Thanks for this helpful insight!
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Hi, I read through the insider’s guide and I don’t see mention of admissions counselors tracking interest. Can you point out where it says that? I do know that a counselor came to my DD’s school and specifically told the kids that interest is not tracked and not to bother emailing her. Is she just testing them? I guess better safe than sorry but I am confused as to why they would give them bad info. Thoughts?
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Any idea what is the intake (admitted number) each year at Marshalls? For example Kelley i came to know takes in 2000 students per year.
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Anyone have insight on the American Pop Culture major? S is obsessed with it and no idea how popular/competitive it is vs other majors etc
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Looking at it now via that link, it seems like a shorter article than how it appeared in print originally. But, basically, the gist of one of the quotes was an admissions official responding to a theoretical inquiry about how do I let USC know that they are my top choice. His response was to say, “just tell us”. He stated that they will notate your file if you ask them to. I’m paraphrasing, but the point was to simply state that USC does want to actually know such. Stating that USC does not track interest is clearly a good way to actually test applicants’ level of interest. Both of my daughters did as I suggested before… emailing once reiterating their interest and stating that USC was their top choice and committing to attending if admitted… and each of their admission officers replied, suggesting that they would notate their files to reflect it. I concur that USC may not simply track every form and method of contact made over time, but your assigned AO and the corresponding admissions office for the School within USC being applied to does pay close attention in my opinion and does notate your level of interest if communicated appropriately during that decision phase. They are all yield conscious to a degree and would clearly prefer to admit those who may actually attend. So, if true, simply tell them. Again, I would not overdo it. But telling them once before each decision round should be sufficient. It clearly will not hurt your chances any to let them know. Good luck.
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@sleeplessinla I don’t feel they are testing or lying to your daughter. If your student is interested in USC, have her spend time looking at programs and opportunities that she might want to take advantage of at USC. Include that information in her USC supplemental essays.
You can google for quotes from Tim Brunold. For the past several years, he has said the same thing: Daily Trojan Article.
“We’re always trying to achieve in the admission process by bringing students to the University who will help the University in its mission, its strategic objectives and most importantly, we’re looking to bring students whom the faculty want to teach,” Brunold said.
"While being a legacy at USC is something that we track and we pay attention to, it’s not an overwhelming, defining factor in the reason someone gets admitted.”
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My son is assigning recommenders in the Common App. USC only has space to assign one teacher recommendation, and no “other” recommendations. If he has a second recommendation that he feels is important, how would he submit this to USC? Or would this be discouraged, since there is no way to submit it in the Common App?
His official teacher recommendation will be from his current teacher in AP Physics C (which he feels is the most relevant class for an engineering major), but he also wants to include a recommendation from his orchestra teacher who has known him since freshman year and can speak to his musical performance, leadership, community involvement, and academics (honors advanced orchestra students do music history and theory research projects).
Edit to add: Is this a good thing to ask the AO? My son doesn’t want to bother the AO unnecessarily, but it seems like a reasonable question.
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Excellent suggestions! Thanks!
Admission counselors are there for a reason. You don’t want to bombard them with questions just to show interest but something like you mentioned is a legitimate question and reasonable to ask.
From the Admission Counselors website,
“As the primary point of contact with the Undergraduate Office of Admission, USC admission counselors can help students successfully navigate the application and admission process and answer any questions that may arise.”
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People should not be afraid to contact their advisor, that is what they are there for! Having a relationship with them is a good thing as long as questions aren’t silly or can’t be found on the website. He has a good question to ask. Just be sure he is the one doing the communicating, they’d rather hear directly from the student.
Just for a heads up, some advisors are very responsive, other are very not responsive.
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Not a fan than an advisor told students on a visit not to bother emailing her…that sounds pretty elitest and is not one of USC’s better traits.
They may say interest isn’t tracked because, uh, they have to, for a number of reasons. But it is more than getting your name added to an attendance list. The are definitely paying attention, even if they don’t call it tracking. Not to sound coy, but if a student makes an impression through the number of ways one can make an impression, it absolutely makes an impression. That’s not just attending something, but making an impression whether it’s communicated in person or though the essays. It is easy to see which student invested time in doing things that enabled them to express sincere interest and knowledge in USC or some aspect of it.
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You’re welcome.
I thought schools either track demonstrated interest or they don’t. And, if they don’t, then my counselor has said we can reach out if we have a specific question but it won’t help us to get admitted. Wouldn’t it be kinda illegal to say they aren’t tracking something but then secretly track it?
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I’m an undergraduate freshman majoring in public policy in Price this year. So far it’s great – public policy takes a real-world approach to problems in communities whereas a major like political science is more about theory, types of government, etc. Price ranks among one of the top undergraduate public policy schools in the nation and is competitive to get into for undergraduates. There are about 40 other public policy students in my year. Urban studies is also very selective and has a small cohort of students.
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Ask both for a letter of recommendation. You can send additional letters of recommendation directly to your admissions representative for USC and they’ll take the additional letters of recommendation into consideration.
We are wondering what the best strategy is for submitting SAT or going test optional for USC.
S23’s score is 1460 (680 EBRW, 780 Math).
[Deleted my useless whining about cancelled test dates.]
USC mid range scores from CDS:
- Total 1330–1520
- EBRW 650-740
- Math 670-780
S23’s UW GPA is 3.97 with strong rigor for his school, a competitive Bay Area HS that sends many students to USC. In general we think the SAT score is the weakest part of his app, although his math score is good. He will be applying to Viterbi for industrial engineering. USC is his first choice.
If we did not need merit, I would think he should submit his scores since they are within the 50% mid range. But he would need at least some merit to afford USC.
Since his SAT is not in the top 25% range, would his best strategy be to apply TO?
I know there are several folks here who know a lot about USC admissions, so I am hoping someone has insight… thanks in advance for any advice!!!
[Edit to add: Probably this ought to have been posted on the current year’s thread. but I don’t see one.]
Thanks for this feedback. We’re in the Bay Area so will make a trip south within the next year to visit USC, among others. It would for sure be a reach for my 2025 son but since his interests lie more within the public policy realm and working with communities rather than a poly sci route, we’ve been intrigued what we’ve learned about Price so far.
This week, USC Admission Blog featured tips for USC supplemental questions on the Common App.
And Viterbi & Marshall announced a new joint undergrad degree.
Edit: Since there was so much discussion about demonstrated interest, I’ll copy and paste what the admission blog states.
Describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests and why you want to explore them at USC specifically. Please feel free to address your first- and second-choice major selections. (Max 250 words).
We do not track demonstrated interest at USC, meaning when we are reviewing your application we are not tallying up how many times you’ve emailed us or all the events you have attended, but we do want to admit students who are excited about being on our campus. This question helps us see that! Remember, your application is a way for us to get to know you, so whatever your reason for applying to USC may be, make sure you are connecting it back to yourself at the end of the day. Simply listing off a bunch of facts you may have found on our website isn’t really what we are looking for. We want to know why you specifically are excited about a particular professor, class, research center, club, element of campus life, or whatever it is that is drawing you to USC. Did you participate in something similar in high school? Do you see an academic opportunity at USC that matches your personal and/or professional goals? What kind of community are you looking for on a college campus? This application should always be all about YOU—even the question that seems like it should be all about USC.
And don’t forget to make sure you address your major selection(s)! We are looking to admit students directly to a major so let us know why you picked the majors listed in your application. Feel free to tie this into some of the features of USC that you may have cited above. There are many amazing academic programs at schools across the world – here at USC, we want to know why studying at our university will help you accomplish your higher education goals
Just to follow up on my own post, I think my son will probably end up submitting his scores, even though they are not the highest possible.
He is frustrated that he has had two SAT dates cancelled so he has not been able to retake and raise the EBRW (after he actually prepared this time to get a good score). However his inclination is still to submit the scores because he wants to give USC more information, rather than less. I don’t know if this is a good or bad idea… he just likes the school very much, has a warm feeling towards admissions and would like to give them all the information.
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