The University of Southern California has released admissions statistics for its Class of 2025. For the school that just two years ago found itself rocked by the infamous Varsity Blues scandal, applications soared by over 20% from last year, totaling over 70,000. And while the surge is significant indeed, at crosstown rival University of California, Los Angeles, which happened to earn a berth in the Final Four this year in March Madness action, applications surged 28%. But enough about UCLA — this post is about USC. For USC’s Class of 2025, the overall admission rate dropped to 12% from 16%. And just who earned admission to USC’s incoming class?

Breakdown of Admits to USC’s Class of 2025

As Alexis Timko and Ike Allen report for USC Annenberg Media in a piece entitled “USC’s admission rate narrows to 12% for the class of 2025,” “Of those admitted for the 2021 fall term, 26% are Black and Latinx. One fifth of admitted students would be the first in their family to attend college. International students comprise 14% of the admitted class, representing 88 different countries. This is the first year that prospective students applied to the university during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has kept students off campus since March 2020. USC has also been continuing to deal with a series of scandals, including a recent settlement of $852 million for patients of former USC gynecologist George Tyndall. The university also recently made the decision to raise tuition by 2%, the lowest year-over-year increment since 1967.”

Varsity Blues Scandal Didn’t Impact Applications to USC

If folks are surprised that applications would soar to the University of Southern California so soon after the infamous Varsity Blues scandal, they are not students of elite college admissions where applications so often continue to rise after major scandals. Those parents, coaches, administrators, and others who participated in the well-known bribery scheme and/or cheating on standardized testing in the hope of tipping the scales in their favor would later face their fates in America’s justice system. But the University of Southern California endures. The dream, it lives on. It fights on. After all, let us not forget that USC is the alma mater of one Orenthal James Simpson, scrubbed from their proud walls of fame as he may be.