Applying EA has had the benefit of higher acceptance rates compared to regular decision. For some schools, the difference is marginal, but still an advantage to apply EA. Accepting so few in this EA round, 4% projected acceptance rate, compared to @ 10-12% RD acceptance rate, is a head scratcher and goes against the advantage we associate with EA.
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Ok. I looked a bit online. USC is predicting taking ~25% of the class EA. 45k applicants EA and around 7000 spots. I can see the 5% acceptance rate.
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Yes, as someone explained above, USC gets about 2/3rds it’s application by 11/1, but only taking a quarter of class early.
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Would you know if legacy is an important consideration. My partner and I met at USC as grad students! Son has mentioned both parents went to USC in his essays too.
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According to the Common Data Set for USC it is under “considered” but not “important” or “very Important”.
Typically with the amount of applications legacy doesn’t play much of a role anymore. Would come into play when it is between 2 candidates that match up closely and a decision needs to be made. Then typically the legacy would come into play. However, I guarantee if a legacy was a HUGE donor or famous it would certainly be “very important” for that candidate.
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Here are some things to keep in perspective before the EA decision day on the 20th (likely beginning around 3p Pacific)…
By May 1, USC is actually only looking to have circa 3K commits as their new freshman class for the fall. Last cycle, to achieve that goal, they admitted a total of 8,884 between those admitted in January and those admitted in March. That does not count another 100-200 I suspect that were admitted for the spring. 3,668 of the fall admits actually enrolled, so the yield rate was higher than expected, 41.3%. Again, they always tend to aim for just around 3,000 fall commits.
As a result of last cycle’s results, I’m personally expecting slightly less total admits by March… maybe a number more in the 7,800-8,200 range. But that’s just my guess. Roughly 2,000 of the 45K EA round applicants should be admitted in three days. 1,000-1,200 of those will also learn of consideration for the top merit scholarships. So, 95% of the EA applicants will have their final decision deferred until March. As many have speculated above, USC likely has already rendered a final decision for many, if not most… meaning that in reality not all applicants are still being considered for admission. So, USC is not really deferring the decision. They are simply deferring the announcement. And yes… that may be a bit cruel to keep hopes alive until March. But, it remains the reality of things.
Eventually, by March, USC will admit another 5,800-6,200. It could be a few hundred more. It simply depends on their current yield projection. If they are suspecting the yield rate to remain constant, 41.3%, then they will likely be admitting less than they did last year overall.
It is going to be disappointing for tens of thousands of applicants, as USC can simply only admit so many. There is simply no escaping that outcome for most. With recent USC admit rates in the range of 11-16% (12.5% last cycle) and with even 90% of all legacy applicants and 4K+ applicants with 4.0 unweighted GPAs and test scores in the 99th percentile among those not gaining admission each year, an applicant’s success will instead likely depend on too many potential factors for anyone to correctly evaluate… making predicting admission nearly impossible. But this also shows that they admit many without perfect grades or test scores.
They are after all seeking to craft a well-rounded and diverse freshman class comprised of those who actually have a strong affinity for or connection to USC. They do aim to admit those who they project will thrive well at USC and bring something unique to the campus environment. Hopefully your application reflected such and in a manner that allowed you to stand out among the crowd.
When decisions are deferred or when rejections eventually materialize, some will post their stellar stats or accomplishments in dismay, but none of us have the full picture that USC Admissions was evaluating. Your individual admission decision will likely come down to a composite and holistic analysis of your stats coupled with writing ability / essays, ECs, potential leadership roles, potential other unique qualifiers (URM, First Gen, geography, demographics, etc.), your Why USC? explanation/reasoning, etc. And that “Why USC?” explanation is likely the most important single component of your application. USC does want to gain a sense as to what you will be uniquely contributing to the greater USC community if admitted.
It is not the case that USC is looking for a freshman class of circa 3K comprised necessarily of well-rounded students. They are instead looking to craft a well-rounded class comprised of unique individuals who might bring something interesting and specifically needed to campus.
It is a cruel reality when we all consider the total number of applicants applying to each of America’s top colleges and universities. Because of this, most applicants apply to 10+ schools, which in turn generates lower and lower admission rates. So please remain hopeful but simply maintain realistic expectations. Read or re-read post 330 above from @CADREAMIN and let the message therein sink in. I could not state it any better.
Good Luck to all of the EA applicants seeking good news on the 20th…
Fight on! 
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I hope in future years USC can announce more decisions in January instead of March as nearly all other schools with early action manage to do. I think we understand that this is the first year so they may want to learn more about how the process shakes out in terms of building a class (although Clemson also in first year of early action and reported made offers to yield 50 percent of its class). However, if the process remains that early action has no real benefit to the overwhelming majority of applicants, I do think students will not bother with it. Yes, the school is very desirable and admission is extremely selective but the competitive students it seeks also have a lot of other early application options, nearly all of which offer greater acceptance odds in exchange for applying early. The school told students early action was a means of showing their interest in the school, but it is not clear that show of heightened interest actually benefits the student relative to those that apply RD.
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I do not disagree, and time will tell how USC evolves its methodology moving forward. They seem committed to admitting just 25% or so (circa 2000) of their total projected admits (circa 8000) by this week. Maybe that percentage will augment higher in future years. As you suggested, I expect so. I’m just not sure that they will move all the way to 50% via EA.
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I am curious how many EAs do other schools do? If I recall last year on Michigan’s threads, for example, lots of deferrals to RD occurred there as well.
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If you want a shot at a merit scholarship; you have to apply EA. So a lot of competitive students will always want to do EA.
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Yes, but the merit deadline has existed for years. Presumably early action was intended to add something additional to the process, either for the institution or the student.
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I just looked quickly and Michigan EA has an acceptance rate 5 to 6 percent higher than RD so still an advantage to applying early with respect to acceptance rate.
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I don’t think USC has done justice to the 45k applications received. I find it a bit hard to believe that they have a decision on all of them. I feel like we’ll see mass deferral, more so because they haven’t had a time to read through all the applications, and are now stuck to a January decision release date—one that they committed to a good while before the applications came in.
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oh okay I see your perspective. Yes, typically EA acceptance rate is and should be always higher than RD.
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I’m genuinely curious how you arrived at the EA admission rate for Michigan. Is there any public information as to Michigan’s EA applicant and acceptance numbers vs. RD, in recent years?
Any pointer to the information source would be appreciated.
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And while the wait continues for Friday’s decisions, it may be a useful exercise to at least evaluate some of the demographic and other factors that admissions is also always grappling with in their efforts to orchestrate the right fit in terms of each new freshman class. Below are the links to the freshman profiles for the USC Classes of 2024 and 2025.
Class of 2024:
USC Matriculated Freshman Class Profile
Class of 2025:
Microsoft Word - First-Year Student Profile 2021 Final for review[1].docx (usc.edu)
While the breakdown of the enrollees remained exactly the same in terms of gender, Male 47% and Female 53%, for both years, certain categories saw drops… like legacies, whites, asians, etc. in terms of percentages of the whole class. So, it does seem that USC is factoring in certain goals… like admitting slightly more First Gen students and bolstering the number of hispanic, black and international students. Over time, patterns do seem to emerge. I’ve noticed the patterns clearly over time. So, this cycle, there could be additional positive or negative factors that potentially influence admission outcomes that are tied to factors beyond an applicant’s control… i.e. - ethnicity, gender, state of residence, FirstGen status, etc.
In addition to balancing demographic goals or other differentiators specific to the nature of each individual applicant, there is also the broader goal of partitioning those circa 3K enrollees among the various Schools and academic programs within USC as a whole. So, your chosen academic program can also play a significant factor in determining whether you face an admit rate as low as 1-2% versus one that could approach 20%.
My point is that it is quite a challenge for the decision-makers. This is of course of very little consolation to any specific applicant who eventually gets passed over by a dream school, but it at least helps to illuminate the myriad of considerations going into crafting each freshman class.
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Does USC prefer in-state? 
I live OOS but USC is my absolute top choice.
Yes. But that was by default. They already decided early on that they were capping the EA admits to circa 25% of the total projected admits. So, the vast majority of EA applicants were always going to see their decision deferred to RD. That was the same with all prior decision rounds in January… just even more extreme, as they admitted roughly only 1000-1200 versus the projected 2000 this cycle.
I may be in the minority, but I think accepting 25% EA is quite good!
They prob did review them. uVA got around ~ 52,000 EA round and ~4000 ED. UMD last year got around ~52,000 in EA and still rendered a decision in Jan.
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