Decision: Accepted
Date applied: 12/23/2017
Date decision postmarked/received: 03/22/2018
Which school/major at USC: Physics
Scholarships: None
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1450 SuperScore (750M, 700RW)
ACT (breakdown): Didn’t Take
SAT II (place score in parentheses): 790 Math II, 710 Physics, 790 Spanish Reading
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.83
Weighted GPA: 4.13
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Does not rank
AP (place score in parentheses): Didn’t Submit
IB (place score in parentheses): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Seminar, Writing for College Success, AP Stats, Comp. Sci Principles, AP Calc, AP Psych
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None, just some school awards.
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses):
-Student Council President
-Speech and Debate Varsity Team Captain
-Relay for Life Team Captain
-American Red Cross Club President
-Math Club VP
-Math Tutor
-Sunday school teacher at my church
-Varsity Cross Country
-Varsity Track and Field
-Varsity Tennis
Job/Work Experience: Golf Camp Counselor for two years
Volunteer/Community Service: Mostly in my church… around 380 hours
Summer Activities: None apart from running
Essays (rating 1-10, details)::
-Main Essay(8/10): Wrote about curiosity and how my family has instilled that quality in me
-Prompt Essay(10/10): I think this is my best essay, I wrote about debating and showed my passion for it with an analogy about a battlefield.
-Why your major essay(9/10): was very specific, mentioned professors, clubs I would join, classes I liked, and integrated all of these in a coherent essay where I wasn’t just listing them.
-Very Short Answer(7/10): I was very clever with my answers and showed interest in my major through the things I wrote about
Teacher Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):: Didn’t Read
Counselor Rec (rating 1-10, details):: Didn’t Read
Additional Rec (rating 1-10, details):: Didn’t Read
Interview: None
Other
Applied for Financial Aid? Nope
State (if domestic applicant): Florida
Country (if international applicant): N/A
School Type: Private, Lutheran
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Prefer not to disclose
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM, first gen., idk what else
Reflection
Strengths: Test Scores and grades were average, essays, extracurriculars
Weaknesses: Could’ve got better scores and could’ve shown more interest
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I have no clue
Where else you are applying or have already applied: Accepted at Northwestern University, Case Western Reserve, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Miami. Waitlisted at WUSTL and GeorgiaTech. Technically no rejections yet!
General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: From my experience, UofSC loves clever answers for their 35 character response questions