USC requires all students to fill out a two-part application. The application includes the student's name, address, birth information, history of all high schools and colleges previously attended, SAT or ACT scores and parental information.
USC requires all students to fill out a personal statement and activity sheet. This includes a 500- to 700-word essay on one of three topics given by USC. The essay should be double spaced and usually takes about two pages.
Students need to give short answers for two questions about themselves. They have a section of one-word to one-sentence answers about themselves from prompts that are provided. Finally, students need to provide a list of all activities and organizations in which they have taken part, any work history and any conferences or summer programs they have attended.
USC requires all students to provide a detailed list of their academic history. For most students, high school transcripts should suffice. Home-schooled students need to provide information about the curriculum taken, and international students need to include some extra steps to show how their courses match the U.S. standards.
USC does not have a minimum grade point average (GPA) to attend the school, but the average GPA of the 2009 class was 3.7 on an unweighted 4.0 scale.
A letter of recommendation from a teacher or counselor is required. This portion can be sent separately by the teacher or counselor if students prefer.
USC requires a copy of prospective students' SAT or ACT scores. The tests can be sent directly by the board that oversees them. The SAT code for USC is 4852 and the ACT code is 0470. Most students do not need to take the SAT Subject tests, but any student who did not attend a regionally accredited high school, which includes some home schools, will need to take three parts of the SAT Subject tests, including one in math. International students may take the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) in place of the SAT or ACT. If a student has any AP scores, those should also be sent to USC.
USC has no minimum requirement for standardized test scores, but median scores from 2009 were 1930-2150 for the SAT and 29-32 for the ACT.