@mc3155 I applied to Annenberg too. I think the 5% means that’s how many students are in that major compared to the other majors. I also know that if you applied to Annenberg, you had an option of selecting another specific school within Annenberg if they didn’t consider you for that school. When I visited, they mentioned that they accept about 250-300 people for Annenberg’s incoming freshman class
correct me if i’m wrong, colleges generally accept differently based on the major meaning that if a 1000 people applied to business and only 25 applied to biology the business major would be harder to get into. So technically yes, but that 5% could also mean that there are just less applicants there than other usc schools. @mc3155
I’m sorry I meant within USC** @mc3155
You have incredible scores. I’m so sorry about not being accepted. How were your e.c.s and essays?
Yes for those asking, some majors are harder to get simply because of the number of on spots available and number of applicants. Some of the schools are small, like Annenberg, compared to Dornsife, but then Viterbi also has higher academic expectations in some regards, so several things go into making a major more competitive. But it is important to apply to what you are sincerely interested in because app readers get very good at identifying the applicant playing the major game just to get in. Things just don’t line up or make sense in the application, it just shows. Whereas a person sincere about their interest and intended major submits a cohesive application. And also, the applicant never knows who and how many are applying to which majors and schools.
@Becausethety At this point it is anybody’s guess, but you will know soon! Hang in there and good luck!
@Booajo wow, that sounds EXACTLY like me… it’s been such a struggle facing the whole prestigious oos application process alone! Like you, everyone from my school attends UW. Good luck!!!
Thank you @CaveMom 
Kinda lost hope for USC after UCLA, but still hoping… How much emphasis does USC place on looking at community service / EC’s? One of my essays focused on how I got service dogs for my school through a research project, and I have great EC’s (5 leadership positions + 4 Honor Societies) as well as 200+ hours of community service.
For International Students like myself, I figured I’d tell my application story as encouragement or a reference point. If you’ve seen my former posts, you’ll know I’m a Nigerian male (Black African, thus somewhat URM) living in and having done all my secondary education in Nigeria. I went to a Jesuit boarding school. LJC was a really strict place, but very competitive. Our own acceptance rate was <5% 
Class size about 118, shrank to 96 after 6 years.
Academics was rigorous, we had top 10 on honours role and 11-20 on merit role, I was a frequent customer, only didn’t make it to the roles twice in 6 years. My highest position was 2nd (we had one insanely smart guy who’s in Drexel now) and I made sure to put this on my application. I should note that we were assessed 3 times a term, with 3 terms in a school year, however when putting in scores for USC, I only put the rounded term averages.
We wrote the new SAT (I got 1500), SAT2 (Phy 750, Chem 700, Math1 760, Math2 800) and TOEFL (112) which is for international students only. Our final exams were West African WAEC, I got (7 A1s and 2 B2s) of my 9 subjects.
ECs were a huge part off school. We had this sort of social ladder of influence based on how involved you were in the school. I was on the soccer team, vice cap and goalkeeper (wrote about that in my supp), student magazine editor, awareness and advocacy group spokesperson, Model United Nations Delegate, JA entrepreneurship club VP, community service BOTH compulsory and voluntary and lots of stuff out of school like NSLC at Northwestern and Columbia’s three week immersion. I was also Valedictorian. There’s more but I didn’t want to cram my app.
My essays were good in my opinion. I did give my main personal statement to a Barnard/Columbia U prof to proofread and edit, but I kept editing and ended up changing half of it. It was about how I overcame stuttering to become a public speaker. DON’T be afraid to write about weaknesses! If done right they make for great stories! I also wrote about goalkeeping, Junior Achievement (JA) and terrorism in Nigeria.
Now you might wonder how I was Valedictorian (i.e. graduated from High School) and am just entering the class of 2022. GAP YEAR that’s why! For future applicants lurking don’t be discouraged from taking a gap year!! I will say it’s not for all students, but you can learn so much and do lots of interesting stuff in one year before college. It also gave me the chance to apply to college again with less hassle and stress. Also, I took the SAT2 Physics during my gap year because one of my B2s was Physics and I didn’t want to sell myself short in any regard this time. A gap year is basically what you decide to make it.
I made sure to TELL USC in my app why I took a gap year (to learn skills and connect with my family, having been a boarding student) and the stuff I’ve done so far like religious ministry trips, learning to drive and cook and taking internships. If you get accepted you can CHOOSE to defer your admission to Fall 2023. Check it out here https://admission.usc.edu/transfer/admittedfall/deferral.html
The major I applied for is Computer Science/Business Administration. I submitted on December 1st, though the app downloaded on the 2nd and gave me a heart attack for missing the scholarship deadline. Jan 23rd I check my e-mail and start seeing all sorts of “Come to USC” mails and then I check YouSC and see the good news acceptance letter plus a scholarship offer naming me a Presidential finalist. I went for Explore on March 5/6th and am currently waiting for an update. According to the Admissions staff at Explore, admissions rates are (once again) at an all time low, probably hitting 13% this year. Only 3% of early applicants were chosen as finalists.
The Dean of Undergrad admissions read to us a lot of the short response answers of some finalists. Many were funny, loads had grammatical errors! and they still got in! :)) :)) So DON’T FRET OVER MISTAKES. Whether or not you made them, as long as there weren’t too many, won’t really change their decisions at all.
Regardless of the outcome of mine, as an international student you have a lot to do to stand out and hustle more than your US counterparts (though this is arguable 
) We don’t get financial aid unless you were born in the US so you need to hustle merit based/need-blind scholarships.
Basically, USC is a school know for spirit, so regardless of stats, I figure if your application shows off a similar spirit, you’ll have a higher chance of getting in. I have lower stats than a lot of people rejected for scholarships, and higher than some UCLA applicants I know, though I was rejected. The numbers don’t MATTER as much cuz everyone has them…usually.
Once again, good luck to all the applicants! And whatever the outcomes, I hope you end up in a school you’ll be happy in! Fight On!
@slaskinn I wouldn’t use ‘getting rejected at X school’ as a metric of acceptance to another. That EC of community service, if written well, sounds really good already. Are you from California or another state, or international? That’s a more important factor for UCLA because it’s a public school. Their preference for admission, after general qualifications, would be their state citizens as a priority.
College admissions are weird. I know someone who was denied at every Ivy except Yale. There’s so hard or fast rule that says because you’ve been rejected by a more or less selective school you have no chance at another. There’s hope guys!
@slaskinn, very cool about the service dogs at your school. Your leadership activities, research, ECs, hopefully expressed to some extent in your essays… are the way to distinguish yourself from thousands of students who have great grades and standardized tests, some higher, some lower than yours. Further, if you were able to convey how some of your current activities will translate to your contributions on campus at USC, all the better.
@Bella2018, you are spot on about the fact that many will get into top 20 schools while being rejected at lower ranked ones and vice versa. Some recently were not admitted or waitlisted at WashU last week but had interviewed for scholarships at USC and other great schools a few weeks ago. Others who were deferred at USC got into WashU this week.The same is true for Ivies. Some students who were rejected by UCLA this past week may find they get into Stanford in two weeks.
It can all seem quite random. Maybe a school needs to round off the student body of a specific major and is looking for more representation from a particular part of the country or state, or it could be something else. To your point @mayoosh, Annenberg no doubt does not want all the same type of student from the same place. Thus, never give up hope until you have your final answer. Good luck to all and Fight on!
I know delivery digest isn’t supposed to tell us but it is worth a shot - does anyone have a package with a “delivery date unknown” from PONTIAC,MI 48340?? It says my label was created on March 9th. Probs just something my mom ordered but why not ask! 4 more days (east coast!!)
Delivery digest won’t have it. Tracking is not enabled for these packages.
Based on some of the recent posts above, here is a simple message to future applicants & their parents… this topic of matches, reaches & safeties… and how many colleges and universities to apply to… is a very precarious one. I advise against taking it too lightly.
This is especially true if you are Asian, Asian-American or a white female… as those groups currently make up the largest demographic groups in terms of the # of highly qualified applicants – each competing for a limited # of spots at America’s most elite colleges and universities. But even if you are not among these groups, you have to consider the sheer # of applicants at each school and the reality that most are now applying to 10+… making it even more competitive.
From my experience, a college or university is only truly a safety if they admit 50% or more and if your stats place you in the top 25%. And any college or university ranked in the top 30 or that accepts 30% or less should be considered a Reach… period. There are no guarantees.
We made this mistake in 2014. We mistakenly considered many of the 17 colleges that my daughter applied to as matches. I allowed her to apply to so many due to the many articles and CC posts that had been warning us all about the current “plight of the over-achieving, over-qualified unhooked white female applicant”. These posts and articles made it seem very dire, and we thought it overblown. But in the end, my older daughter nearly suffered the same fate of many who had been rejected by all of their perceived match and reach schools. She ended up going 5 & 12. Luckily, USC was among the 5 who admitted her. The other 4 were all safeties. My younger daughter mixed up the list but still applied to 15 overall last year. While her GPA, rank and stats were almost identical to her sister’s, she did better (likely due to better essays and ECs)… going 8 and 7, including admits to Princeton, UTexas, Rice, Emory and USC. But it again proved that you just never know. You may assume that an applicant gaining admission to Princeton, for example, would also be admitted to Brown, UVA, Duke, Vanderbilt &/or Northwestern – but No - they all rejected her. She was also rejected by Yale and Stanford… but those rejections were expected.
My daughter even had an URM friend with stellar stats who wrongly assumed many admissions to the handful of elite colleges that she had applied to – that did not come. She was unfortunately relegated to her in-state public university safety as a back-up. There are many bright and super-talented URM applicants too these days, and they cannot admit them all.
My advice is thus simple. Assume nothing. Apply to a good mix of Reach (3-5), Match (5-7) and Safety (3-4) schools. And moreover, your estimation of a college or university as a Match is likely, UNFORTUNATELY, erroneous. Most perceived matches are actually Reaches these days… especially with rapidly declining admit rates and expanding #s of overall applicants. Many apply to 15 or more these days. My two daughters applied to a whopping 32 in total and only went 13 and 19. Thankfully, they are both at USC, and we - as a family - no longer have to deal with college admissions. But to those applying in the future… I certainly advise caution.
And of course… good luck…
I agree with @WWWard - don’t use Naviance as your gold standard for what your chances are. I think those chances are overstated. Yes; you may be in the “likely” category, but lots of other people are also in the likely category.
I’m sure someone has asked about this but if you live on the east coast (Miami) is it likely you will get your packet on Friday? Since it’s mailed out on Thursday?
@olitznation FL is supposed to arrive on day two… and most do arrive as such. Last year though my daughter’s “white box” took four days to show up, so she learned via the portal update instead. Good luck…
I’m in Phoenix, AZ. Any idea when my letter or box is supposed to arrive? I go out of town on Saturday afternoon and it’s going to kill me to wait!
You will know Saturday night when portals update anyway.
@CADREAMIN Will the financial aid package come with box? Or will the student have to wait to find out?
Thanks!