<p>DM, if you are familiar with chance threads at the ivies, you know that they say admission to those most highly selective schools is a reach for everyone. It is exactly the same for the top merit scholarships at USC. Perfect scores are no guarantee. In fact, with schools that use holistic evaluation for admission, you get a boost for great scores, but then get a ding for having mismatched GPA. They look closely and wonder why the student did not perform well in class. I think your essay on how you love to learn for the sake of learning is great. I also think your background brings diversity. Those may help in your admission (where your scores are very good, of course, but your GPA is well below the 3.8 UW average posted 2 cycles ago for admitted students at USC). </p>
<p>Did you score high on the PSAT as well?</p>