<p>Some students report their scores went down after a second sitting. Only a few of the thousands of students who enroll post here. A better comparison is the ACT, which all three universities score the same way.</p>
<p>You are confusing the average scores of admitted students with the academic quality of a university. That point of view drives US News and World Report rankings. State universities have to be more inclusive to be fairer to all segments of society. A private university has no such imperative and can play the numbers game to the hilt. The real quality of a University has more to do with its overall contribution to society. And what about the overall quality of Cal versus USC? Well, if USC never existed, the most visible effect on society would be a rewriting of the NCAA Football record books. If the University of California never existed, we would all be speaking German and goose stepping.
Any questions?</p>
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<p>Due to cal and UCLA being hit by budget cuts from Ca, both had to drastically increase the amount of OOS students they admitted. But before that happened, UCLA admission rate, at least from what i was seeing, was steadily dropping annually (check its wikipedia page.)</p>
<p>USC on the other hand, joined the common app (of which none of the UC schools are members of) which i’m sure also helped contribute to the number of applicants it has. (and no doubt, its low admissions rate.) My point is you can’t look at just the numbers, you have to look at other factors as well.</p>
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<p>If you’re just talking about ‘admitted’ students, it’s pretty clear that UCLA (and probably Cal) doesn’t really emphasize the SAT. Both Cal and UCLA have particular missions which includes ‘increasing diversity’ which is usually in the form of ‘holistic’ admissions, which generally deemphasize things like SAT scores. It doesn’t mean USC’s significantly more competitive, just means that the universities are focused on different things. </p>
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<p>Berkeley and UCLA have been historically more competitive for things like their graduate programs. No one’s denying the progress that USC is making (and it’s certain got people talking) but it’ll probably be decades until its prestige catches up with its progress.</p>
<p>Ah, the lamentations of a dying institution…</p>
<p>Is there still a “common” application among the UCs? Back in my day, there was a single UC app, and you basically checked boxes to indicate which UCs you wanted to apply to.</p>
<p>Ya Bephy, I agree with you. Since, no one knows exactly what goes on in the admission office, we can’t conclude that one university is more competitive than the other( given that the 2 we’re comparing are in similar tier - not trying to be sarcastic…). However, we have the stats to conclude that USC has “higher academic standards” compare to UCLA and maybe UCB. In other words, USC freshmen admission is more “academically competitive”. Moreover, about the diversity mission thing…I thought it was kind of ironic since UCLA and UCB have significantly higher percentage of Asian students compared to the student percentage of other ethnicity. On the other hand, USC is more balanced (not exactly the right word…i guess ‘different’ is what I’m trying to say), with more Caucasian students than Asian students. Also, USC enrolls the most international students in the nation. </p>
<p>And jjalfonsol, the UC apps system is still the same today. You fill out one UC app and you can send it to all the UCs.</p>
<p>SUPERSCORE effect:
The quoted Duke article does provide estimates of super score effect on pages 23-25. They do not calculate individual super scores, but use averages and statistical modeling to determine the effect. On page 23 they calculate the average subsection scores are increased by 30 points each for the entire group when test retakes are allowed-partly due to better scores on retake and partly due to super scoring. On page 25 they attribute 20 of those points to super scoring (they report 40 points total for M+R).</p>
<p>So that would be a 60 point boost in composite scores for current M,R,W when super scoring is allowed.</p>
<p>Also note their calculation is the average boost for the entire group which includes some students who do not retake test and therefore have zero boost.</p>
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This.</p>
<p>Admission-wise, all three universities are relatively similar. Thats why they’re all ranked closely on the USNews ranking. Academically, Berkeley and even UCLA are considerably better schools than USC. International rankings indisputably back that up.</p>
<p>Ah, Berkeley, the crown jewel of the University of California, how she cannot stomach the ignominy of the University of Southern California flexing its academic might by surpassing Cal’s student body in academic quality (almost a decade ago) and by positioning itself to eclipse Cal in the prestigious USNews&World Report rankings. Let’s see, where would California and America be without Cal??? I cannot count the ways; but here are a few likely conclusions:</p>
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<li> We’d have fewer long-haired, tie-died and Birkenstock-clad hippies burning American flags;</li>
<li> We probably would have won the Vietnam Conflict;</li>
<li> We’d have one fewer bigot demeaning Americans of German descent, who happen to comprise the largest ethnic group in the United States (check the census data) and whose country of origin is one of America’s strongest allies;</li>
<li> California would be in much better fiscal shape, without the bloated bureaucracy that defines the entire Uof C system; and</li>
<li> Finally, but far from least, we would have at least 30,000 fewer Cal diplomas waiting to be retrieved by those proud and illustrious Cal alumni!: [CAMPUS</a> LIFE - Berkeley - 30,000 Graduates Fail to Claim Their Diplomas - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/03/nyregion/campus-life-berkeley-30000-graduates-fail-to-claim-their-diplomas.html]CAMPUS”>CAMPUS LIFE: Berkeley; 30,000 Graduates Fail to Claim Their Diplomas - The New York Times)</li>
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<p>^ lol thanks for the laugh. (That is satire, right?)</p>
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<p>I don’t know why you think UCLA is dying. Our ranking (in addition to USC’s both increased this year in the times reputation ranking. I don’t see how this supports our institution “dying.”</p>
<p>[Top</a> Universities by Reputation 2012](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/reputation-rankings.html]Top”>World Reputation Rankings 2012 | Times Higher Education (THE))</p>
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<p>Sorry, i meant Common App.</p>
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<p>“Diversity” can be taken a number of different ways. It isn’t just by race, but also by country, socio-economic status, etc. </p>
<p>[UCLA</a> admits more than 15,000 students for fall 2012 freshman class / UCLA Newsroom](<a href=“http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-admits-more-than-15-000-seniors-232101.aspx]UCLA”>Newsroom | UCLA)</p>
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<p>I wouldn’t imagine Berkeley cares all that much, considering it’s ranked higher than USC in every ranking they appear in (including USNWR) and UCLA is rankeed higher in every ranking except USNWR.</p>
<p>TL;DR</p>
<p>USC, UCSB, and UCLA are all good schools with high academic standards in their current admissions process ಠ_ಠ</p>
<p><a href=“http://i.imgur.com/r9nBs.gif[/url]”>http://i.imgur.com/r9nBs.gif</a></p>
![http://i.imgur.com/r9nBs.gif[/url]](http://i.imgur.com/r9nBs.gif%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>Predictably, when USC surpassed the entire u of c system in SAT scores, either they downplayed the significance of the exam or relied on the superscore argument. Now that USN&WR places USC ahead, they resort to irrelevant rankings from foreigners who know very little or have scant understanding of the quality of American universities.</p>
<p>Wow Seatle’s (Best?). You have certainly convinced me with your condescending, political rantings that we are indeed lucky that my daughter is not going to USC. If you are an example of its brilliance and world class improvement --I’ll take the waning University of California. Your amazing brilliance must be doing wonders for the reputation of USC.</p>
<p>Yes, USC is increasingly competitive, and they turned down my own daughter and now she will have to go learn with the hippies at UCLA. Thank God!</p>
<p>Wow, this is a depressing conversation. All three schools have a lot to offer. Can’t all of them be great schools for the right kid?</p>
<p>Sorry USCMom. I promise to return Tommy Trojan’s pants immediately. :)</p>
<p>Seriously you are right – amazing that anybody can sit here and complain and argue about such horrible problems as their kid having to choose between or being admitted only to some of USC, UCLA, Berkeley… Our kids worked pretty hard to get there and we ought to be nothing but proud.</p>
<p>I totally agree with you!</p>
<p>Had you taken the time to read every post you would have quickly realized that I was merely responding to several patronizing remarks about USC, nothing more, nothing less.</p>
<p>I read every post. You want to fight but it’s not going to be with me. There are much bigger issues worth fighting for.</p>
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<p>It’s funny how you get accused of making condescending posts, and then in a post trying to explain yourself, you make another condescending post.</p>