USC Admissions: Entering Undergraduate Class Statistics

The University of Southern California’s entering undergraduate student body is among the most diverse, upwardly mobile and academically talented in the university’s 132-year history, with a record number of students who are the first in their families to go to college.

Average standardized test scores for the incoming class lie in the 95th percentile. About 90 percent of incoming freshmen were in the top 10 percent of their high school class, and around 10 percent of them were valedictorians. The average GPA of the group was 3.70.

USC received 46,104 applications for 3,021 places in this fall’s freshman class. With this year’s applicant pool, USC’s freshman admission rate was 20 percent.

The class represents a highly competitive and highly diverse group of students, with very broad geographic representation:

● The class ranks among the most ethnically diverse ever enrolled at USC, with 21 percent under-represented minority students, including 6 percent African American, 13 percent Latino, 2 percent Native American/Pacific Islander, and 23 percent Asian students. In addition, 14 percent of matriculating students are the first in their families to attend university, the most ever in a USC entering class.

● Outside California, the leading U.S. states supplying new class members at USC are, in order: Texas, New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Washington. The most represented places of origin outside the U.S. are: China (including Hong Kong), South Korea, Canada, Taiwan, India and Mexico.

● Overall, 51 percent of newly-enrolled students are from California, with 10 percent international students, representing 51 foreign countries.

“This year’s entering freshman class has set new standards for quality and diversity. The impressive character of this latest group of new Trojans reinforces the fact that USC continues to attract the best and brightest from all over the country and across the world,” said USC Dean of Admission Timothy Brunold. “We have no plans on slowing down; we are already aggressively recruiting students for the entering class of 2013.”

USC enrolls more under-represented minority students (African American, Latino and Native American) than most other private research universities in the country (about 3,300 undergraduates as of fall 2011, or 19 percent of its total undergraduate population). Moreover, USC enrolls more than 4,000 low-income undergraduate students (as defined by Pell Grant eligibility), also more than most private research universities. Most importantly, low-income and under-represented minority students at USC graduate at rates comparable to the overall undergraduate population.

In a recent Princeton Review ranking, USC was again named a top-10 dream school among both college applicants and their parents.

Financial Aid at USC

USC offers admission without regard to ability to pay, and the university meets 100 percent of the demonstrated need of on-time financial aid applicants. Nearly two-thirds of USC’s undergraduate students receive some form of financial aid.

USC again increased its undergraduate financial aid budget in fall 2012, providing $247 million in university funds to undergraduates.

Information on USC Admissions is available at www.usc.edu/admission.

Contact: Merrill Balassone at (213) 740-6156 or (213) 740-2215 or balasson@usc.edu