<p>During the USC tour we took recently, it was noted that the applicant pool was expected to explode this fall, due to USC participating in the Common Ap for the first time. What was a 25% chance of getting in is now perhaps a 5% chance, with tons of kids who have never seriously considered USC thinking, “Oh well, I will go ahead and check this USC box on the Common Ap, too.” Meanwhile, those students who have made repeated visits to the school, booked interviews, and consider USC their #1 choice for years will no longer stand out at all. We were told that demonstrating interest via visits/interviews doesn’t matter at all now. </p>
<p>I wonder what the result will be. What happens if USC denies admission to thousands of kids who qualify and really, really, really want to go there, but offers admission to thousands for whom USC is not really a serious consideration? If demonstrated interest carries no weight, how do admissions officers know they’re extending acceptances to students who will actually choose USC?</p>
<p>SJRcalderone, take heart. Some of your doom & gloom ideas are probably not so bad.</p>
<p>1) No one knows how many more apps will arrive this year due to the Common App–but you can be sure it is not as easy as just checking a box. Like a lot of schools, USC still requires a supplement with essays, etc. </p>
<p>2) Demonstrating interest (visiting campus, etc) has not been a consideration in admissions, so there is no sudden disadvantage. Any college with less than 25% admissions is highly selective. Those who consider USC their #1 choice have, I’m sorry to say, not gotten any special advantage, nor has legacy status. This has allowed USC increase the caliber of students in each freshman class which must be seen as good thing for USC, but always daunting to many applicants.</p>
<p>3) Also sad to some, but true, college admissions selectivity seems to get more and more competitive–and many many thousands of wonderful students do not get admitted to their favorite top choice schools. The best way to protect against such a thing is to make a very good list of colleges and apply to some in the reach, match and good shot range, all of which you’d like to attend.</p>
<p>4) Highly selective universities may not be much concerned with guessing who will attend. They base their predictions on many years of experience, admitting a number large enough to account for those who will ultimately choose another school. You are right–since the CA may allow many more to apply, it may be a little trickier figuring out that correct number of admits this year. </p>
<p>5) Best of luck to you. Don’t be too discouraged. It’s a pretty hard thing to be a senior in HS and yet, everyone somehow survives. With a good list, you should have several great schools to choose from, even if the dream tip-top choice isn’t among them. But I hope it is.</p>
<p>To add to madbean’s excellent suggestions make sure you like your safety and would attend if that is your only choice. Go over the financial suggestions from alamemom and have a safety that is also a financial safety.</p>
<p>Last year the University of Michigan switched to the CommonAp and saw total applications rise nearly 25%. Will the same happen at USC? I don’t think anyone can honestly tell you that answer, but historically the switch to the CA has brought in more applications. </p>
<p>Demonstrated interest has never been considered by SC or most major schools simply because the added expense of visiting/touring before applying would be a major financial burden for many applicants and therefore put them at a disadvantage. </p>
<p>I live in Ann Arbor and while I don’t work for the university many friends and neighbors do. In an unguarded moment the Admissions Office types will tell you that “yield management” is as much art as it is science. This year Michigan had about the same size class as usual, their profile was as high as it’s ever been and a lot of applicants who would have been admitted in years past were deferred and a few outright denied. Probably the same will happen at SC. My guess is that next year there’ll be more Spring Admits and/or a waiting list will be even more important.</p>
<p>Last year when Columbia University joined the CommonApp, the number of applicants rose by around 40%. I think the same would happen to USC, especially with their recent popularity and rapid rise in academic reputation. A lot of my friends who graduated high school last year told me how they didn’t apply to USC because of the separate application.</p>
<p>Vince the trend at SC is for fewer spring admits. SC does not use a waiting list. A student is accepted or denied.</p>
<p>Notre Dame is a much smaller university than SC. The freshman class is not nearly as large. However, I had to check their freshmen profile and ND had 1,933 on the wait list. Of that huge number only 136 were admitted from that long list.</p>
<p>USC will now have access to 700,000 applicants, i thnk it will get more tough to get into SC my advice is to go personally meet with your advisor before you interview, putting a face to the name.</p>
<p>USC going from 25% to 5%? I’m not sure if that’s what you meant or maybe you meant admission percentage will DECREASE by 5%. For USC to go from 25% to 5% acceptance there would have to be way more than 100% increase in applications…let’s hope you’re not applying as a math major because USC will not become more selective than Harvard…5% is not going to happen. </p>
<p>But seriously, yes, it’ll be much harder to get in now than last year. Expect somewhere near 19-21% acceptance for fall 2012, but don’t worry too much. After all, it is just USC…(I kid, I kid! Fight on!)</p>
<p>GGirl, I reread my post and realized I was implying that USC had a waitlist, my apologies. As for the trend to reduce Spring Admits I’m not sure if that can continue given a huge upsurge in applications. If, and I realize it’s a big ‘if’, SC goes through a Michiganesque 25% increase in apps that means ~8,950 more submissions to get through. Same staff level + 25% more workload + desire to keep the process personalized = something’s gotta give. </p>
<p>Michigan struggled mightily to handle the upsurge. Their Early Action segment became a punch-line with almost no acceptances or rejections but just a huge pile of deferreds buying the Admissions Office more time. Furthermore, special early-admit programs (e.g., the undergraduate business school) which normally took 6 weeks to make a decision after an applicant had been accepted to the university were taking as long as 16-weeks. In some cases the answer didn’t come until after a student needed to submit their initial deposits. I’m picking on Michigan because I live in Ann Arbor and witnessed the emotional wreckage that their lack of preparation caused among applicants, friends and neighbors. I’m hopeful SC will be better prepared; regardless, this year’s applicants should prepare themselves for the possibility of a bumpy ride.</p>
<p>Michigan is a public U and has less flexibity regarding how it allocates expenditures. I’m sure USC has made a study of the adjustments Michigan, as well other U’s, such as Chicago and Columbia had to make when switching to the Common app and is well prepared for the surge.
And I would anticipate that as the admissions standards and expectations are being raised at USC, a lot of applications will be filtered out in the first cut and wont get a second look.</p>
<p>I think it’s likely USC has done their homework and will likely adjust its acceptances to reflect a possible lower yield.</p>
<p>If at all possible, make contact with your admissions rep at USC. Don’t badger them with questions, but when you have a good one or two, email them directly. Same with follow-up if you have any additional achievements to report later in senior year.</p>
<p>When we went to the Explore admitted students day, my son went up to say hello to the USC admissions rep for his school. She immediately “knew” him from their brief but specific email relationship and brought up their correspondence! I was very impressed. </p>
<p>If I recall correctly, he the first time he emailed her, it was a thank you for visiting his school (yours may or may not do this) combined with some very specific application questions. He may have emailed another question later, just before submitting his app. The last time it was to tell her about a significant achievement he made mid-senior year; she said she would be sure and add it to his file.</p>
<p>my son has applied almost 2 months ago via the common ap to USC. As of now, USC is the only school that has yet to download the submitted application. I got concerned and called USC admissions, and they state that they’re not ready to download for another 3 weeks!!! I’m just surprised on the answer that I got.</p>
<p>Some of the individuals on the admissions committee are giving talks at the SC admissions receptions that are taking place across the country. I have attended the Atlanta receptions. SC not only sends representatives from the admissions office, but also a financial aid officer and administrators from many of the other schools such as Viterbi, Annenberg and Marshall.</p>
<p>One change with The Common App is that it seems to me the last-minute application surge went much more smoothly this year. When USC’s servers were handling it, there was a traditional crash and subsequent panic among the applicants. The panic was/is on a much smaller scale this year and centers around the score submission and recommendations rather than submitting the application - that is a good change.</p>
<p>And so far, application status is not available, so will there be the traditional “status” frenzy this year?</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how many applicants submitted for scholarship consideration!</p>
<p>Keep in mind SC had a huge number of applicants last year BEFORE the common application was used. The university had 37,210 seniors apply for the freshmen class. In addition, there were 9,611 applicants to transfer.</p>
<p>The admit rate last year was 23% for the freshmen class. </p>
<p>When I attended a college information/admissions reception in October for USC I asked the question about readiness for the larger numbers of applications expected. The officer indicated the committee was prepared. So I will assume the planning has taken place and each application will be considered carefully as has been done in the past.</p>
<p>It was stressed each application was read and all essays were read.</p>