class of 2014: chance?

madbean
Fri, 29 May 2009 17:56:51 +0000

An admissions rep from SCA said (in 2008) that USC adcoms look at your file at about the same time that the SCA is reviewing your supplement. Each will reach a decision separately–but the USC adcom will look most closely at all the regular stats (GPA, rigor of courses taken, essay, ECs, SAT or ACT, etc). At the same time, the SCA will look most carefully at the material submitted with your creative supplement. If the SCA sees merit, potential, talent, a special POV, diversity, unique vision, unique background, passion, or whatever they look for–they will tentatively select their incoming class in their 5 UG majors. Then, through some less-well-understood process, they communicate their selections to the admissions department who will check the status of those applicants. In other words, if there is a student that the SCA wants who is not high on the applicant pool of the regular USC CLAS, they will discuss.

For all the creative majors (fine arts, theatre, music, cinema, etc), the department is giving a lot of weight to the talents of the applicant, and that may mean they will recommend the acceptance of a student with test scores and GPA toward the lower range of the accepted pool. Just like athletes, I’d guess. But there is going to be only a few kids who will make it into these programs with slightly (SLIGHTLY) lower stats. In general, the university must make sure that each admit will thrive academically.