USC has a bit of an identity crisis to deal with — and it has nothing to do with its West Coast counterpart.
Administrators expect USC to compete with the likes of UVA and UNC-Chapel Hill years down the road, while at the same time saying they want to make education more accessible to all. Unfortunately, we feel those two things are an incredibly difficult pair to pull off concurrently.
While USC has become a little more selective in recent years, its acceptance rate still stands relatively high compared to others the university likes to benchmark itself against. At 63.1 percent for the 2011 academic class, South Carolina stood in stark contrast to SEC East foes like Florida, and projections show it will this year as well.
It’s simple. Bringing in smarter students raises the profile of the university immensely. Better professors want to teach at higher profile institutions. Eventually this leads to more funding through grants and donations. Being more selective would help elevate USC to the level it conveys by portraying itself as “the premier university of South Carolina.”
But, at the same time, we understand the complexity that comes with being a state school in a state that — regrettably — has a notoriously poor K-12 education system overall. Everyone will draw conclusions as to where USC should set the bar, but we feel it should certainly be higher than where it is today.
USC officials certainly have a delicate balancing act to pull off moving forward. The university must somehow become more selective without alienating its own home state.
But USC isn’t doing itself — or future students — a favor by accepting the status quo without pushing for higher quality students.