“When reviewing your application, we consider you primarily for your first-choice major, but if we are unable to offer you admission to that major, we will consider you for your second choice.”
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I applied ling, alt math. Got into math.
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Would you mind sharing your application stats; thanks
Sure.
High school C/O 2025. With midyear report, 3.80UW/4.42W. EA 3.83/4.44. Family emergencies in 9th + 1st semester of 12th caused a significant downtrend. 1st gen but US citizen. English is 3rd language (after Hindi and German, but I have since forgotten German).
10APs, 8 Honors. 15 community college courses (5 articulated to HS transcript), all As in those courses.
Passed all AP exams, 5 in AP Hug 10th, 3x3 & 1x4 in 11th, extreme sickness. Submitted all scores, taking 5 APs right now.
SAT: 1530 (750ELA+780Math) single score, 1540 (760ELA+780Math) did not submit
ACT: 36 (35 math & Sci, 36 reading & writing) submitted
CommonApp about hosting a 5K event with 500+ people.
Dornsife essay about how I created my own language (I submitted the “how to understand my language” manual as a supplemental, 15 page excerpt). USC essay about building my 4,000 piece World Map puzzle, how I used lessons from my life to slowly finish it, and what it taught me.
Swim/Water Polo all 4 years. Polo was nothing special, placed top 3 in my events every year at league finals for swim, never made to sectionals.
The application theme was community service with awareness of culture. 1100+ volunteer hours with significant leadership, personally called in by city hall multiple times. PVSA Gold 2x.
Rec letters from VP instead of counselor, and AP Spanish/AP Stats teachers. Both teachers said these were some of the best recs they had written in a few years; VP asked me if she could write my letter instead of my counselor.
Qualified for/attended to CA State/National Speech and Debate Tournaments, with Finalist/Semi-finalist/Winner ranking at several large invitationals. However, I joined in March '24 and haven’t done much other than that. Sort of a “been there, done that” feeling.
Eagle Scout with National Youth Leadership Training Certification. Worked as my city’s head lifeguard, including planning and executing the entire thing. Permits, hiring, all done through me. Also worked at local Covid drive as youth lead (9th/10th) to manage volunteers and slowly improve efficiency/QoL changes.
3rd place stanford math tournament 2023 integration bee, only math award. I did do lots of tutoring, though.
Ping me if you have any other questions!
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Thanks; very well deserved 
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But what did you do with your free time?
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Did you receive any scholarships from USC.. best of luck
Unfortunately not… out of the running unless I win some other big scholarship.
What’s free time? (/j)
In all seriousness, free time is rare. Due to sports + ECs I’m normally back home between 6:30 and 9:00PM depending on the day. Normally I first work with my sister to help her with school work (middle school, struggles with all subjects) until she sleeps, then I finish my school work.
After ~12am once my work is submitted, I normally end up in a pitfall of me learning random things; I frequently stay up until 3-4AM (get up at 8, school is pretty close) just learning random things. Favorite rabbit holes include learning about white holes and subsequently space-time warping, teaching myself Calc BC over a weekend in freshman year because I was bored, and learning how to make money by short selling in the stock market. If not some random thing, I will be reading a book (almost exclusively medieval fiction), binge watching shows, or practicing one of the 5 languages I speak on Duolingo (less than 2 weeks to 1,000 days lol)
I do consider myself a pretty interesting person 
Just so you don’t feel alone 
- My son was NMF, 4.0 gpa, 36 ACT and was rejected several years ago (ended up going to Ohio State on a full cost of attendance scholarship and had a great experience). My current high school senior is National Merit, 4.0 gpa, 35 ACT and was deferred in EA for next year. She is applying for engineering, so that is even more selective than other majors. If she gets in on April 1, great; if not, she has many other options as I’m sure your son does too. With top schools, there are definitely no “sure things.” (And I do suspect NM Finalists are competing against each other bc they only want to give a certain number of NM scholarships out, but others probably know better than me.) This is my 3rd go-round, and it always works out! Good luck to your student on April 1!
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Echo your thoughts, browniesundae. S22- NMF-1530, SAT, 3.98 GPA, got deferred from EA. had full rides to OOS schools (Texas). Got selected in RA and wanted to attend with Presidential scholarship.
S25- NMF-1540, SAT, 4.0 GPA, got deferred and now the NMF scholarship reduction put a further dent in his hopes.
All the best for your daughter. Feel for these kids, as all of them are trying and hoping it works out.
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Anyone receive a veritax email this morning?
My daughter did before the EA deadline. She got in!
Does anyone know historically when the Trustee/Deans recipients were notified? My daughter was invited to interview but ultimately her decision rides on if she is offered the scholarship.
Will be notified during the RD announcements.. my S22 was notified of presidential once the RD were announced.
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Was virtual with a professor, admissions officer, and current merit scholar. Introductions, 15 min of them asking questions about the application and brief opportunity to ask them a question or two. No choice to do in person.
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Thank you for sharing. Good luck to your student.
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What’s a veritax email? I received an email on march 4th stating my fast portal was incomplete (after I had already submitted fafsa and css). There were 3 new documents i had to submit. A tax supplement form from my parents, a schedule E return, and w-2 forms.
received one last night. does everyone receive this? it was for 2 signatures on a doc for my daughter and for myself . I think they are requesting tax returns from IRS (we already submitted so I’m confused why)
I’ve been getting more requests from them since I posted this. Not sure if they’re just doing it randomly or if it means a potential admit. Some people say yes it means admit, some people say no it’s random. I’m just doing what I’m told and crossing my fingers. lol
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Financial Aid and Admissions work independently. Since they don’t know whether or not student will be admitted, Financial Aid will continue to ask for information up until admission decisions are released. For students who are admitted, they may ask for more information after the student is admitted.
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