Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “College Applications”
I’m only a junior this year, so I’m not allowed to officially say I have senioritis, but as the semester draws to a close, it sure feels like I do. I’m sure many of you, as I was, are disappointed by how technically the senioritis can’t really kick in until after the application season is over, but don’t worry! You’re …
First off, take a deep breath. It will all work out the way it is supposed to. That’s perhaps the most frustrating advice I received during my college admissions process, but having come out the other side, I finally understand why it really is the most important piece of advice. College admissions are rough, and there are no two ways …
I am an indecisive person. I am that person who looks up a restaurant menu beforehand so I am not flustered when it’s time to order. I’m also that person who still texts her mom, asking her to tell me which color of dress I should buy, if I should walk or ride my bike to class, or if I …
I’m going to preface this blog with the truth: applying to college sucks. You just want to enjoy your senior year, your last year with people you’ve probably grown up alongside, but all of the sudden you’re faced with a mountain of essays and hoops to jump through, on top of your regular schoolwork. There’s no way to sugarcoat that, …
I know the picture above seems irrelevant, but it’s one of the photos I took the day I found out I had been accepted to USC. More about that story later. Moving on. It’s that time of year – application season. Or app szn as the kids say. (Is that what they say? I don’t know anymore.) If you’re applying …
It was the start of Senior year, on a brisk August evening. I gulped in a deep breath of fresh air, and smiled at the colorfully polluted sky, carefree! Senior year of college. Finally free, ready to have a fun, responsibility-free semester—wait a second. OH, right, I decided to apply to grad school *cue reality check.* Dramatic introductions aside, applying …
Let’s all admit it: one of the most powerful draws to a college campus is the campus tour. It is a massive swaying point in many people’s college decisions, and USC capitalizes on that fact by making tour guides the best they possibly can be. That’s why I’m here, and that’s why I applied to be a Student Ambassador for …
The Viterbi Summer Institute is a program put on through the Center for Engineering Diversity that gives minority students the opportunity to get acclimated to the school and the unfamiliar area prior to the start of classes. You basically get to experience college before starting your freshman year, making the transition a lot simpler. A total of 50 students are …
Fall 2016, my ego’s on top of the world Fall 2016, my ego’s on top of the world My little sister is now a senior in high school stressing about applying to college. I bet you can guess her number one anxiety inducer: the essays. So, being a good big sister, I decided to go back through all of my …
Junior year of high school is the year that the pressure is on to be an adult as college looms ever closer. So, for that spring break I suggested my friends and I write a travel diary, which basically was this giant 84 page google doc with different entries written by me and my friends. This was actually incredibly helpful …
If you’ve been on campus, you might have seen me walking backwards in front of a group of families, talking loudly with large hand gestures, including the occasional “Fight On!”. As a tour guide, I have plenty of opportunities to talk about why I chose USC, but not how I knew majoring in mechanical engineering was the right choice for …
Sometimes you encounter people who’ve seemingly known what they’ve wanted to do since birth. Those are also the only people who seem to reply to the “Why did you choose to study computer science?” thread on Quora when you’re desperately looking for clarity about your major at 2am and stress eating hot cheetos. If you can’t already tell, I didn’t …
My first year and a half of college, I attended the University of Washington Seattle. I met some of the best friends of my life, and had some really awesome adventures. I’m from Seattle, so it was nice being close to home and seeing my family often, but something was missing. I always had a life-long dream of living in …
Admitted student season is in full swing for graduating seniors and universities across the country! I know that for many of the people potentially reading this, the decision of where to go to college is on the forefront of many minds. It isn’t a decision to be made a lightly; a choice you make as a high schooler will define …
The question most prospective students have for me: why did I choose USC? What it really boils down to is three concepts. Number 1: There are multiple aspects of opportunity that I will dive into. First, a huge part of my college search involved planning for my future beyond my education. I wanted to know that when I graduated, I …
My sister is about to start her descent into the college application process as a rising high school senior, so now, most of my phone calls home are about picking schools, majors, essay topics, and everything else college related. It got me thinking about my own experience with picking schools and how on earth I ended up at USC, a …
I remember when I was curating my list of colleges to apply to early in my senior year of high school, I had put down the typical schools that people from my high school usually applied to. Schools like the UC’s, Cal Poly, Stanford, and some East coast schools sprinkled here and there. I put a lot of thought and …
It’s official: National Decision Day is in less than one month. May 1st marks a day when most high school seniors finally commit to a college. I remember being over the moon when I received college acceptance letters. Then, I realized I had to narrow it down to just one college that I would spend the next four years at. …
Last Monday, the Viterbi Voices podcast released our newest series: Engineering Impact, which focuses on groups and people in Viterbi applying engineering for social good. In the first episode, I spoke with several students from CAIS++, USC’s Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society’s Student Branch, which is an undergraduate group on campus developing AI applications for social good. Lucas and …
Why USC? You might be a senior choosing colleges or a junior starting to check out colleges or just curious to see what the hype is all about at USC. The reason I learned about USC was through my sister. I have always followed my sister around ever since high school as I copied her extracurricular activities and strived to …