USC sees decrease in reported ethnicity
Out of 82,000 applicants, only 3,489 students were both accepted and enrolled.
The class of 2028’s admission data, the first application cycle since the Supreme Court of the United States banned affirmative action in college admissions in 2023, was released by the University. The class’ 9.8% acceptance rate was the most competitive to date, accepting 8,050 people out of the total 82,027 applicants.
The incoming class is made up of 31.2% not white from historically underrepresented groups — similar to the Class of 2027 at 32% — but all racial groups saw a decrease in admitted students as 13% of enrollees chose not to report their ethnicity. For the class of 2027, only 1.5% of students did not report their identity.
“[I reported my ethnicity because] I was paranoid about missing a section,” said Shrinidhi Sriram, a freshman majoring in philosophy, politics, and law. ” Also, indicating my race wasn’t a big deal to me.”
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The reported percentage of Asian American students decreased from 22.3% to 17.5% of enrollees — the largest decrease. The percentage of Hispanic and Latineo students, Black and African American students, and white students all decreased by around 1%.
“It’s good to see. It’s a normal level,” said Maxime Warnod, a senior majoring in international relations.
(Amara Mathew / Daily Trojan)
“[I’m] an international student. Lots of my friends are international, but the people I met here are all over the place. I think it’s a very diverse group of people.”
Only 3,489 of the accepted students enrolled. The average enrollee had a 3.84 unweighted GPA. Last year’s class had 3,633 enrollees, an acceptance rate of 9.9% and an average unweighted GPA of 3.9.
(Seungmin Han / Daily Trojan)
“I’m happy to be a part of that 3,000 [students]. USC is a really good school,” said Kaycee Kaithula, a freshman majoring in business administration. “It’s definitely a very competitive application, especially because there [are] so many good programs at USC. The given programs are also hard to get into.”
Because of the ban on affirmative action, no universities, private or public, may take an applicant’s race into consideration.
(Amara Mathew / Daily Trojan)
“I did not think I was going to get in,” Sriram said. “I applied [early action] and had to write the essays before everybody else, so it was kind of stressful. I applied to Dornsife and there’s another supplement for that, but it was kind of fun.”
Sriram is the first in her family to apply to college in the United States, and she got her first acceptance letter from USC.
“I was like, ‘I’m so thrilled,’” Sriram said, “but I didn’t know if I was [going to] go because of financial reasons, but I was really happy.”
(Khris Gonzalez Pebe / Daily Trojan)
The percentage of first-generation students, 22%, dipped slightly compared to the class of 2027’s 25%.
“It’s a good representation of students,” Kaithula said. “All of these numbers could be higher, but as time goes on, that it hopefully will increase. I’ve already met a lot of people who are first-generation college students, and it’s really good to see at a school like USC.”
(Seungmin Han / Daily Trojan)
On Oct. 1, Gov. Gavin Newson passed a law banning legacy admissions at private universities in California, including USC. Admissions data showed 14% of the class of 2028 is made of legacy students — a 2% increase from the previous class. The ban is effective starting September 2025, so it won’t affect the upcoming 2024 admission cycle.
“That’s not that surprising,” Kaithula said. “I think USC and Harvard are dropping legacy pretty soon. It would be good to give [college applications] a little bit more of an even playing field.”
