USC today announced it's acceptance rate for the Class of 2027 at 9.75%

Ahead of schedule, USC press relations tweeted today that it will accept 7900 applicants for the Class of 2027 out of 81000 applications. "The University wrote in decision letters sent to applicants Friday that it had admitted 2,400 of 40,600 Early Action applicants and will admit 5,500 of 40,400 Regular Decision applicants."

Compared to previous cycles this is the historical low for USC and the first time it dipped below 10% to 9.75%. What prompted the huge change is that they opted for an Early Action cycle this year which flooded their inboxes resulting in a 5.94% EA acceptance rate which was lower than even Harvard and MIT EA rates.

The past 7 cycles resulted in the following rates, 16.49%, 16.04%, 12.85%, 11%, 15.96%, 12.44%, and 11.88%.

The takeaway is that USC is on an equal par difficulty to get into as UCLA. And now a reach school for everyone. In 2016, there were only 13 colleges with acceptance rates of less than 10%. Last year there were 31 colleges. And continuing the trend, I expect no less than 35 colleges this year with acceptance rates of less than 10%.

Therefore it's important to add more target and hard target schools to your college list because there is active downward pressure on acceptance rates at all Top 100 schools and you want to pick a school that is both a good fit and has great academics as well.