USC must do more to show it values spring admits


Arielle Chen | Daily Trojan

The spring admission program at USC has been around for nearly four decades, yielding approximately 600 new students each year. Spring admission was originally created to admit qualified students to their perspective programs when space allows, serving as USC’s waitlist. In other words, students admitted in the spring are meant to fill the spaces of those students who graduate early or study abroad.

However popular, spring admission is not specific to USC. Many other schools — such as Northeastern University, Pepperdine University, Middlebury College and Colby College — offer a spring admission program to their prospective students as well. With that said, there is a lingering stigma that comes with the title of “spring admit,” leaving these students with the mindset that they are lesser or not as deserving of their admission compared to those who are admitted in the fall.

USC has taken strides to lessen this stigma and make spring admits feel more welcomed on campus in the fall semester prior to their January arrival. the University offers study abroad opportunities with partnered universities in Rome, London, Paris and Lugano. In addition, they offer insight into first-semester community college programs in California and the idea of a gap semester, while discouraging students from enrolling in another four-year university prior to their arrival at USC.

While these programs offer some relief to students admitted for the spring, they can be limiting to out-of-state students who do not wish to move to California before their start at USC. In addition, they can also be restrictive to students with financial constraints — as going abroad for a semester is expensive. Nonetheless, the fact that the University offers these programs, along with this insight, can prove comforting to spring admits wary of attending a large school in the middle of the academic year.

In addition to what the University offers prior to arrival at USC, there is a new resource for students: the Spring Admit Ambassador Program. This program allows for older students that have been admitted in the spring in prior years — and have therefore already assimilated to the University — to mentor incoming spring admits. This bridges a gap of uncertainty for freshman spring admits that are new to the University and allows for them to get guidance from those who know the experience best.

It may seem that the University is optimizing its spring admission program by combating some of the issues freshman spring admits face while trying to assimilate to USC in the second half of the year. However, it’s fair to say that these programs do not combat the issues of the stigma that accompany the title of spring admit.

USC plans to slash its spring admission by 50% in coming years, which may add to the stigma that spring admits are less worthy of their admission than fall admits as it sends the message to students that their value for the program has lessened with time. USC has become more competitive over the past 30 years and the University also plans to decrease fall admission as well though not quite as dramatically.

So how can USC do more to lessen the stigma and make the college adjustment easier for students admitted in the spring? For starters, USC should publicly release the statistics of the incoming spring admit freshmen in order to reduce the stigma and prove that there is no such disparity between spring and fall admits in terms of academic success in high school; the incoming freshman statistics only include those of fall admits. Unless USC is willing to include the spring admit statistics, the stigma may continue. In the meantime, it would prove fruitful to have those spring admit statistics for reference.

In terms of making the adjustment to college easier for spring admits, one of the biggest issues spring admits face while trying to assimilate on campus is housing. Typically, when spring admits arrive on campus in January, they are placed wherever there is an open bed — quite literally in place of those that graduated early or went abroad for the spring semester. 

Spring admit freshmen are usually paired with a random roommate, and it is rare that they are placed in freshman housing. This can prove to be a big challenge when it comes to assimilating on campus and with their freshman class, as being in upperclassman housing with a random roommate is not typical of the first-year experience at USC.

All in all, the spring admission program at USC serves a good portion of every incoming freshman class. While it has not yet been perfected and there is room for improvement, it’s a solid program that allows for students that would have otherwise been waitlisted to have a valid response to their application. USC should value this program and look to ameliorate it rather than to phase it out. There are a multitude of intelligent students at USC from different backgrounds — you’d be surprised by the portion of these students that are spring admits.