Chances I'll get into USC?

kar0630
Fri, 12 May 2017 01:47:22 +0000

Hey everyone! One school I’m really interested in learning more about is USC (Southern California). From what I understand, though, one thing they look at is how involved you are in extracurricular activities. Of course I know every college looks at that, but it seems like it matters more to USC. That’s my area of weakness, in my opinion. By itself it’s not so bad, but when compared to what other kids have on their resumes, I don’t think I will be much of a match. Anyway, here are my stats.

GPA: 95.639 unweighted, 100.334 weighted. Our school doesn’t go based on the 4.0 system. This is just freshman and sophomore year. I’m a junior, but I don’t think my grades this year will affect my GPA too much. My unweighted GPA this year is like a 95 so far. Freshman year I took all honors except science. Sophomore year same thing, except I took AP Psychology as an elective. This year I’m in regular math and science, but AP history and english. Next year I plan on taking regular math, but AP physics, macro/gov, and english. As for foreign language, I took Spanish honors up until junior year. Senior year I’m taking a Spanish elective, but I’m second guessing myself and considering going into the honors class. I started taking ASL too this year and I’m taking it next year. So that’s two languages junior and senior year.

ACT: 32 composite, 6 writing. Clearly my writing is not good. I’m not really sure how much that will undermine my composite. I’m still taking the June ACT though and I just took the May SAT, so hopefully I can/did do better. But that’s what I’m at right now.

Extracurriculars: Freshman year I played volleyball, basketball and lacrosse. Lacrosse was varsity. Then sophomore and junior year I only did volleyball and basketball, both varsity, and I got an award for All Class in volleyball (it’s a type of county award). Junior year I did volleyball and basketball again, varsity, and got All Conference in volleyball. Again, that’s just another level of a county award. Senior year I plan on doing volleyball, basketball, and then rejoining lacrosse because why not. Sports are definitely my main highlight. I’ve done some community service stuff along the way, including a trip over the summer where I got 45 hours. I also am doing this thing called School of Rock, where I sing and play guitar in like a band setting. It’s 3 hours once a week for 4 months. My biggest weakness, however, is clubs. I’m only in 2, and I joined this year: World Language Honors Society and National Honors Society. Junior year is when you get invited. I knew that I was lacking in clubs, so I wanted to get a position in NHS. I didn’t win the election though, which, not gonna lie, inspired this post. I’m worried my lack of clubs will set me back.

Of course WLHS and NHS will look good, but at my school, it’s more common to be in those societies than not. I might seem like a good student, but compared to the people in my school, I’d say I’m just above average. Academically and also in terms of involvement. There are a bunch of people who do just as well as me and are also in multiple clubs, several of them they have positions in. I feel like it’s kind of bad to compare, but it’s also necessary. After all, that’s what colleges are doing - comparing you to the other applicants. I don’t know if colleges take how prestigious your high school is into consideration that much, but we don’t have class rankings, so I think that’s an advantage for me.

That’s basically it. If you guys have any other questions, I’ll answer them, but I appreciate any help. Thanks!