<ol>
<li>International Students. Without going through all the math, there are 138 fewer internationals in this year’s incoming class versus last year. Do I think the murder of two Asian students off-campus had an effect on international applications? Yes. I also believe that it impacted some domestic apps as well. However, if we restrict the discussion to Asia, I believe that the sudden slowing in the Chinese economy from 8% annual growth to near stagnancy has an equal or greater impact. I believe that people vote with their wallets and to me it’s noticeable that the growth in the international student population at USC closely mirrored the go-go growth years of the Chinese economy. Since SC doesn’t provide admissions statistics by year by country it’s impossible to do anything but guess on the underlying causes. </li>
</ol>
<p>For what it’s worth, the % internationals by class:</p>
<p>'07 - '08: 7%
'08 - '09: 6%
'09 - '10: 11%
'10 - '11: No Data - I couldn’t find the equivalent pdf for this class
'11 - '12: 15%
'12 - '13: 10%</p>
<p>The average international percentage for the classes detailed - 9.8%.</p>
<ol>
<li>The agita about Spring Admits - The statistics for Fall admits and Fall Enrollees have remained virtually static going all the way back to the '07-'08 class. Enrollee UWGPA/mid-point SAT/Yield:</li>
</ol>
<p>'07 - '08: 3.7/2035/35%
'08 - '09: 3.7/2055/35%
'09 - '10: 3.7/2040/33%
'10 - '11: No Data - I couldn’t find the equivalent pdf for this class
'11 - '12: 3.72/2075/34%
'12 - '13: 3.70/2070/33%</p>
<p>So barring evidence of a concerted, ongoing 6-year conspiracy to exclude spring admit statistics in the enrollee numbers, I can see no statistical support for the idea that somehow this year’s entering class is riddled with slack-jawed, drooling, knuckles scraping the sidewalk Spring-Admit-oafs. In fact, academically it’s hard to see how this class looks any different from any other that’s matriculated at USC in the last 6 years.</p>