I am writing to elaborate on your editorial opinion in Thursday’s Daily Gamecock about admission selectivity at USC. I appreciate you recognizing the challenges we face in meeting our seemingly disparate enrollment goals. Please let me point out that institutional selectivity cannot be described simply and only by the percentage of applicants offered admission. Rather, the overall quality of the applicant pool and the admitted class must also be considered.
It is possible to increase the percentage of applicants admitted and increase the quality of the class at the same time. In Fall 2002 we enrolled a freshman class of 3,560 students with an overall SAT average of 1124 and an average high school GPA of 3.46. In Fall 2011 the freshman class contained 4,636 freshmen with an SAT average of 1198 and an average high school GPA of 3.85. More students are applying and enrolling than ever, and they are better students than ever.
While we are proud of the increased quality metrics of the freshman class, these are just input measures. What is more important is actual student success and outcomes, measured in part by retention and graduation rates, which have also been improving over time. We’ve nearly doubled our four-year graduation rate since 1994 and substantially improved our freshman to sophomore retention rate to the point that nearly 87 percent of our freshman return as sophomores. On both these counts we are well above the national average and fourth in the SEC.
The university is committed to the academic success of all the students we admit, and we intend to continue to deliver on the promise of a quality education for all Gamecocks.
— R. Scott Verzyl, director of Undergraduate Admissions