USC applications rise 14% The university says the increase is one of its largest in two decades
More students applied to USC for next year’s class than ever before, the school announced Friday.
USC received 64,000 applications, up 14% from last year. Officials said it was the biggest increase in two decades, with the exception of the year the Common Application was introduced.
“We’ve never had a harder time selecting which applicants to put in the classroom,” Timothy Brunold, USC’s dean of admission, said in a statement.
The school said its acceptance rate dropped by 3 percentage points, to 13%. The average unweighted high school grade-point average of admitted students was 3.86, and 60% of them had standardized test scores in the 99th percentile.
Students have until May 1 to decide whether they want to enroll.
The admitted class comes from 50 states, 87 countries and 3,287 high schools, USC said. Officials credited amped-up recruitment efforts, with admissions staff now visiting about 2,200 high schools a year.
One-quarter of admitted students are Asian, 16% are Latino and 6% are black. California is home to 39% of admitted students. Texas, New York, Illinois, Washington and Florida are also highly represented.
Despite uncertainty about the future of some student visas, USC saw a steady level of international applicants — 17% of those admitted.
The highest numbers came from China, India, South Korea, Canada and Brazil.
Admitted freshmen range in age from 15 to 29. And, USC officials said, there are 85 sets of twins.