USC Releases Admission Statistics for Fall 2012

Nearly 46,000 accomplished high school seniors from all 50 U.S. states and 123 other countries have applied for an estimated 2,650 places in the fall 2012 entering class of USC, reflecting growing interest from international students and U.S. applicants.

Timothy Brunold, USC’s dean of admission, said: “USC continues to be a very popular choice among students throughout the United States and around the world. The academic quality, diversity and character of this year’s group of admitted students is fantastic. I am confident that we have selected a group of students whom our faculty will enjoy teaching and who will gain great benefit from USC’s academic opportunities and location in Los Angeles.”

In a Princeton Review ranking released last week, USC was named a top 10 dream school among both college applicants and their parents in a nationwide survey, along with Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, MIT and Yale.

For the third time in four years, the university will increase its undergraduate financial aid budget in fall 2012. The university believes its pool of university-funded aid to be the largest of any private university in the country.

More than 65 percent of USC undergraduates receive some form of financial aid. USC admits students without regard to ability to pay, and meets the full need of admitted students. USC enrolled 23 percent low-income undergraduate students in fall 2011, as defined by Pell Grant eligibility. Students’ socioeconomic status has no impact on their graduation rate.

USC Admission by the Numbers

The admitted pool of 8,358 was selected from a highly competitive and diverse group of 45,917 applicants with broad geographic, ethnic and socioeconomic representation. This represents an 18 percent admission rate, the lowest in USC’s history.

The following bullet points provide a broad academic and demographic overview of the fall 2012 pool of students admitted to USC (enrollment commitments are due May 1, and these numbers may change):

90 percent of admitted freshmen rank in the top 10 percent of their high school’s graduating class, 75 percent have standardized test scores above the 95th percentile, and their average un-weighted high school GPA is 3.82 (on a 4-point scale)

The average admitted freshman completed six AP or IB courses in high school; more than 2,800 high schools are represented in the admitted freshman class

Overall, 47 percent of admitted students are from California, with 13 percent representing 70 foreign countries. The remaining 40 percent come from the other 49 states and U.S. territories.

Six percent of admitted students are Black, 12 percent Latino, 2 percent Native American/Pacific Islander and 30 percent Asian. Overall, 20 percent are from under-represented minority populations (Black, Latino or Native American). In addition, 12 percent of admitted students would be the first in their family to attend college. USC enrolls more under-represented minority undergraduates than most private research universities in the country: 3,272 as of fall 2011, or 19 percent of all undergraduates.

Outside California, the leading U.S. metropolitan areas for students admitted to USC are, in order: New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Dallas and Boston. The most-represented foreign countries are China, South Korea, India, Canada and Taiwan.

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

Contact: USC Media Relations at (213) 740-2215 or uscnews@usc.edu