USC Help?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
1

Hey,

I’m a rising senior in High School and am looking for help in my college endeavors. My ultimate goal is to own my own company resembling Warner Bros. in the sense of having a television/film chapter and a record label chapter, with myself both producing within these chapters and being an executive. My ideal dream would be to gain acceptance into the Marshall School and double major with BCA (business in cinematic arts) and Music Industry. According to my following information, is this a viable option? Should I try other schools (UCLA)? What else should I do?

GPA: 4.5/3.8
Solid SAT/ACTs
Clubs: Key Club, Beta Club, Future Business Leaders of America, Interact, Call 2 Action, Circle of Friends, Student Council (Director of Spirit), Peer Tutoring, Dynasty (founder & performer), NHS, Math NHS, SS NHS
Jobs: Country Club Groundskeeper
Volunteer Work: Red Cross, Building Homes, Soup Kitchen, 2A/4A State Finals
Extracurriculars: I created the Dynasty club at my high school, which is performance based: we display high quality performances addressing both light hearted and socially conscious topics during pep rallies, assemblies, and most recently, football games by having multiple students cover famous artists. These performances including intricate lighting, staging, choreography and special effects that make it rival professional televised medleys. I’ve had the opportunity to produce, create, write, and perform in two music films as well as a very creative Black History Month performance in addition to countless pep
rallies and halftime shows that rival that of a Super Bowl Halftime’s in terms of quality. Next year, I plan on expanding on this with having 3 - one more than this year - halftime shows and a music festival held at my school with cover performances by our club members. The best part is that all of these performances (cover medleys of Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, The Weeknd) all fit into a larger storyline, which will be displayed next year at the festival as a music film (like LEMONADE) interpolated with live performances of the musical covers of the featured artists (students covering the aforementioned artists).
I also am completing an internship next year, where should I go? Is this too much or not enough? What else can I do? Thanks

2

You sound very ambitious which is great you would fit in well at USC. I would try to make sure that you don’t let all of your previous accomplishments and clearly illustrated future endeavors take over your application and make sure that you’re able to communicate who you are as a person separate from your academics and primary hobbies although it’s amazing that they seem to coincide + what you enjoy about these projects and activities and why you put forth so much effort and time for them. You’re an impressive applicant and parallel every BCA major I know and as arbitrary as college admissions are I don’t think you should worry about doing more to impress admissions. However, your dream of double majoring in BCA and Music Industry would be arduous bordering on unrealistic. You could look into majoring in BCA while minoring in Music Industry and/or Music Production which are each around 20 units of coursework, or majoring in Music Industry and minoring in CA or Entrepreneurship which I’m assuming are also around 20 units of coursework as most minors are at USC. The Music Industry program is restrictive even on the BS track instead of the BM, a second major or even a minor might add extra semesters before graduation unless you took summer classes or more than 18 units a semester which I also believe would be difficult. One of my roommates is a Music Industry major and she is already soooo busy with extracurriculars and relevant personal projects and endeavors for her resume that she has a full plate with only 16 -18 units a semester.

I realize getting accepted is the first step (and keep in mind BCA is very selective and exclusively available to freshman applicants), I just wouldn’t recommend you apply with the intent to double major in two grueling programs of study. The requirements for all majors and programs are available in the online course catalog to look through and decide which program curriculum best fits your post grad plans, or maybe you’ll be willing to sacrifice extra time to pursue both programs. Good luck!