I was lucky enough to be a national merit finalist, and I named USC as my first choice. I know that if I get in, I will get a half tuition scholarship. However, I’ve heard from a few people that USC will deny a lot of national merit people because of this.
Is this true?
Of course not. There are many reasons 4,000 applicants in the 99 percentile, including some NMFs, don’t get in. First, there just isn’t enough room in every major for the spectacular stat kids that apply. Also, they can really read an application and know if an NMF or any other close to perfect applicant truly has the love for USC or is just going through the motion and applying. Often times kids actually have their sites set elsewhere and it shows.
It’s just another one of those things people throw out there as an excuse for not being accepted, it’s a shield for disappointment and understandable.
Being an NMF is always a good thing - always - and certainly when applying to USC. To put it simply, it can only help, and never hurt.
^^^ Exactly. Every year, there are posts from shocked applicants (or their parents) on CC with perfect or near perfect stats who are not admitted to USC. Often, they also post how they got in to a # of other elite schools, including even HYPS level schools, and therefore they are in disbelief that they did not get in to somewhere (lesser in their opinion) like USC or UVa, etc. They then often add in that USC was not their favorite anyhow and that they always wanted to go to ____ instead.
Well, the reality is that admissions officers are very experienced at reviewing these application packages. They can often decipher whether you are just going through the motions and relying on your stellar stats or whether you are fully committed to USC. Unless your Why USC? reasoning convinces them, they may be reluctant to admit you, regardless of your stats. 4K+ with 99th percentile test scores and 4.0 unweighted GPAs are in fact rejected each cycle these days. Even more such applicants are rejected from Stanford, for example.
USC can likely project that you would in turn being rejecting USC if admitted. And the reality is that there is just not enough room anyhow. USC is looking to craft a well-rounded freshman class of only circa 3K and that does not correlate to only 3K perfect stat kids. Yield protection is not USC’s primary goal in this, but it can also be a factor. They prefer to admit those who they believe are the best fit for USC specifically & who will in fact enroll if admitted. And that goal includes the further effort to make-up a freshman class which will be highly diverse… including considerations for factors like FirstGen, URM, geography, demographics, athletic talent, creative or performing arts talent, socio-economic considerations, etc.
If USC is in fact your first choice, good luck getting in…
Thank you so much, this was really helpful!
What @CADREAMIN and @WWWard said are absolutely true. I’m NMF and USC accepted me early for scholarship consideration. I think what set me apart, besides my stats, is the amount of time I spent working on my USC essays and making sure my essay was unique to USC. I think that helped a lot