Morning Buzz: Would You Get Accepted Into USC?

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Do you want to go to USC? There were 54,100 students who applied for admission in the fall. USC accepted 8,920. The 16.5 percent acceptance rate was the lowest in school history.

The average, unweighted GPA was 3.84 while 31 percent had a 4.0. Forty one percent scored in the 99th percentile on standardized tests. Most of the admitted freshmen ranked in the top 10 percent of their graduating class.

32 thoughts on “Morning Buzz: Would You Get Accepted Into USC?”

    • El Lobo is slipping a subtle shiv between the ribs of all the old-timers who post here, who went to USC back in the bad old days…

    • Evidence of breathing and platinum net worth are key to the bozo u admission kingdom.

      • And how would you know this? Were you admitted to UCLA? No, you weren’t. Your best shot was Cerritos J.C.

          • There are 113 JC’s in CA. Just because you live across the street from Cerritos JC doesn’t mean I attended.

            I did attend a JC and graduated. But what sticks with me was a certain enquish instructor, a bozo u grad,

            This instructor was bungling simpleton . Many students were sure the instructor was loaded half the time.

            That the instructor was hired was mind boggling.

          • Like you ever achieved a 3.8 G.P.A. at any level of education. Graduating from Cerritos J.C. must be the crowing achievement of your life. Once again, you never were admitted to UCLA, so you can come on here and bash USC all you want for their admittance requirements, and it doesn’t change the fact that you’re a UCLA troll, and you always will be,

          • Like I said…you were never admitted to Ucla…you can spout off all you want about the admission requirements but it doesn’t change the fact that you still haven’t maneuvered through Cerritos JC.

  2. A lot of this is a testament to the memory of Steve Sample. It is quite possible that, in recent memory, no university president has had a greater impact on his university than Steve Sample. As a colleague of mine emailed to our faculty last week:

    For the newer faculty you may not know much about Steve
    Sample (beyond the fact that he has a name to die for) [my colleague is a statistician, and a Kiwi, so he must be forgiven his sense of humor]. However, I do not
    believe that it is an exaggeration to say that almost none of us who were hired
    in the last 20 years would have chosen to join USC if it was not for his
    influence on the university. To put it mildly, when he took over in 1991 USC
    was not in great shape. The university was receiving under 10,000 undergrad
    applications per year, accepting 78% of all those who applied and had an
    entering class with a 3.3 GPA and average SAT of 1056 (about 200 points lower
    than UCLA). These days we have over 50,000 [now 54,000] applications, under an 18% [now 16.5%] admission
    rate, a mean (un-weighted GPA) of 3.73 [3.84] and SAT scores about 100 points higher
    than UCLA [and higher than Berkeley’s]. USC’s ranking in US News has gone from around 50th to 23rd.
    These are all undergraduate statistics but the faculty composition has seen a
    similar dramatic improvement.

    • Steve Sample gets credit for his accomplishments, but it might help to keep those accomplishments in perspective.

      Steve Sample did not invent USC or rescue it from itself. He took an emerging great school to the next level. What Sample achieved would not have been possible without the academic push made by James Zumberg, which in turn built on the fund raising of John Hubbard.

      Steve Sample did not take over a dilapidated wreck, he furthered the development of a school on the move. It might be helpful for you to note how Southern California’s professional community has been dominated by SC grads for decades – long before anybody knew who Steve Sample was. USC was never “not in great shape.”

      • SC was founded on entrepreneurial spirit. When comparing generations, it’s all relative. There was no such thing as advanced placement classes when I was in high school. The entire set up to get into any school nationwide was very different.

        When I went to SC back in the early ’70s, it was an incredible school. Many of us used it as a platform to start successful companies and partnerships or enter prestigious grad schools.

        As a southern Calif native, SC was always seen as a fantastic place to go. When I got there, I understood why.

        • Absolutely, bozo u charging A. Schwarzenegger $20 million to rehab his crummy rep definitely qualifies as money grubbing entrepreneurial opportunism

          Mushy gets an A+ for hitting the bozo u nail on the head.

        • to all who replied. I was here when Zumberge was President. Difference is night and day. And about Hubbard, the less said the better. Think of the Fluor/Saudi funded center. Sample was smart enough to see that while you can be a great university without professional schools (think Princeton), you cannot be a great university without a strong college. Also, while the professional schools did dominate LA, on the national scene they were fairly minor players. Our goal is, and should be, to be a great National university, not a great regional university.

          • What will be interesting to see if today’s super high GPA graduates do as well after college as those of us who graduated in the early ’70s did. I know many amazingly successful USC people who didn’t walk in with silver spoons. It’s amazing what some of my personal friends have accomplished in areas ranging from the food industry, entertainment, clothing, manufacturing, politics and gov, engineering, etc. Entrepreneurship has always been an SC thing, long before Zumberge. He and Hubbard did nothing to erase or diminish it. In fact, that type of thinking was heavily promoted when I was at USC.

            I really couldn’t care less what you think of Zumberge or Hubbard as presidents. Nor do I care what you think of USC as a school now or in the past. We were a great school in the early ’70s and we’re a great school now.

    • A lot of truth to your post specific to undergrad but oneillwatch is also right about the impact from USC’s professional schools throughout the region – dentistry, law, pharmacology, medicine, film and esp in business.

      • Wasn’t a bozo u Dr Cocktail busted for unregulated pharmaceutical injections to unsuspecting bozo u FB players. Just asking Commie Succ?

    • Include ALL freshman including second semester legacy admits and tell us what those SoCal numbers are.
      Sample is also the guy that was in charge during the reign of non-compliance in the athletic department. Let the coaches do what they want, don’t ask, don’t tell and let the low GPA spawn of monied alumni in second semester when the numbers don’t count. Didn’t Steve leave just after Pete the Cheat and just before the NCAA busted SoCal? I thought so.

    • Weinst, I think your argument is much stronger than that of your respondents, whose replies come across as anecdotal and defensive, most likely because they attended before USC moved up from approx. #50 to #23. That’s a material improvement. That’s not to say that #50 is a terrible ranking, but to jump by around 27 spots is a lot.

      If anecdotal responses are going to be considered evidence, and that itself is doubtful, I’ll add my anecdotal memories. Around Jack B’s time, I attended what was then a highly ranked L.A. public high school just east of Santa Monica. I was in the track with the better students, who were well represented in the Ivy League, MIT, Stanford, etc. I don’t recall USC being mentioned by even one classmate as their college of choice. Not that USC’s greatness in athletics wasn’t apparent (outside of basketball), but not its academics. At that point, I doubt that it was as high as #50. Other Presidents must have begun the academic makeover. Still, Sample presided over a major improvement, and per one faculty member I knew, Sample did so by pursuing the authors of well-received research and journal articles, and paying less attention to other factors.

      I think USC has put together a very impressive academic upgrade in general, and that Sample was a major factor. What makes it even more impressive is USC’s relatively modest financial endowment. USC gets a lot of bang for its buck.

  3. As for GPA for incoming students, I would have to say a 4.0 in Fontana is not the same as a 4.0 in Irvine. But a 4.0 in Fontana is good enough to land you in a State run school without question.

  6. If you got in, would it be worth the highest tuition in the land? I say there are better deals elsewhere. the most expensive of anything is not worth it, wine, scotch, cars or diploma. But the Masters I got in ’83 has served me very well.

  8. If you want a true test of the incoming freshman class GPA at SoCal, include freshmen that enroll second semester. Still freshmen but their GPA’s are not included. Second Semester is where SoCal hides all of their legacy 2.7 GPA.s. It’s a shell game.

  9. The question should be, “Would Scott Wolf get into USC?” Based on the grammar in his posts, we all know the answer.

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