University of Southern California

Acceptance rate

What USC's 9.8% is made of

The published rate averages groups with very different odds. These are the splits USC reports itself.

Part of Real Acceptance Rates, our series decomposing published rates from each school's own Common Data Set.

Testing

Test-Optional for 2026-27

Policy

USC is test-optional; applicants choose whether SAT/ACT scores are considered and are not penalized for omitting them. If scores are submitted, they must come as official reports directly from the testing agency (self-reported scores are not accepted).

Source (medium confidence)All 100 schools

SAT middle 50%

1450–1550sum of section 25th–75th percentiles

ACT middle 50%

32–35

Average HS GPA

3.85Fall 2025 first-year class (CDS 2025-2026) · Source

Applying

Deadlines, essays and AI policy

Early deadlines

Nov 1, 2026 (ED); Nov 1, 2026 (EA)

Regular decision

Jan 10, 2027 (Dec 1, 2026 for the Kaufman School of Dance, Thornton School of Music, and School of Dramatic Arts)Source

Supplemental essays

2 required

USC's writing supplement for Fall 2027 applicants requires 2 essays (up to 250 words each) plus roughly 10 very short (100-character) rapid-fire short-answer prompts. Essay-count figures come from a secondary essay-guide site since admission.usc.edu's own writing-questions page did not render prompt content to the fetch tool — recommend spot-checking exact current prompts against the live Common App USC supplement before publishing.

AI use in essays

No Official Policy

We reviewed USC's how-to-apply, first-year, and what-we-look-for pages, the admitted-students FAQ and academic-policies pages, and the admissions blog — no applicant AI policy published.

All 50 schools

Full cycle calendar: Application Deadlines.

At a glance

Size and cost

Undergraduate enrollment

20,443

Tuition (out-of-state)

$72,097

Category

Elite Private

Admissions site

www.usc.edu

Dewey Smart

Dewey students who got into USC

Sources

• USC test policy (2026-27)
• USC GPA (Fall 2025 first-year class (CDS 2025-2026))
• USC admissions pages
• USC admissions pages
• Acceptance rate, test-score percentiles, enrollment and tuition: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, pulled 2026-09-14.

Test policy and deadlines last verified 2026-08-17.