Decision: Accepted
**Date applied: ** November 29, 2017
**Date decision postmarked/received: ** March 24, 2018
**Which school/major at USC: ** Dornsife/International Relations
**Scholarships: **N/A
Objective:
ACT: 34 Composite (36 English, 36 Reading, 33 Science, 30 Mathematics)
SAT II: Spanish (760), US History (750)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.87
Rank: N/A (school doesn’t rank)
AP: US History (5), US Government (4), Spanish Language (3)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB, AP English Lit, AP Spanish Lit, AP Economics (macro and micro), Drama, Photography, Theology, Yearbook, Senior Project
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Commended Scholar; Winner of an area-wide speech competition; Received a NSLI-Y scholarship through the State Department to study Hindi in India between junior and senior year
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): County Youth Commission (Committee Chair), Congressional Representative’s Student Advisory Board (Committee Chair), School Yearbook (Head Editor), NHS, School ASB (Community Service Commissioner),
Job/Work Experience: Barista at Starbucks for 2 years, Intern at the office of my state senator for 1
Volunteer/Community Service: Boys and Girls Club Tutor; Organized a school-wide food drive and book drive benefitting a community in Malawi; Did 30 hours per year of various service as part of NHS.
Summer Activities: Worked at Starbucks, studied abroad in India with NSLI-Y.
Essays: 9/10 - I think I had pretty good essays. I talked a lot about my experience in India which made them pretty unique imo. They were less emotional/personal as I would’ve liked them to be, though. However, I think they did a great job showing why I wanted to study my specific major and why I’d be a great fit for USC.
Teacher Recommendations:: 10/10. I picked two teachers that knew me really well, and I’m confident they wrote amazing letters.
Counselor Rec: 8/10. My counselor also knew me really well and I think he wrote a great letter, but he had a lot of others to write so I’m not super sure of the quality of mine.
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: 10/10. My best interview by far! I connected really well with my interviewer. I think it’s actually part of why I got in.
Other
Applied for Financial Aid? No
State: California (Bay Area)
School Type: Private/Catholic
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: $150k+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): LGBT I guess? I didn’t talk about it anywhere on my application though.
Reflection
Strengths: ECs, test scores, essays, teacher recs, interview
Weaknesses: Course rigor (took some APs and honors, but not all that my school offered)
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I think my grades were overall really good, but not outstanding, so I think the fact that I had pretty interesting extracurriculars plus an amazing interview is what pushed me over the edge to get admitted.
Where else you are applying or have already applied:
Accepted: UMich, UCSD, UC Davis, UCSB, UCSC, Cal Poly, Northeastern, McGill, U of Rochester, Fordham, Macalester, U of Minnesota, U of Alabama, and now USC!
Rejected: UCLA
Waiting: UC Berkeley, UCI, GW
General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: Put in your best effort and you can achieve anything guys! I wasn’t confident I’d get in since I heard the acceptance rate was 13% this year, and I pretty much lost all hope after getting rejected from UCLA. But I guess USC really looks at the whole person and determined I’d be a good fit for the school. Not sure if I’m going to go yet, but I’m so honored to have been admitted and to (possibly) be a trojan!