USC admits new undergraduate class

One of the first jobs Liliana Aragon’s grandmother had after arriving in the United States from Guatemala in the 1990s was cleaning dormitories at USC. Almost 30 years later, Aragon will begin attending USC, where she will major in civil engineering with an emphasis in building science as a part of the University’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program. 

“It’s very sentimental,” Aragon said. “Being able to tell [my grandmother] that’s where I’m going to be is very meaningful to me.”

Aragon is one of 8,198 students admitted into the University’s class of 2026. With 69,000 applicants, this year’s acceptance rate was 11.88%. This is the first time the acceptance rate has been lower than 12% since 2019 — a decrease from 12.41% in 2021 and 15.8% in 2020. The number of applicants decreased slightly from last year’s record number of 70,971. In 2020, a significantly lower number of students applied: less than 60,000. 

“Each year, there’s a sense of renewal as we welcome what we hope will be our newest scholars,” said Kedra Ishop, vice president for enrollment management in an interview with USC News. “We’re seeing some of the university’s long-term efforts toward access and inclusion pay off. Financial aid and a holistic approach to our process are key to that success.”

In a process that took more than 30,000 hours and five months of evaluation, 65 employees from USC’s Office of Admission reviewed each of the 69,000 applications.

Adelyn Ledbetter, who will be majoring in English next year, saw her acceptance letter in the applicant portal after consistently checking online forums for release times. 

“It was a bunch of joy and excitement after that,” Ledbetter said. “Just calls from my relatives because my mom texted all of them; it was a good feeling.”

When Cardin Chung, who will be majoring in dance, found out his portal was updated, he had a different approach.

“I hid in the bathroom for two hours and refused to look at my email,” Chung said. “Then, I finally got the guts to open the portal and everyone was surrounding me, and we opened it and saw the confetti and we all just exploded screaming around the house.” 

The interdisciplinary health and human sciences major drew Jessica Silverman, a 2022 admit from Bergen County, N.J., to USC. 

“I definitely screamed, definitely ugly cried,” Silverman said. “It was my top-choice college, it really always has been, so it was such an incredible moment.”

Along with Aragon, who is from San Diego, 38% of admitted students call California home, followed by New York, Texas, Washington — Chung and Ledbetter’s home state — Illinois and Florida. In 2020 and 2021, 40% of admitted students were from California. 

One in five of the admitted students this year is a first generation college student. This is comparable to last year’s figure of 20% and 2020’s figure of 17%. 

Nine percent of admitted students are Black, compared to 8% in 2021. USC News did not report the percentage of 2022 Latinx admits. In 2021, they reported that 18% of admits were Latinx, an increase from the year before. The University reported that three out of four admitted students identify as Black, Latinx, Native American, Asian and Pacific Islander or having multiple ethnicities. 

International student admits increased to 18%, 4% higher than in 2020 and 2021. The most represented countries were China, India, Canada, South Korea and Brazil. 

The University accepted 28 students from the Bovard Scholars program, a USC initiative for high-achieving high school seniors who demonstrate financial need to be admitted into top universities around the country. Last year, the University accepted 44 applicants from the program.

The Leslie and William McMorrow Neighborhood Academic Initiative — a USC organization that supports students in college access and early literacy programs in Los Angeles — boasted 43 applicants this year, a 19-person decrease from last year. 

When Aragon visited their cousin — who goes to USC — they saw USC’s spirit first hand, which inspired them to apply. 

“I went to a water polo game against Cal, and the energy was insane … Everything about it felt very family-oriented,” Aragon said. “USC has such amazing spirit, and I really wanted to be a part of it.”

Chung has already started connecting with fellow incoming freshmen in his major and looks forward to strengthening these connections in the fall. 

“I got to see the work they put out already, and it looks absolutely incredible,” he said. “Being able to be in the same classroom with people and learning from them is really inspiring to me and it gets me really, really excited.”