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Some advice on applying to USC

If I were a prospective student applying to USC, there would be numerous thoughts and questions swirling around my mind. Perhaps the most pressing question I’d seek answers for is how to approach my USC application and how to make it “stand out.” After having applied to USC alongside other institutions, I have found that the key to success is being yourself - even when that might seem risky. I’ve heard this advice numerous times at colleges by admissions staff, but never really bought into it. When it came time to put pen-to-paper, I realized that simple questions like “what’s your favorite movie” did not have ulterior motives and that I would be presented with a unique opportunity to differentiate myself from the rest. For example, when presented with the same “what’s your favorite movie” question from USC, I struggled not because I didn’t have a favorite movie in mind, but because of apprehension that I might be viewed one way or another based on my movie choice. Yes, it might seem a bit paranoid, but after all, in my mind, any one answer may sway an admission officer's decision one way or another. After some thought and counsel, I went for it - I wrote down my favorite movie, Airplane, knowing that I would probably be of a very small minority who would most likely reference such a film. To me, it was an embodiment of my sarcastic, dry-humor side  that I saw full-blown in Airplane. I was aware that there might be some questionable humor, but in the end, I knew that it was a timeless classic and one that I could relate with. While this example might seem basic and non-consequential, it gets to the heart of a unique application - one that is not like the rest. I encourage all potential applicants, wherever you may apply, to ensure that there is a sense of authenticity in your written work, because in doing so, you will most likely be remembered amongst a large applicant pool, and specifically, remembered as a unique and authentic individual.

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USC Student Organizations

One of my favorite things about Dornsife is the fantastic student organizations that the school houses. There are SO many ways to become involved outside of the classroom, and somehow make a grand impact on your area of study that DOESN'T require turning an essay in to a professor. For me, becoming a member of USC's foreign service society was hands down the best decision I made to begin my lifetime commitment to international work.

Since January of 2020, I have been the Humanitarian Affairs Vice President of the society, meaning that I'm in charge of organizing philanthropic opportunities for fellow members as well as connecting our society with leading international nonprofits and NGOs across the globe. For Fall 2020, our "Week of Action" topic was water security and health in Nigeria. We reached out to HACEY, a water security NGO based in Lagos, Nigeria, about partnering with them and offering all of our (virtual) funds raised throughout the week to them. They were more than thrilled to partner with us, and even agreed to joining our society for an educational water security event at the end of the week.

For the event, we were joined by co-founder of HACEY, Rhoda Robinson, who enlightened us about the fascinating ways in which access to water can improve female empowerment, education, the economy, and of course health longevity, just to name a few. I learned a great deal about how their Clean Water Initiative, involving building boreholes in rural southwestern Nigerian communities and educating school children about sanitary practices (more important than ever before!), is sustainably changing the lives of thousands.

I was able to moderate the Zoom event, which ended up having a wonderful turnout of many IR and non-IR majors all curious about making a global difference. Rhoda, for instance, is an incredibly inspiring woman who founded HACEY during her third year of university (which I happen to be in right now!). She shared with us professional advice about navigating international service moving forward.

Ultimately, getting involved in international/service-oriented organizations based in Dornsife is a wonderful way to apply the knowledge you learn in the classroom to the real world. At Dornsife, you're surrounded by the resources, motivated student body, and amazing support system to have all the potential to lead change at your fingertips!

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Supplemental Instruction

Making the jump from high school to college can be a big adjustment! The learning curve of how to study, communicate with professors, and manage classes is a large part of what can make the adjustment challenging. Supplemental Instruction (SI) was so helpful to me in my first two years. SI is a program in which weekly review lessons are taught by a student who has previously taken the class and done well. The supplemental instructor makes a worksheet covering important material that the professor covered that week, goes over the entirety of it during an hour, and answers questions. They work closely with the professor to ensure that students are prepared and have a good grasp of the subject. I have found supplemental instruction to be so helpful, especially the week before exams! I have attended supplemental instruction meetings for my general biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and molecular biology so far. My supplemental instructors have given me advice for studying, which classes they enjoyed, and how to achieve a balance during college. Attending these SI sessions is one of the best decisions I have made in my college career and has helped me immensely!

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A Guide to Biology Department Majors

Dornsife Fun Fact: Strictly speaking, there is no “biology” major at USC! Instead, under the biology department there are three different majors: Biological Sciences, Human Biology, and Quantitative Biology. At first glance, it may be hard to decide which one to choose, so here’s a guide to help you decide which biology department major is right for you!

Biological Sciences (BISC)

Can be taken as a B.A. or B.S. degree (B.S. degree has more upper-division course requirements)

72 units of courses required for B.S.; 56 units required for B.A.

Offers a strong foundation in biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics

Biochemistry (BISC 330L) and Molecular Biology (BISC 320L) are separate courses that both have lab sections

Great for Pre-Health, most medical school/pharmacy school prerequisites are required courses in this major, such as organic chemistry, physics, calculus, statistics

Human Biology (HBIO)

Can be taken as a B.A. or B.S. degree (B.S. degree has more upper-division course requirements)

60 units of courses required for B.S.; 44 units required for B.A.

This one’s my major! I like how it has different tracks that allow you to take courses tailored to a specific field within human biology (I chose the Health and Disease B.S. track, which focuses on nutrition and metabolic disorders)

B.A. Tracks: Human Physiology and Metabolism, Human Evolutionary Biology, Human Performance

B.S. Tracks: Applied Physiology, Biomedical Science, Health and Disease, Human Evolutionary Biology

Insider tip: the major has a combined Biochemistry/Molecular Biology course without a lab (BISC 312) which is helpful for MCAT preparation!

Organic chemistry not required unless you are Pre-Health

Quantitative Biology (QBIO)

Can only be taken as a B.S. degree

Total of 72 units of courses required for the major, 10 of which must be faculty-directed research (great way to make sure you have research experience!)

Combines traditional biology classes with a strong math and computer science foundation

If you can’t decide between biology and computer science, this offers the best of both worlds

Calculus-based physics course required, but organic chemistry not required unless you are Pre-Health

Note: 128 total units (including major courses, general education, and electives) are required to graduate with a single bachelor’s degree. So feel free to use your elective units to add a minor or take fun courses outside your major!

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To the USC Class of 2024

Dear Class of 2024, 

On behalf of Miss Rona, I am so sorry. I know this semester is absolutely nothing like you imagined or expected it to be. I know it’s hard to feel like you’re in your first semester of the best four years of your life. As a sophomore, I also deeply miss Los Angeles and the community of people I’ve met at USC that made campus a home so quickly. I thought I would share some of the ways I’ve been recreating my college experience from my home in the Bay Area!  

Spend lunch video calling friends. It’s effectively a virtual dining hall. 

My friends and I have made a commitment to spend at least a couple of lunches together over Zoom. While my childhood room cannot compare to the grandeur of the McCarthy dining hall, there is something to be said about the nostalgia of spontaneous conversations over meals which have come to define much of my freshman year college experience. Catch up with a friend over lunch or a virtual coffee convo (distinct difference between convo and chat -- a.k.a the business kind). 

Hop onto the Zoom call of a class your friend cannot stop raving about.

Two weeks ago, I joined my friend’s Zoom class on social entrepreneurship. The class had a really insightful guest speaker come in to talk about his career journey and how he came to start his own consulting firm. I’m a part of the social impact consulting group on campus (LACI), so it was a really refreshing experience to listen in and learn about something outside of the scope of my classes. (While this could be frowned upon in Zoom University and in which case, you did not hear this advice from me) I would definitely recommend joining your friends’ Zoom classes for a day to learn something completely new. For example, I’ve invited my computer science friend to my Preparation for the Clinical Experience elective which focuses on medicine and the life of a doctor. Information is so widely available, and it’s so easy to make use of that! 

Listen to the rainy Harry Potter Hogwarts soundtrack while doing homework. 

This is a little trick I picked up one day while scrolling through Reddit (a dangerous pastime into the rabbit hole). If you find studying for classes or finishing homework difficult because the days can blend together and feel monotonous, I would highly recommend playing the Rainy Nights at Hogwarts background music. I kid you not, this music can transport me to another dimension of productivity because I feel like I’m in a new physical space altogether. And it works for any type of instrumental music you’re into: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Game of Thrones, Pirates of Caribbean (the list goes on). 

Play some virtual escape rooms and board games over Zoom. 

My friends and I would spend Friday nights on campus playing board games like Catan and Secret Hitler. It’s one of the traditions I miss most being at home instead of LA. Incredibly enough, all of these games are freely available online. Now, my friends and I have Zoom game nights with virtual escape rooms, online Catan, Secret Hitler, Codenames, and now the infamous, Among Us. This has been such a nice way to still make time for those I love in the chaotic season of school and midterms, while also feeling a semblance of college normalcy. 

Give yourself a rest day. 

Your mental health is so incredibly important. Take time to completely pause and invest in things you fully enjoy. For me, that means shutting down my computer and going to my local park or a socially-distanced hike with friends. Also, if you didn’t already know, as a USC student, you have free access to HBO Max. So maybe your rest day involves watching the documentary about the Women of Troy (Fight ON) or geeking out to Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The times are like we always say *unprecedented* and investing in yourself and your personal interests means a renewed sense of vigor for the things you might not be so eager to do (like the homework you should be doing instead of reading this post). 

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Passion vs. Participation: How to Make Your Application Shine

We all know those students who seem to do everything and more in high school. They’re captain of the soccer team, vice president of the student council, celebrated co-captain of the speech team, lead of the school play, and yet they still somehow manage to volunteer at the local hospital every Sunday, manage 5 AP classes, and get amazing grades and test scores to top it off. It seems impossible to keep up with these god-like characters in the race to college.

However, what most students don’t realize is that passion outshines participation in most college applications. As a Dornsife Ambassador, one of my jobs is to review Common Apps to determine which students should qualify for scholarships within the school after students after acceptances go out. While I am still relatively new to the program, I have read over a hundred applications, and I can definitively say that I barely pay attention to the page that shows what the students are involved in. When you’re reading so many applications at once, the extracurriculars blend together to the point that they are practically indistinguishable from each other.

What really makes students stand out in an application is the Common App essays and the short response questions. I much prefer reading about how students found their passions for their major, an interesting trip that they’ve taken, or how a certain activity that they did inspired them to pursue higher learning than a list of extracurricular activities, as do most other essay reviewers that I’ve talked with.

When I read the Common App essays, I truly see the passion of the students, and I get a feeling of what that applicant might be like in person and if they are a good fit for the school. Participation tells relatively nothing about a person aside from how they spend their time. On the other hand, passion shows what captures that person’s unique attention and how they want to impact the world around them.

So, how do you make sure to focus on passion rather than participation in a college app?

First, you should limit the number of extracurricular activities that you participate in, and instead focus on a few in which you can progress, gain leadership positions, and participate in for multiple years instead of just one. Application reviewers like to see progression and growth in a person, which can signify a continuation of that growth in college. By demonstrating you have gained leadership experience and shown dedication in a few clubs rather than many, you will look more focused and reliable.

Secondly, make sure that you are not doing too much that your grades suffer in the process. Colleges do like to see you doing things outside of school, but they also like to see good grades, or at least improvement in grades. If your grades start suffering because you joined some more extracurriculars, this could actually hurt you more than it helps you.

Going off of my last point, you should also not pile on so much that your mental health starts suffering. Even if you have great grades and an extensive list of extracurriculars, it is not worth it to jeopardize your personal health. Not everyone can function at the same level of productivity, and that is completely okay! I know some of you reading this may not believe me when I tell you this (I know high-school me wouldn’t have), but you don’t have to force yourself to do more extracurriculars when your body physically cannot take it. That includes sleep-deprivation as well for all you coffee-addicted high school students!

Lastly, you don’t always have to do extracurricular activities that will “strengthen your application”; it is important to do some things purely for fun. This one was a huge struggle for me in high school, and I ended up choosing more obligatory extracurricular activities than ones that I was actually interested in. The point of extracurricular activities is to explore something outside of school that you find interesting. Don’t just join academic clubs because you think that they will help you look advanced to colleges because I am here to tell you that nearly every student whose application I have read does this. Instead, become president of the gardening club at your school or start your own hand-knit sock business or learn how to advocate for social justice issues. I can assure you that while you may think these things are pointless, if you are truly passionate about what you are doing it will probably outshine a passionless, extracurricular-heavy application.

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Interdisciplinary Majors in Dornsife

As you learn more about Dornsife, there’s one word you’re bound to hear over and over again: interdisciplinary. As the heart of USC and the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, Dornsife hosts a variety of different majors and minors that tend to come together in interesting and unique ways. This is what being ‘interdisciplinary’ means. It means having a host of options open to you at any given moment, each providing an excellent education in its respective field. And as a Physics/Computer Science major, minoring in Russian, I can most definitely attest to this fact. 

As a young girl, I always knew I wanted to major in physics. I had been passionate about the sciences, and once I had a name for the particular science I was interested in, you could not pull me away. So, applying to USC, I applied as a Physics major, considering a potential double major in Computer Science. But, upon acceptance and further research, I discovered a secondary option: the Physics/Computer Science dual degree. So, I emailed my advisor, asking her about the difference between double majoring and the dual degree, trying to decide which would be right for me. And, considering the difficulty of each of these two majors on their own, I decided on a Physics/Computer Science dual degree. What this means is that I study in the physics department, as a Physics student, but take classes in the Viterbi Computer Science department alongside my regular Dornsife classes (about 60% physics, 40% computer science). I remember thinking that this was a very unique combination of majors, one that most other universities don’t seem to have. And yet, if we consider what is at the heart of both of these, we’ll find problem-solving is the common factor. Whether writing an algorithm to complete a given task, or calculating the electric field of a charged sphere, I am able to approach problem-solving through various directions, providing me a solid base of information that opens up a plethora of job opportunities in the future. 

And, taking further advantage of Dornsife’s interdisciplinary nature, I added on a Russian minor (a process as easy as sending one email to the Russian advisor). As a heritage-Russian speaker who has forgotten most of the language, Dornsife’s foreign language requirement reminded me of what I loved about the Russian language, connecting me with a past I had long forgotten. So I added the minor, hoping not only to relearn what was once my first language, but to help me in my dream career, working as a scientist in the government. 

Ultimately, though, what Dornsife has given me is the ability to explore all my various interests despite how unrelated they may seem, and that is the beauty of such an interdisciplinary college.

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Dornsife Advisement

One of the hardest aspects of college life is often the task of picking out your class schedule and charting your own personalized four-year academic path. The long list of available courses alone can seem daunting and even overwhelming, especially for a freshman experiencing the process for the first time. Luckily, as a student at USC Dornsife, you have access to a great team of academic advisors who are ready to work with you and develop a plan that fits your personal goals. Dornsife students are assigned an advisor for each major and minor they declare; as a double major in political science and French, I got to work with two advisors, each of whom specialized in offering advice and support in their respective departments. Before registering for classes each semester, I scheduled a meeting with my advisors to examine class options, to review my degree progress, or even simply to discuss any concerns I had about my academic experience thus far.

The Dornsife Overseas Studies Office also provides excellent advising services for those students who are planning on participating in one of Dornsife’s numerous study abroad opportunities. Before I left for USC Paris during the fall of my junior year, I met several times with Vito Grillo, my study abroad advisor, who walked me through course registration for the program, provided detailed guidance on navigating the visa process, and connected me with USC Paris alumni who gave me valuable advice about what to expect when I arrived. Being able to meet with Vito and email him at any time with questions or problems gave me the confidence I needed to fully enjoy my time abroad. Whether you’re heading overseas for the semester or simply trying to pick your classes on campus, Dornsife’s advisors are a great resource for students seeking to make the most of their undergraduate academic experience.