<p>I saw in the General USC FAQ that I should have a good shot but that was dated years ago and I just want to make sure that nothing’s changed.</p>
<p>My name is Lindsay! (: Pleased to meet you.
I’m OBSESSED with USC and if I don’t get in, there’s going to be a problem.</p>
<p>I have a 3.8 GPA (It might be a 3.77 or something like that, but I’m not sure.)
and I just recently got a 30 on my ACT.</p>
<p>I have a few leadership positions:
Drum Major of Marching Band
Treasurer of Bowling Club
President of Orchestra Club</p>
<p>I was an Arizona Girls’ State Delegate
and I have participated in orchestra regionals as a cellist.</p>
<p>I wrote my essay about “what matters to me and why,” and it was a story about my little autistic brother and why I want to major in something that involves communicating with people.</p>
<p>I live in Phoenix, AZ.
Unfortunately, I’m not a legacy.</p>
<p>Your GPA is on point (what is it weighted?), your ACT is around there too…your EC’s are pretty good, nothing outstanding, but they’re good…overall I’d say it’s a high match, you’ll need to distinguish yourself through your essays and statements</p>
<p>What is a ‘High Match’? I’ve seen this system used a lot, and I still don’t completely fathom why people can’t just give a rough % instead. Where can I find info on how the match/reach system works?</p>
<p>Please join the official group of the class of 2014 on facebook. I will be happy to answer all your questions (and perhaps chance you):
[Login</a> | Facebook](<a href=“Redirecting...”>Redirecting...)</p>
<p>Determining a percent is useless because none of us have any means of deriving one. A “match” typically means that the posters stats are on par with the schools published stats. A reach would mean that the poster is in the lower end of the 50% or 25%. A safety would be upper 50% or top 25%…her GPA is on match, ACT lower 50%, EC’s decent…so in my opinion, USC is a high match for her…not quite right on the spot, but by no means a reach.</p>
<p>actually determining a percentage wouldn’t be that difficult, if you couple the stats with admittance rates and/or applications:acceptances, and use average stats, and use other factors to adjust the percentage for better or worse, and giving a range of like 30-50% or 40-60% wouldn’t be that far off probably and would definitely be an acceptable estimate, within +/- 10% of a chance is a pretty wide range and would still satisfy most people.</p>
<p>Ohh. I always forget that I had an interview. I had an interview in October with a girl named Lauren. I’m pretty sure she was a work study student, but she was very nice.
I also met some tuba player from the marching band because I’m very interested in USC’s marching band!</p>
<p>Anyone know anything about doing the interview? Does it help any?</p>
<p>^ as quoted by the admissions guy, interviews on strictly for information purposes, they don’t give them any weight…Lightja, I don’t agree with that because what about all of the URM’s who get in with sub-par stats. Or the special circumstances, or outliers. I suppose you could estimate a rough percent though.</p>
<p>jkaplan1212, URM is one of those other factors that makes a huge difference with college admissions, so if it’s included in the thread where people are chancing, I don’t see why you can’t just factor that in to your rough %, as well as any other special circumstances, so long as they’re mentioned by the person you’re chancing.</p>
<p>As much as I hate to say it, being an URM gives you a huge edge over other applicants, so when you use the match system, you obviously know that their chances are better than a reach just because their stats are slightly sub-par</p>
<p>If you’re interested in the USC marching band, I’d be happy to help you out and answer your questions. I’m a current member and I can say that joining band at USC was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.</p>
<p>Bump, because it looks like there are more replies to this than there actually are, since just about every board in the USC thread has an argument going on these days.</p>
<p>@hawkwings - Yeah! I spoke to Ryan(?)…tuba player… I think he’s a senior? He’s quoted in the band brochure, anyways, he seemed really awesome and so did the whole band. TMB isn’t the whole reason why I want to go to USC, but it’s definitely part of it.</p>