Chances?: 3.79 UW, 9 APs, All Honors, 4 ECs, 1 Team

USCAlum05
Thu, 26 Jul 2012 23:39:23 +0000

LOL well I once saw a movie studio president essentially say the same thing, that he could’ve made another separate pile of scripts and the results would’ve been the same. You’d like to believe that that’s not possible but it probably is.

J814Wong, sorry for the smug joke about the neighborhood. It’s a somewhat downtrodden urban neighborhood that’s gentrifying. It’s really not THAT bad, but frankly since the majority of students (who populate boards like this) come from nice suburbs it can be a bit of a shock.

I never had a problem with it. The bottom line is that you’re not in the suburbs anymore and you have to just not be stupid, especially late at night. Watch your back and you’ll be fine. This is not unique to USC; urban schools like Penn and the University of Chicago have the same issues, but if you don’t want the city then there are plenty of schools like Iowa and all the LACs in upstate New York for you to apply to. Don’t worry about the neighborhood - that should be the least of your concerns.

The essay is the big place where you show them that you want to go to USC (or MIT or Stanford or whatever) but the other way you show them (a lot of schools do this) is by having contact with them. You inquire, get on their mailing list, meet their admissions reps at high school visits and college fairs (and get that person’s business card), and especially - if you can - with a campus visit.

I think the big thing is that you convey your sincere interest (while not stalking them Fatal Attraction-style) by maintaining contact with them and by writing sincere essays that will infer your genuine interest in the school. You can’t fake that stuff (hopefully) and when the admissions folks look at that in sum, that will help sway them towards you rather than the other gazillion qualified kids.