Situated in the sun-soaked city of Los Angeles, CA, the University of Southern California has garnered a notable reputation since its founding in 1880. Its name is often mentioned in discussions of high-quality research institutions, and (fun fact) it holds the record for producing the most olympians of any US school.
It goes without saying that prospective applicants have long wondered about how to successfully navigate the Admission Requirements of the University of Southern California. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to get into USC.
A quick note on college rankings: we think they’re generally a bad way to think about where you should go to college. We talk about why rankings are bad in greater detail here, but essentially, a lot of college rankings don’t actually tell you whether you and the school would fit well together, or that the school is someplace you’ll thrive. That said, we also understand that many students/families are confused regarding and have questions about aspects of the application process, so we’ve built the post below to hopefully clarify things, so students/families can make informed decisions.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(click to skip ahead)- How hard is it to get into USC?
- USC Acceptance Rate
- GPA Requirements to get into USC
- SAT Requirements to get into USC
- ACT Requirements to get into USC
- What does USC look for in students?
- USC Application Deadlines
- USC Supplemental Essay Prompts
- How to get into USC—Essay Tips
- USC Major-specific Supplemental Essays
How hard is it to get into USC?
It is very difficult to get accepted to USC. The GPAs of people who get accepted to USC are in the top 10% of their class. People who successfully get into USC also tend to have impressive extracurricular activities and college applications essays.
USC Acceptance Rate
The USC acceptance rate is 13%, because it is a highly desired research university with a media and entertainment bent right in the heart of Los Angeles. Acceptance rate or admissions rate often represents how enticing a school is to attend, and in USC’s case, it gets a lot of applications (it was the top #14 most applied to school in 2021). The University of Southern California is not only a school known for its sports program, USC is also home to a legendary film and cinematography program, professors with expertise in media and entertainment, a leading research university, and academics program. To get into a school like USC, you will need to perform well in almost all of your college application components, including USC’s supplemental essays.
USC’s Single-Choice Early Action Policy
USC doesn’t publicly release acceptance rate data about its early action program in its Common Data Set, but it has published that it accepts “about 20-25 percent” of its incoming class through its early action program. If you are curious about this data, reach out to the University of Southern California’s admissions department to learn more. Early action or early decision acceptance rates tend to be a bit higher than regular decisions acceptance rates.
USC’s regular decision process is one of the most selective in the country. USC’s regular decision admissions acceptance rate for the class applying during the 2020 cycle was approximately 12.5% because it had around 71,031 applicants and it admitted about 8,884. USC has had far more applicants each year since at least the 2018-19 application season. The University of Southern California’s admission rate has fluctuated a bit each year, but its most recent years are trending towards historically high numbers of applications.
USC’s transfer acceptance rate is 22.1% because it received 9,988 applications and accepted 2,208 students. Accepting both sophomore and junior transfer students, transfer admission to USC is highly competitive.
GPA Requirements to get into USC
The recommended GPA requirements to get into USC are between 3.75 and 4.0. You will need a very high GPA and will likely be graduating in the top quarter of your class in order to get into USC. If your GPA is lower than suggested at the time you apply, you may have to perform above average on your standardized tests. If your grades aren’t as high as they could have been due to life experiences or hardship, you should consider writing about it in your additional information section.
USC Unweighted GPA Requirements
USC Unweighted Average GPA: 3.83
| USC Unweighted GPA Distribution | Percent Admitted |
|---|---|
| 4.0 | 26.25% |
| 3.75-3.99 | 49.67% |
| 3.50-3.74 | 16.57% |
| 3.25-3.49 | 4.73% |
| 3.00-3.24 | 1.59% |
| 2.5-2.99 | 1.06% |
| 2.0-2.49 | 0.13% |
| 1.0-1.99 | 0% |
| Below 1.0 | 0% |
What GPA is required for USC?
Applicants’ GPA when applying to USC should ideally be between 3.75 and 4.0 to be strong candidates. Having less than this will require compensating by having outstanding extracurricular activities or personal statement.
SAT Requirements to get into USC
The recommended SAT requirements to get into USC are a 1330 to 1520 composite score, combining the reading and writing, and math sections together. You will need a very high SAT score in order to get into USC. If your SAT is lower than suggested at the time you apply, you may have to perform above average on your other standardized tests or have spectacular extracurricular activities to compensate. If your grades aren’t as high as they could have been due to life experiences or hardship, you should consider writing about it in your additional information section.
USC has recently been a “Test Optional” school, meaning it has not required standardized test scores, but will consider them if submitted. This has meant that it’s been up to applicants to decide on submitting their scores or not. There are a number of factors to consider as you make this decision, and you can read more about them here. It’s important to note, though, that as of the time of writing, USC has not yet made a decision regarding their testing policy for the 2023-2024 application cycle.
USC Average SAT Composite Score: 1440
| SAT Score Distribution | Reading % | Math % |
|---|---|---|
| 700-800 | 56.00% | 68.17% |
| 600-699 | 32.65% | 20.02% |
| 500-599 | 9.71% | 9.77% |
| 400-499 | 1.64% | 1.99% |
| 300-399 | 0.00% | 0.06% |
| 200-299 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
What SAT score is required for USC?
Applicants should score between 1330 to 1520 on their SAT to be strong candidates for admission to this school. Having less than this will require compensating by using a substitute ACT score or having an above-average GPA. In recent years, either an SAT or ACT score has been optional for application to this school, but this has not yet been determined for the 2023-2024 admissions cycle.
ACT Requirements to get into USC
The recommended ACT requirements for USC are a 32 composite score combining all English, mathematics, reading, and science sections. You will need a very high ACT score in order to get into USC. If your ACT is not what you’d hoped by the time you apply, you may have to make it up by getting above-average scores on the SAT and having an above-average grade point average. If your ACT wasn’t as high as you’d like because of difficulties or hardship, you should consider writing about it in your additional information section.
USC Average ACT: 32
| USC ACT Distribution | Composite Score % |
|---|---|
| 30-36 | 78.90% |
| 24-29 | 16.22% |
| 18-23 | 4.26% |
| 12-17 | 0.62% |
| 6-11 | 0% |
| Below 6 | 0% |
What ACT score is required for USC?
Applicants should score between 32 and 35 on their ACT to be strong candidates for admission to this school. Having less than this will require compensating by using a substitute SAT score or having an above-average GPA.
What does USC look for in students?
The biggest thing USC focuses on is how a student and the school fit together. You may be an exceptional computer scientist or critic of literature, for example. But USC is looking for much more than simply academic excellence. So while you may be able to write brilliant code or find new insights in the Classics, USC will be most interested in getting a sense of how you use that intellectual capacity to act on its values.
“How do I find out about USC’s values?” you may be asking. Your curiosity is understandable—proving one’s ”values” is certainly less quantifiable than other admissions requirements, but we’d argue that it’s a pretty vital part of a successful USC application. And if you want to learn about a school’s values, there are two tried and true places to accomplish this: its mission statement, and its strategic plan.
A quick glance at USC’s most recent strategic plan demonstrates that they’re focusing on the following: leading through values, leading through people, and leading through impact. Reading a bit more deeply into any of those three sections pretty readily gives the impression that USC is a school that values conscientious research; they’re as interested in examining the human-impact of cutting edge research as they are in doing the research itself.
So this could be one guiding concept for some of your application materials: deeply considering the human impact of what you seek to study.
You can learn much more about USC’s values by reading through similar content it publishes on the web for free. We’d encourage you to reflect deeply on how values you hold overlap with values you find USC holds, too.
How else can you demonstrate that you and USC fit together? Think about your answers to these questions:
In what ways have you examined the human impact of any of your work in school? Have you done this when it perhaps hasn’t been obvious to do so?
USC touts that its professors are not only quality researchers, but necessarily accomplished educators—in what ways has the passing of knowledge you hold, not simply the possession of it, informed your studies, extracurriculars, etc…?
In what ways have you led through values in your extracurricular, academic, or athletic pursuits?
Public service that is both local and global is a key aspect of USC’s mission statement—in what ways have you sought out public service in your high school career? Have you ever considered the global impact of local actions?
USC Application Deadlines
The USC application deadline for regular decision is January 15. USC also provides an alternative form of application in addition to regular decision: early action. The application deadline for USC’s early action is November 1. Below is a table showing the deadlines for each of the steps of the USC’s admissions process.
| Notification Plan |
Application Material |
Application Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Early Action |
Submit Application and Test Scores |
November 1 |
| Submit Financial Aid Application |
January 9 |
|
| Admissions Decisions Released |
mid- to late January |
|
| Regular Decision |
For majors requiring a portfolio or audition: Submit Application and Test Scores |
December 1 |
| For all other majors: Submit Application and Test Scores |
January 15 |
|
| Submit Financial Aid Application |
February 10 |
|
| Admissions Decisions Released |
by April 1 |
USC Early Decision, Early Action Policy
Applying by the Early Action (EA) deadline enables you to plan for college earlier, should you be accepted during this round of application reviews. It also ensures that you will be considered for USC Merit Scholarships. Early Action (EA) is non-binding, non-restrictive, and is not available for majors requiring a portfolio or audition.
USC Supplemental Essay Prompts
To complete USC’s supplemental essay requirements, applicants must write two supplemental essays. Their prompts are below and the USC supplemental essay guide that they were sourced from can be found here.
PROMPT #1
Describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests and why you want to explore them at USC specifically. Please feel free to address your first- and second-choice major selections. (250 words)
PROMPT #2
Optional: Starting with the beginning of high school/secondary school, if you have had a gap where you were not enrolled in school during a fall or spring term, please address this gap in your educational history. You do not need to address a summer break. (250 words)
PROMPT #3: SHORT ANSWERS
Describe yourself in three words. (25 characters per word)
What is your favorite snack?
Best movie of all time
Dream job
If your life had a theme song, what would it be?
Dream trip
What TV show will you binge watch next?
Which well-known person or fictional character would be your ideal roommate?
Favorite Book
If you could teach a class on any topic, what would it be?
(Questions #2-10 limited to 100 characters each)
How to get into USC—Essay Tips
You have three prompts here that are all pretty different in terms of what they ask of you. Below, we’ll give you some big-picture guidance on how to tackle these prompts, but you should consider checking out College Essay Guy’s USC Supplemental Essay guide for more in-depth guidance. Let’s go over the broad strokes here with the essay-component of USC’s admissions requirements.
Prompt one is a fairly familiar prompt in the realm of college applications; it’s essentially a “Why Major” with a significant “Why Us” component. What they want to get a sense of here is not simply why you’re interested in Computer Science, in general (for example), but why you’re interested in studying Computer Science at USC, specifically. This means that you’re likely going to need to spend some time clicking deeply through the program descriptions on the USC web page. Try and find specific names of classes you find interesting or professors you’d love to talk to. Those details will ensure that you’re successfully “proving” your interest is specific to USC, and not simply a general longing for studying X.
Often, we tell people to tackle prompts even if they’re “optional.” This is not one of those cases: You should not respond to prompt two unless you have experienced a significant, term-length gap. Take them at their word here, too. You do not need to address Summer Vacations, or two-day trips you have taken to some place in the middle of the school year.
If this prompt does apply to you, the reason for your gap in studies will significantly influence how you go about approaching this prompt. For example, the essay one might write about taking a few months away from school to go do a service trip will be significantly different from the essay one might write about needing to take a few months off to address health issues.
And lastly, prompt three is really a series of eight very-short prompts disguised as one prompt. To give you a sense of how concise you’ll need to be here, note that the first sentence of this paragraph is 96 characters. The goal here is precision and specificity. Though you don’t have a lot of room, you do have some room to show a bit of personality through your responses. Let’s consider two ways to approach the “favorite snack” prompt:
Takis (5 characters)
Takis—Billie Eilish inspires me both musically and in all matters snack-related. (81 characters)
Note how #2^ is able to leverage a bit more personality and tone by very briefly elaborating on why the writer wrote what they did. Try reaching for a similar level of specificity in your own responses. We have a guide specifically on short answer responses you can check out here.
USC Major-specific Supplemental Essays
USC VITERBI SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING APPLICANTS
The student body at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering is a diverse group of unique engineers and computer scientists who work together to engineer a better world for all humanity. Describe how your contributions to the USC Viterbi student body may be distinct from others. Please feel free to touch on any part of your background, traits, skills, experiences, challenges, and/or personality in helping us better understand you. (250 words)
There are a few different ways you could tackle this essay, but one way we’d consider encouraging you to do so has its origins in the “Community” essay prompt. Consider first reflecting on all the communities that you’re a part of, and how you interact with / contribute to each. Those reflections can be the basis for examples you use to showcase how you’ve contributed to communities in the past, and how you see yourself contributing to USC Viterbi in the future.
ENGINEERING & COMPUTER SCIENCE APPLICANTS
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and their 14 Grand Challenges go hand-in-hand with our vision to engineer a better world for all humanity. Engineers and computer scientists are challenged to solve these problems in order to improve life on the planet. Learn more about the NAE Grand Challenges and tell us which challenge is most important to you, and why. (250 words)
The first step here is to deeply look through those NAE Grand Challenges. Try to pick ones that you both earnestly care about, and also have some examples from your life you could use to prove your interest in addressing that challenge.
Those examples will be critical to the success of this essay. For example, it’s one thing to say that someone is angered by climate change, and quite another to show readers how the broken air conditioner during the heatwave meant you and your family had to seek shelter in a cooling center. Try and use real, lived experiences to demonstrate how you’ve been personally affected by whichever Grand Challenge you pick for this prompt. This essay can quite easily become an essay that focuses on community service you’ve done. Community service is fine material for an essay like this, but you’ll want to be mindful about how you approach it. Check out our guide here for some insight into how to successfully write this kind of material.
DORNSIFE COLLEGE APPLICANTS ONLY
Many of us have at least one issue or passion that we care deeply about—a topic on which we would love to share our opinions and insights in hopes of sparking intense interest and continued conversation. If you had ten minutes and the attention of a million people, what would your talk be about? (250 words)
You could approach this essay here in a manner similar to a “Why Major” essay. But you will have already covered similar material to this in your response to USC’s first supplemental essay prompt, so here there’s an opportunity to put a different spin on the material. Whereas with prompt 1 you’d argue why you want to study Political Science at USC specifically, for example, here you have an opportunity to dig a bit deeper into why you’re interested in some specific aspect of Political Science, and why you think studying it matters.
Rather than focus on how studying Political Science with X professor at USC is appealing to you, maybe you focus on your in-depth knowledge of some niche topic in the field. Maybe you’re super curious about how the Global Supply chain of semiconductors is almost entirely dependent on one Dutch company, for example, and you see in that dependence significant geopolitical ramifications. You could use this essay to describe that problem, and describe what you see as its consequences.
Nick Muccio
Rather than candy, Nick (he/him) went searching for people’s vacuum cleaners when trick or treating. He’s since found other ways to help people clean, usually involving their essays (though he has great ideas on carpet maintenance, too). He earned a degree in Psychology from Bates College, where he rowed boats and acted in plays. Teaching high schoolers English for seven years taught him about the importance of presence and knitting sweaters. He sweats a lot, usually on purpose, and usually involving running shoes, a bike, or a rock climbing harness. His greatest fear? Heights. His greatest joys? Numerous, though shared laughter is up there.
