USC seems to exhibt symptoms of Tuft’s Syndrome. Do you agree or disagree? Just a yield issue or merit scholarship funding issue?
https://www.collegedata.com/en/college-profile/1138/?tab=profile-admission-tab says that USC does not consider level of applicant’s interest.
Or is the claim that USC is rejecting students that are unlikely to yield, regardless of what interest level is shown?
OP: do you have some evidence of yield protection by 'SC that you’d like to share?
I see no problem with colleges using yield protection. Student’s who end up at their safety schools are often the one’s trying to transfer up and if they fail they spend three years bad mouthing their school.
I’m not sure exactly what OP meant. What we’ve seen from our school is USC doesn’t take many of the NMF’s, but will kids with high ACTs. So, I think they’re trying to limit the merit aid.
USC is one of the most applied to schools in the entire country right now, and at every admissions event I’ve ever been to the admissions staff has talked about how demonstrated interest IS taken into account. Every school wants to enroll students who want to be there. That much should be common sense, and it isn’t just shown through campus visits ($$$) or signing up for a mailing list but also through the essays that students write talking about why they want to go to a specific school and enroll in a specific program.
To the extent that students with numbers beyond USC’s normal stats are rejected, it can also be because students are scattergunning applications to schools that they have no interest in beyond the school’s U.S. News ranking. Admissions officers read a LOT of essays and have VERY good B.S. detectors about these things.
Yes… as @uscalum05 suggests, demonstrated interest is taken into account. And if you do not want to take our word for it, just read through the Insider’s Guide to USC Admissions… wherein those calling the shots on admissions tell you what they are looking for…
https://news.usc.edu/trojan-family/a-guide-to-uscs-college-admissions-process/
From an admissions perspective, USC is not interested in mainly being defined just by stats. They are aiming for a diverse and well-rounded freshman class of circa 3000. During that process, due to the nearly 67K applications received this cycle, they did have to turn away 4K+ applicants with 4.0 unweighted GPAs and 99th percentile test scores… just as Stanford had to for 8K+ similarly accomplished applicants. USC also had to turn away 90% of all legacy applicants. Overall, they had to reject 89% or nearly 60K applicants in total. They projected a 41% yield rate and thus only admitted circa 7300 in total.
USC seems to generally want to see sufficient stats (e.g. 3.7 or higher unweighted GPA and 1390 or higher SAT or 30 and higher ACT) mixed with strong ECs, potential leadership roles, demonstrated passion, memorable essays and a profile that seems like a good fit for USC. It helps if you actually tell them a compelling & well-researched “Why USC?” reason and vice versa… i.e. what USC gets by having you there specifically. There are clearly exceptions, and many do get in with stellar stats and weaker ECs, etc. Those being admitted with lesser stats likely may have other components to offer… creative or performance talents, etc. But demonstrated interest… and especially in terms of an applicant’s “Why USC?” answer… is critically important to the success of most applications. It is what sets applications apart. As stated above, a scattergun approach of applying to many colleges and universities and without really putting your heart and soul into your USC application in a manner that makes your application stand-out is simply a wasted effort for many. If you fail to offer a compelling reason why USC is the right place for you as you see it, then why should USC endeavor to make such possible for you? I suspect that the vast majority of the 7300 or so admitted did so.
Not sure if this was the case for OP, but it isn’t unusual for the students who see themselves as shoo-in for Tufts or USC to recycle essays used for Harvard or Stanford that clearly describe the experience they are seeking as one that would be available at Harvard or Stanford but not at USC or Tufts. And the AOs identify them as kids who haven’t done their research and won’t be a great fit, not as kids who won’t say yes if accepted.
Yield protection suggests that schools want the highest % of students they admit. What really matters is that the incoming class has the desired profile. A kid who is a great fit is unlikely to be denied because they are “over-qualified”.
On the CDS for USC they don’t say they consider “demonstrated interest” but some posters claim they do. Who is right?
They actually read the “Why USC” question and a good admissions officer can smell the difference between a boilerplate answer where USC info is cut and pasted into the application and someone who is truly interested. The result may be similar as “Tuft’s Syndrome” but it is NOT the same thing. There are also several othe questions that would seem, throwaway on the USC questions on the common app and I assume that is to see if folks throw them away or actually contemplate them.
@socaldad2002 I interpret that they don’t take demonstrated interest into account to mean they don’t track visits, contacts with AOs, etc. What they do care about is how you express Why USC is the place for you, what you will bring and what you will take advantage of at the university. You can do that without ever visiting, just by doing your research.
^^^ Exactly. And if USC is clearly your top choice, they do not mind hearing it. In fact, they want you to tell them so. You just need to have well-founded and properly researched reasoning to support your declaratory statement that USC is #1 in your eyes and that you will definitely enroll if admitted.
But let’s also be fair… only say so if true. It was true in the case of both of my daughters, so they said so… and did finally enroll after gaining admission. If you are a stellar applicant & a good fit for USC but emotionally committed to another school, I do not suggest saying so to USC just to increase your # of admissions. Let those who truly dream of attending USC have a better shot at doing so…
"USC doesn’t take many of the NMF’s, but will kids with high ACTs. So, I think they’re trying to limit the merit aid. "
They are not. in fact USC accepts about 50% of NMF’s according to the Dean of Admissions.That’s FAR higher than their overall acceptance rate.
But as WWWard said above , USC DOES want students to demonstrate GENUINE interest in attending USC. Just saying you want to go to USC and being a hi scoring applicant won’t cut it these days.
BTW one other thing - when students with numbers beyond the usual range for a particular school are rejected - for whatever reason - it strikes me as pure egotism. 18 year olds in particular can’t seem to grasp that schools are looking for traits BEYOND pure numbers - like, for example, whether or not a kid wants to attend the actual school. They’re also looking for things like character, good social skills, and for what the student will contribute to the university both as a student and as a prospective alum. They have enough applicants who meet the minimum numbers. Students dismiss the importance of the rest at their peril.
^^^ Good point. I was just reading today a statement about what a certain graduate level scholarship program is searching for, and they list the traits being sought as…
We are interested in evidence of leadership qualities and initiative, academic ability via a demonstrated record of accomplishment, character, adaptability and ambassadorial qualities, etc.
And while this program requires at least a 3.7 cumulative college GPA to apply, clearly they are looking for much more. Simply bringing a 4.0 GPA to such an application process, for example, would clearly be insufficient as a stand-alone.
Colleges are no different when they are evaluating high school seniors as applicants. Yes… they are looking for a sufficient level of academic accomplishment, but that is just a starting point. And having near perfect or even perfect grades or test scores is not adequate to negate all of the other factors being sought. Young people need to grasp this concept and quickly… as the real world is no exception. Aside from applying to undergraduate or graduate scholarship programs or to graduate school itself, there will be very few instances in the future when your grades or test scores will ever be brought up or asked about again. Instead, employers are most interested in the composite nature of job applicants as a totality… including the things mentioned above by @uscalum05… character, good social skills, the ability to communicate well verbally and in writing, etc. Being an honors graduate from USC or elsewhere would be a bonus, but again, that is just one thing about you under consideration.
And you should also have a “why us?” answer prepared for each subsequent program or job you apply for going forward. USC is not the only place who cares about why you want to be a part of their organization…
If college adcoms can’t tell the difference between real and fake athletes then what are the odds of telling real interest from fake in an essay written by applicant’s hired consultant?
Any college that has a “Why Us” essay cares about demonstrated interest.
USC does not consider demonstrated interest in their applications. This information can be found in their most recent common data set. Anything you’re hearing is purely anecdotal.
I think people are misunderstanding the term “demonstrated interest”. All schools want students who want to be there and that is always a factor. What USC is not doing is what Tufts and Tulane are, which is tracking every “touch” an applicant has with admissions (tracking visits, emails, correspondence with admiissions,etc).
@riversider Understanding the college admissions process is key to understanding the real issue about the admissions scandal (which has it’s own thread btw). I don’t hold anything against admissions at Yale, Stanford, Wake Forest, UCLA, UCB the other elite schools involved, but I understand how the process works and this was just a bad apple or two out of thousands and thousands and thousands. It really is statistically insignificant.
Understanding holistic admissions can be challenging for some to understand the real process enough to make it work for them, so I don’t see it as Tufts, but as being uniformed and sometimes just a defense for some to deal with their own rejection. USC takes a diverse students full of brilliance both academically and creatively. Not getting accepted is just hard for people to understand, I think that is more an issue with the person than the university whether USC or anywhere else. Sometimes it is best to move on than harbor such resentment and look for things to blame. It is always easy to identify when someone that didn’t get into a school or just harbors hatred for it - they all came out during the scandal to just use the discussion about it as an outlet for all their bitterness over rejection.
The best schools don’t have enough room for all the best students, someone has to win, someone has to lose in the admissions game. Hopefully most find a good school for them and focus their energy on good things.