USC Chance Thread!

Race: White
Gender: Male
Major: Chem Engineering
School does not rank
Not applying for financial aid

W-GPA: 4.16 (excluding freshman year: 4.33)
UW-GPA: 3.899

SAT: 1480 (800M, 680R/W; first sitting, planning on taking it again in October)
SAT Subj: Chem (800), Math IIC (780) (do I need to retake?)

Junior Year Classes: AP Chem (5), APCS (5), AP Lang (3), Spanish 3, Honors Precalc (B+ first sem, A- second)
Senior Year Class Load: AP Calc BC, AP Lit, AP Gov, Honors Physics

ECS: Robotics Team President, Water Polo (year-round), Hospital Volunteering, Lifeguarding summer job, Link Crew, CSF school president, Science Team, Astronomy Club President, CSF School President

Letters of Rec:
1: AP Chem Teacher (rumors have it that she writes the best letters in the school and she likes me a lot)
2: AP Lang Teacher (she likes me a lot but no idea how her rec letter are)

I have a planned interview in a couple of weeks for SC too.

Do you mean U Southern California? It is a reach for pretty much everybody and you are among average applicants.

Your Subject Tests are very good (I wouldn’t really recommend going through the stress of taking another Math II, unless you really want that 800), but your SAT is around average for their applications. I think it will come down to your essays. Good luck!

Do not retake Math II, that would be silly. A 780 v. 800 is not gonna matter at all, zero, nada, zip. USC is holistic, so put together an application that shows a passion, hopefully that bends toward engineering. Are you from socal? If not, what state? Urban or rural? The only thing I notice is you took honors Physics instead of AP Physics. Not terrible, it’s just there are others (your competitors) that will come in with AP Physics. But you can bump yourself up with a great application.

Cadreamin, our school doesnt have an AP Physics class, only an honors (where we are expected to take 2 physics exams). I’m also located in socal.

For those looking to get “Chanced”, I suggest reading an excellent thread on the topic from the beginning…

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/1558825-what-are-my-chances-read-this-first-p1.html

I also suggest reading through the following very helpful insider’s guide to USC admissions…

https://tfm.usc.edu/a-guide-to-uscs-college-admissions-process/

Best wishes… and Fight On!

@icef1ame That’s great, so you are taking the hardest schedule you can. That’s all you can do and they will see that.