<p>3.5/4.1 GPA, national merit semifinalist, hoping for a 34 on my ACT, 1700 hours of community service, top 5 percent in community service in the state, DECA national qualifier, DECA vice president of local chapter, FBLA national qualifier, FBLA vice president, member f Kansas city youth symphony, president of school orchestra, all state and all district orchestra. 1s at state solo an ensemble festival, variety tennis, hopefully captain of tennis team. Also NHS member, but honestly everyone Gets into NHS. Owner of a startup business, what are my chances at USC? Also what can I do to improve my chances of getting in? I’m looking to major in either Industrial engineering, or finance/accounting.</p>
<p>In my opnion, you have a great shot at USC! but then again, it’s getting harder and harder to get into schools. At explore this year, USC admissions kept on emphasizing how the average UNWEIGHTED GPA was a 3.9! Or how scores were 34/ 2200 + ! So really, you’re going to be dealing with a lot of kids who know their stuff academically! So if you really want to try to secure your spot, I’d say to improve your GPA, especially throughout senior year (midyear reports i believe matter more than people would like them to)</p>
<p>Extracurriculars- i think they are pretty good for USC, but with what your major is, i don’t really see any connection to engineering! i can see the business side (finance accounting) connecting so that’s good! You have a good committment to your EC’s and that’s also a great thing as well. In my opinion though, i feel like you need to pick your major definitely now (if it’s going to be engineering) and work towards something in that field 
because i remember my usc admissions officer when she visited our school said a lot of things like how they measure success in future academic field… and one way to measure that is your commitment to things in your future field!</p>
<p>However, the most important advice i can give you is to really start trying to package yourself well- start on your essays NOW! they say essays get you into college, but it’s really how well you can make your experiences relate. write about things that really set you apart from the other applicants (some experience that you had that no one else could have kind of thing → look at your EC’s for experience if you can’t think of one right off the bat). and in your essays, esp. the “why usc” supplement, try to connect yourself to them as part of the student body, like make themselves see you as a person who could go to USC. i made parallells to teha cademic department that i applied to and that worked for me. i was kind of in your situation in that i had strong EC’s but a low GPA (3.45), but in the end i was accepted to USC! just let them see your passion and you should be fine.</p>
<p>i also believe that USC is looking for diverse individuals- most of the people who i’ve met within the class of 2016 are people who do crazy things, like have an interest in biology while wanting to become a crazy filmmaker; or people who are extremely performing arts oriented while wanting to become a comp sci engineer…</p>
<p>aLSO, try hard in your classes to get good letters of rec from teachers who know you :)</p>
<p>good luck!!!</p>