USC Class of 2028 — Regular & Early Action Decisions

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
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This new thread is for any and all types of USC questions for students applying during the fall/winter of 2023 to be freshman for the 2024 - 2025 school year. The USC College Confidential community looks forward to helping everyone through this exciting (and stressful) process.

The USC website has a wealth of information and we are here to fill in the gaps when we can.

There are a lot of (direct) tips on the website, please read it thoroughly before you apply, like this link “What do we look for?”

And last year, for the first time, USC offered Early Admission:
Applying by the Early Action (EA) deadline enables you to plan for college earlier, should you be accepted during this round of application reviews. It also ensures that you will be considered for USC Merit Scholarships. Early Action (EA) is non-binding, non-restrictive, and is not available for majors requiring a portfolio or audition. Students choosing to apply under USC’s Early Action (EA) plan will need to submit their application materials earlier in the process but will receive an admission decision (or deferral to Regular Decision) sooner than Regular Decision applicants.

USC recommends this option for those who have thoroughly researched their college options and have settled on USC as their top choice. 20-25% of admission spaces will be granted during the EA round.

Please review the majors that EA applies to, as mentioned above, EA is not applicable to all majors - familiarize yourself with the deadlines for your major!

Some fun (and scary) facts for the recently admitted class:

  • 3.9 was the average GPA for the class of 2027. 41% of students earned perfect grades in high school.
  • For the class of 2027 there were 80,790 applications.
  • USC sent acceptance letters to 9,277 students, yielding a record low 9.9% fall admission rate.
  • 23% will be the first in their family to attend college — the highest rate ever recorded at USC.
  • Legacy students make up 12% of the admitted class.
  • A third of students identify with a historically underrepresented racial or ethnic group.
  • Californians make up 38% of the new class, followed by New York, Texas, Illinois, Washington and New Jersey as the most represented states.
  • 19% are international students from 87 different countries.
  • For 2023 - 2024 tuition is $66,640
  • COA is at $90K per year

Of course USC is competitive, but it an amazing college experience if you are lucky enough to attend. @lkg4answers, @WWWard and I wish you the best through the application process, and are here to help where we can, even if just being supportive through your process.

Good luck Class of 2028 and Fight On!

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Thanks @CADREAMIN for starting this thread.

USC Undergraduate Admissions is on just about every social media site, including TikTok, Threads, Instagram and X. I would encourage applicants to follow their social media pages. They share helpful admissions information, including dates when admission decisions will be released.

Last week USC Undergraduate Admissions shared their Admissions Blog. Each week they post helpful information for prospective applicants. For example, USC’s Glossary of First Year Admissions Terms.

Each school has their own admissions department. Most of the specialty schools (Viterbi, SCA, Marshall, etc) have their own admissions social media accounts.

I’ll update this post with information and events from different schools as I become aware of them.

Viterbi School of Engineering

School of Cinematic Arts (SCA)

Marshall School of Business

  • Virtual Info Sessions - Monday, August 21 and Friday, August 25 at 3 pm PST. There are also four virtual events in September.
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Yes… thanks for starting this thread.

My main advice to future college applicants, and especially to those seeking USC, is to start the application process early and to ask the important questions now and up to the time that you actually submit the application. The time to gain some potential insights and to work out your own unique and specific approach to applying is now and up to your submission date… and not thereafter.

An applicant’s individual success will depend on too many potential factors for anyone to correctly evaluate… making predicting admission nearly impossible. But USC does 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.

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. So use the admission process to demonstrate that. Let the readers understand what USC may be gaining by admitting you specifically.

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. You do need to provide a well-thought out and well-researched answer as to why attending USC is truly significant and important to you specifically. And moreover, USC does want to gain a sense as to what you will be uniquely contributing to the greater USC community if admitted.

Before applying, I suggest reading through the very helpful insider’s guide to USC admissions…

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

Good Luck…

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And if you are a high-achieving applicant from a lower income family, I highly recommend applying for the 2023 National College Match program through QuestBridge. The application is now open. The deadline is Tuesday, September 26th. Here is a link to their website for more info and how to apply…

QuestBridge

QuestBridge is looking for high school seniors who have shown outstanding academic ability despite financial challenges. They take a holistic approach to reviewing applications, and they do not have absolute criteria or cut-offs for GPA, standardized test scores, income, or other factors. If selected, you also get to apply to up to 50 elite colleges, including USC, for free. And you can potentially Match with one of those colleges for a full ride. It is a great program worth exploring.

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In a Viterbi admissions podcast, they said that an applicant MUST INDICATE EA on their application in order to be considered for EA. Even if an applicant turns their application in on October 15, if they don’t indicate EA, the application will be put aside and read with the RD applications.

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Is there any information on USC’s yield rate for the 2023 class ? Does anyone know when they release that data. Curious to see if it increased, Yale announced today that their yield increased this year.

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Discover USC will be visiting the following locations. Register early as space is limited.

9/5/23 Taipei, Taiwan
9/7/23 Hong Kong
9/9/23 Shanghai, China
9/11/23 Beijing, China

9/30/23 Online - Register here

9/10/23 Santa Clara, CA
9/12/23 Honolulu, HI
9/16/23 Boston, MA
9/17/23 New York, NY
9/18/23 Philadelphia, PA
9/19/23 Washington D.C.
9/30/23 Phoenix, AZ
10/1/23 Denver, CO
10/7/23 Dallas, TX and Portland, OR
10/8/23 Houston, TX and Seattle, WA
10/14/23 Miami, FL
10/15/23 Atlanta, GA and Chicago, IL

10/29/23 Los Angeles on campus

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I remember searching all through these threads last year when my son was applying to the USC School of Architecture. Not much info on USC Architecture on this site. If anyone has questions about his process, please ask! I’d be happy to share what his experience was like. He’s currently loving his first few weeks at USC!

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My S plans to apply for architecture. We would love any information you could provide. Could you share his stats and ECs. What do you think helped him get accepted? Could you share his list of schools?

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Sure!
His list of schools is a little weird because he was admitted really early with Honors to Iowa State University’s School of Design (where he would have been happy to go, and could have majored in Architecture or Industrial Design). So, after that, he was just kind of exploring what was out there.
But if I’m remembering correctly, this was his list:
USC, School of Architecture, admitted, Architecture
DePaul University, College of Computing and Digital Media, admitted, Industrial Design
Cal Poly SLO, College of Architecture & Environmental Design, admitted, Landscape Architecture
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, School of Fine & Applied Arts, admitted, Architecture
Washington University, Sam Fox School of Design, waitlisted, Architecture
Loyola Marymount University, waitlisted, Studio Art
Pomona College, rejected, Studio Art and Art History
Notre Dame University, rejected, Architecture
In terms of his stats:
He did not submit test scores
GPA: 5.167/5.0 weighted (don’t know what his unweighted was)
Honors: AP Scholar w/ Distinction, USA Water Polo Academic All-American, American Water Polo Scholar Athlete, Academic All-Conference Water Polo, Academic All-Conference Swim & Dive
Activities: 2-sport Varsity Athlete, Peer Tutor in the Writing Center, Captain of Varsity Water Polo Team, Liturgical Youth Minister, paid work as a Swim Instructor, High School Ambassador, and he did two summers of Architecture/Design Summer Camps at Iowa State and UIUC
To answer your question about what I think got him accepted:
I would guess it was the overall authenticity of his application. I sat in on one of his Zoom meetings where a USC Architecture professor went through accepted portfolios and gave advice on what to submit. I came away totally discouraged, thinking “my kid doesn’t have a chance!” My son seemed undaunted, so I didn’t say anything. He submitted the minimum number of portfolio pieces they required (despite my urging him to add more). He wrote his Architecture supplements about topics that make me laugh in hindsight (e.g. for the prompt about reacting to a piece of Architecture that resonates with you, he wrote about how much he hated his Catholic grade school building). His video supplement was just me filming him with my iPhone while he talked off the cuff about a painting that he had literally just finished that weekend! So my point is, don’t be intimidated by the application requirements! It seems like a lot! I was intimidated, but my son just forged ahead and answered everything the way you can imagine a teenaged boy would. I will say that he is a good writer. His Common App essay was kid of boring, but it was well written. However, I think his answers to the USC specific short answer questions were sweet and quirky. In terms of demonstrated interest, he did an on-campus USC School of Architecture tour, an on-campus USC tour, and a few Zoom things offered by the School of Architecture.

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Hi. When submitting electronic transcripts from community colleges attended: community college, has parchment and sends it directly to USC electronically. How does USC match up that community college transcript with the common app for an individual?

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EA vs RD

With EA being fairly new and not much data to show a trend, beyond an earlier answer of accepted/deferred & merit consideration which applicant pool to choose?

Is one more competitive than the other?

Any insight, advice, food for thought to help make a final decision is greatly appreciated. Was full steam ahead with EA but now second guessing this and thinking ED would be the way to go because the applicant pool for those wanting to be considered for merit scholarships. The app is done and ready to be submitted and now just flip flopping between the two.

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I’m not sure if I understand your question. USC does not offer ED.

If your student can, absolutely apply EA. There is no downside. The majority of students who apply EA receive their admissions notification in March.

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Thanks, my question is why beyond getting an earlier notification and merit consideration should one throw their application into the EA pool? You either get accepted or deferred to RD and notified in March in you apply EA. Are the students applying EA the legacy students who have that hook? Are the most competitive students applying during EA? Are the students who are chasing merit applying EA? Are students who need to show improvement the first half of senior year more so applying RD? Would a high-stats, high scoring, strong EC student applying RD stand out?

These are the questions I am looking to answer to help decide on which application option to click on the Common App.

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My feeling is that the majority of EA applicants are applying EA for merit consideration. Since merit scholarships go to the top students (determined by stats or EC or passions), one might infer that the EA applicants have a more comprehensive and polished application.

If a student doesn’t receive merit in the EA round, they are evaluated with everyone that applies RD in the RD round. In my opinion, a student wouldn’t stand out more or less if they applied RD.

I don’t work in admissions, but my opinion would be that a high stats, high scoring, strong EC student should submit their application as early as possible.

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Do all accepted applicants from the EA round receive merit? Or some don’t and they just get accepted without any vs deferred?

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@fanoffriends Of this year’s admitted students, 55% chose the E.A. option.

They received 40,600 applications for Early Action admission and merit scholarship consideration and offered admission to approximately 2,400 students.

All remaining students were deferred to Regular Decision. An additional 40,400 students applied for the Regular Decision. Another 5,500 first-year admission offers or about 70% of the total came in late March.

In early February they released additional information about merit scholarships to EA admitted students. Not all EA students receive merit (which was your question). So some are just accepted early, the rest are deferred.

-Roughly 900 students were invited to proceed to the next phase of consideration for our top awards: the Trustee and Presidential (full- and half-tuition) scholarships. After interviews, final scholarship decisions were released in late March.
-200 students were notified of the receipt of a smaller scholarship like the Deans Scholarship and Leadership Scholarship.

Merit is crazy competitive and as you can see, statistically goes to a very tiny portion of applicants.

Note, EA has nothing to do with National Merit award. If a student has a complete and excellent application ready to roll, there is no reason not to apply EA. One might put it off to RD if they want more senior data included or need more time to polish.

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Thank you.

I guess if we are done with all the components we might as well submit by deadline #1.

We’ll never know if those who applied EA were seeking merit or were just finished by the EA deadline. Or, how many who applied ED ended up doing so to submit more senior year data.

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New USNWR college rankings… for what they are worth…

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities

I personally find the info to be gained via the Niche college rankings and survey results to be more helpful… but CC will not allow that link to be posted.

Niche grades: Overall Niche Grade A+, Academics A+, Value A, Diversity A+, Campus A+, Athletics A+, Party Scene A+, Professors A+, Location B+, Dorms A-, Campus Food A-, Student Life A+, Safety B-.

Some key rankings: Best Colleges for Communications in America 1 of 931, Colleges with the Best Student Life in America 2 of 1,509, Best Colleges for Performing Arts in America
2 of 558, Best Colleges for Design in America 2 of 438, Best Colleges for Business in America
3 of 1,249, Best Colleges for Film and Photography in America 3 of 285, Best Colleges for Student Athletes in America 4 of 1,323, Best Colleges for Music in America 4 of 265, Best Big Colleges in America 4 of 126, Top Party Schools in America 6 of 1,512, Best Colleges for Kinesiology and Physical Therapy in America 6 of 591, Best Colleges for International Relations in America 6 of 405, Best College Athletics in America 8 of 1,344, Best Colleges for Architecture in America 8 of 161, Best Colleges for Psychology in America 10 of 1,127, Best Colleges for Public Health in America 10 of 281.