<p>I attend a good public high school on the east coast. My weighted GPA is a 4.2 and my unweighted is around a 3.6-3.7, though my school does not calculate unweighted GPA's. I got a 2050 on the SAT and a 31 on the ACT, i plan on improving these scores senior year. I've taken all honors courses with accelerated history freshman/sophomore year and accelerated history and chemistry junior year. I am taking AP Physics and AP Statistics senior year. I play baseball and football for my school and participate in Speech and Debate, Model UN, and the engineering club. I got accepted Junior year to be a peer tutor which I will continue Senior year. I have about 120 service hours from volunteering at a camp, tutoring, and going on a service trip with my Church. For work experience every summer my friend and I have a landscaping business that we run. I also have worked at a grocery store since junior year. What are my chances for USC?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1011/FreshmanProfile2010.pdf[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1011/FreshmanProfile2010.pdf</a></p>
<p>Looking at the above statistics, academically you’re a bit below the mid-point for admitted students. You certainly seem to have a rigorous schedule as well as plenty of community service, work and EC experiences. Obviously more is better - good grades first semester senior year, more points on the SAT/ACT, excellent recs and strong essays will help. </p>
<p>The wild card this year is USC’s move to the CommonApp. Historically schools see a jump in applications when they switch, e.g., Michigan saw a 25% increase in applications this year - the first using the CA. If that happens at 'SC then the admit rate is going to drop to ~20%. Of the additional candidates some will be spectacular some won’t, but it will make it even more important to put in the effort to make yourself stand out. From my perspective that makes USC a high match/low reach.</p>
<p>Thanks. Is the college of engineering one of the more competitive majors to get into USC? Also do you think writing my essay on my landscaping business would be a good topic because I was going to write my essay on the service trip I went on, but a few people told me that it wouldn’t be a good idea.</p>