93w 3.3 uw
Sports- JV Lacrosse
Clubs- Jewish Student Union (vice president)</p>
<p>SCHEDULE FOR JUNIOR YEAR (taking 3 AP courses and 2 honors)</p>
<p>I am taking tutoring all summer (going into Junior year) for the ACT. Junioir and senior year I will continue to take challenging courses. </p>
<p>What are my chances so far of getting accepted?</p>
<p>What can I do to increase my chances? </p>
<p>Do colleges look at freshman year? If they do will they be able to see how I went to a ranked private high school that didn't offer weigh GPA's?</p>
<p>USC looks at UW GPA and will consider your full school record. Obviously they’ll notice an improving trend in your GPA. That said, right now your GPA is the issue. From here on out you need to be pulling yourself up to at least the 3.7-3.8 range. </p>
<p>As for the ACT, while it’s nice to strive for perfection very few people achieve it. According to the above link 32 is the average admit’s ACT. With your GPA well below the 3.8 average, you’ll want to make sure you get at least a 32. </p>
<p>Colleges know the strengths of different high schools and they realize that a 3.3 at one school is not equivalent to a 3.3 at another. However, there are a lot of applicants at equally tough schools with 3.4+ who also want consideration. Your best strategy is to do everything to get your UW GPA up as high as possible.</p>
<p>As said above, bring up UW GPA as high as possible, do well on SAT/ACT, higher always better, continue doing ECs, and come back after you complete junior year with scores/grades and a more complete picture.</p>
<p>Some more ec would help. 1500 SAT Min. 2000 SAT Guarantees admission so 21/31 ACT. Admissions to USC is pretty random, I’ve had one friend with hospital ec, varsity sports, and 32 ACT and get rejected and I’ve had friends with 1580 and 1760 SAT with no sports, and only minimal ec (asian club…) and still get in.</p>
<p>Vinceh gave you some great advice. Beyond that, if USC is your dream school then I would print out this page below, read it over with your folks, and keep a copy of it in your school binder and look at it every day as motivation. When I was in school, I had t-shirts and hats for USC and UCLA too.</p>