any thoughts on how competitive health promotion and disease prevention under keck school of medicine is? the freshman profile says only 1% of students are at keck so not sure if that indicates a higher acceptance rate with less applicants overall or an extremely selective major, worried that its extremely low can’t find any info online
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Every decision cycle is a rude awakening for 1000s upon 1000s of high school seniors who fail to gain admission to colleges and universities where they are in fact well qualified to gain that favorable admission decision. Some applicants will be posting here on CC how they got into all or most of the elite schools that they applied to. And many do have such an experience. They are very fortunate. But no one should be taking such an outcome for granted. Most are not that lucky in terms of how the bulk of their admission decisions turn out. It can really depend on demographics, geography and a host of other factors. Many such determining factors are outside of an applicant’s control. For example, these days, simply being Asian or Asian-American or a white female can be a significant disadvantage. That is simply due to the huge # of well-qualified applicants from each of those demographic groups. Years ago, that was true for while males, but now it is a rather even playing field for them. It changes over time. Colleges and universities are looking to admit a diverse group overall, so whenever there are too many well-qualified candidates from a specific group, it becomes even more competitive. Reversely, being an URM or FirstGen, etc can of course be a significant advantage.
Back in 2014, my older daughter applied to 17 and was rejected by 12. My younger daughter fared better, going 8-7. But while she got into schools like USC, Princeton, Rice and Emory… she was still rejected by Stanford, Yale, Brown, Duke, Vanderbilt, Northwestern and UVa. How she applied to each likely made a difference. Both had wanted to attend USC the most, and their applications to USC likely conveyed that well.
Every year, there are also postings of astonished applicants who claim that they got into places like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, etc but did not get into USC… and they want to know why. There could be a # of reasons, but a key one could simply be how they applied to USC. Despite being clearly qualified, did they do enough to make it clear to USC as to how their admission might be mutually beneficial? Like Stanford, USC now rejects 4K+ applicants each cycle with 4.0 unweighted GPAs and test scores in the 99th percentile. And I am quite sure that each of them are likely shocked and dismayed to be rejected anywhere. But it clearly happens… and in growing #s yearly.
The best way to counter that possibility is to really focus on the application before hitting send. Have others read through it. If they do not walk away feeling that you have presented a strong affinity and connection to a specific college and university, then the actual AO readers at that specific school are also likely to feel unmotivated about admitting you. That’s my opinion… for what it’s worth. Make your application sing and be memorable somehow. Provide some passion and sizzle. Let your individual personality shine through. Try your best to make the AOs feel compelled to not pass you by.
My general point is that USC is seeking that strong affinity toward USC among its applicants. USC is not alone in this, but they do seem to be especially focused on finding applicants who they believe will fit in well and actually thrive at USC. They are also thinking long term… hoping to find the right type of future alum to add to the Trojan Family indefinitely.
I agree with the posters above who have stated that most will find their place and ultimately fit in wherever they end up. I truly hope for such… as college should be a magical time. Good luck to all who are awaiting a decision via USC tomorrow…
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No. If you go to USC website and go to Undergraduate Admissions, a new pop up screen shows up. It says the following:
"EA decisions will be posted in the USC applicant portal on January 20. Students will receive an email when their decisions will be posted.
Students who are admitted EA will receive an update on merit sholarships mid- February via email.
No one will be denied on January 20. Students will either be admitted or deferred to Regular Decision. RD applicants will receive and admissions decision by April 1."
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The silver lining in deferring so many is that they are refusing to accept locis and additional submissions beyond mid year grade reports.
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Yes. There is no way they could ever review 40,000 RD applicants, revisit 38,000 EA applicants and read 38,000 LOCI’s in just over 2 months time.
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It’s also a good thing that they are being transparent about deferred applicants not being in the running for any of the merit scholarships (including the Dean’s and Leadership). That will help with decision making for many applicants.
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As long as those who know they will not be able to afford USC without merit pull their names out of the hat before they make final decisions. Otherwise it is a moot point for the rest who can afford it and want to get in.
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Yes, but it sounds like deferred applicants will need to submit the EA Deferral form in order to be considered in RD. Without actively opting in to RD, their names will be automatically pulled out of the hat.
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That will be an interesting stat to see. How many deferred applicants will pull their application?
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raises hand
We can’t afford full price, so there’s no point in opting in to RD if my son is deferred. However, if he had to manually go in there and pull his app, I doubt he would do it (he still hasn’t pulled some apps from schools where he was admitted but has already decided not to attend). I think it will make a difference that the default is to pull it.
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I’m all for keeping apps in until the end. Schools have pretty reliable figures to plan for that. Life changes can happen in the next 4 months - positive or negative - plus kids change their minds, so keeping options open is a good thing. What’s a no today could be a yes come May.
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But have they been transparent about that? Have they told the students this via instagram or their portals, etc, or is it just in the counselor communication?
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I hope the notifications to deferred students will be clear about that. We will find out tomorrow!
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Probably defined more by how much their email delivery system can handle. Too many emails at one time alerts servers and can flag as “spam.”
@Baltmom23 You are absolutely right.
Thanks! You are correct
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How about NMFs?
If your a NMF, the Presidential Award comes later I believe.
The deferral notification also informs students that they will not be moving forward in the competition for our Trustee, Presidential, Deans, and Leadership scholarship funding (see the exception below for National Merit).
Any applicant who is named a National Merit Finalist, offered admission and selects USC as their first-choice institution, will receive a USC Presidential Scholarship worth one-half tuition. This cannot be stacked with other merit scholarships awarded by the Office of Admission.
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Our portal has changed-- we can no longer change from EA to RD. Anyone else?
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