USC’s freshman admission rate drops to 13%

The decisions have been made, the white boxes have been sent out, and the high school seniors are anxiously awaiting their college decisions. But this year, a record low of 13% of USC first-year applicants will be receiving the school's iconic acceptance package in the mail.

Of the 64,256 applicants for USC’s class of 2022, only 8,258 were admitted. The 13% admit rate marks a significant drop from last year’s rate of 16%. For reference, this makes USC more selective than Berkeley, UCLA, Notre Dame, Georgetown, and most other universities.

“Selecting a class is as much art as it is science and with such an enormous applicant pool and so few spaces, we were forced to make many tough decisions,” Dean of Admission Timothy Brunold wrote in his annual admissions blog post.

Geographically speaking, the class of 2022 is very diverse. Admitted students come from all 50 states, and 16% of them are international.

As for academics, those admitted to the class of 2022 were extremely accomplished throughout their high school careers. The average ACT scores ranged from 31-35, the average SAT scores ranged from 1410-1530, and the average GPA on a 4.0 scale was a 3.86.

As the Dean of Admission says, college admission season is both “…the best of times and the worst of times.” To those anxiously awaiting their decisions, good luck and fight on!