University of Southern California ACT Scores

The middle 50% of University of Southern California students who enrolled and submitted an ACT scored between 32 and 35, and the midpoint of that reported range is 34. That is a three point spread sitting one point below the top of the scale, which makes it one of the tightest bands you will read on any score page. USC is in Los Angeles, California, enrolls 20,443 undergraduates, and admits 10% of applicants institution-wide. The rest of this page explains what those figures do and do not tell you about your own score.

USC's reported band sits three points from the top of the scale

These are the reported ACT figures for the University of Southern California, from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, most recent reported cohort.

Two features of this band deserve attention before anything else. First, the 75th percentile of 35 is one point below the maximum composite of 36, so the upper half of the enrolled range has almost nowhere left to run. Second, the entire middle 50% occupies three points of a 36 point scale. With 20,443 undergraduates behind it, that compression is not a quirk of a tiny sample. It describes a large cohort of score submitters packed tightly near the ceiling. A percentile is a description of where enrolled students landed, never a cutoff, a minimum, or a requirement.

A three point spread changes how much one point is worth

When a school reports a wide band, a single point is close to noise. Here it is not. Fifty percent of enrolled submitters are distributed across only three point-steps, from 32 to 35, so on average each step inside that range accounts for something like a sixth of the whole reported group. Moving from 32 to 33 is not a cosmetic change in this distribution. It is real movement through it.

The flip side matters just as much. Above 35 there is exactly one point left on the scale, so chasing perfection buys you very little statistical distance. Below 32 the picture reverses: every point you add moves you toward the bottom edge of the reported middle 50% rather than past it.

Use the table to locate yourself, not to judge yourself. If you want to see how raw performance turns into a composite, the free ACT score calculator does the conversion for you.

The 10% admission rate is where most readers go wrong

USC admits 10% of applicants overall. That number is institution-wide and it is a description of one admissions cycle in aggregate. It is not your probability of admission, and it cannot be combined with your score to produce one.

Here is the practical consequence of pairing a 10% rate with a three point band. When nine out of ten applicants are turned away, most of the people denied were also inside that band. A 35 does not purchase a seat. A 32 does not close the door. The score simply stops being the thing that separates one file from another once much of the pool has cleared a similar bar.

Read the score data for what it is: a description of how the students who ultimately enrolled and submitted a score were distributed. It is evidence about a group, not a verdict about a person. No one, including this page, can tell you whether you will be admitted, and any site that claims a threshold above which admission is likely is inventing it.

If you are comparing several schools at once, keep the same discipline at each one. College ACT scores explains how to line up reported bands without turning them into predictions.

Who is not counted in the 32 to 35 range

Every number above comes with a boundary, and the boundaries do real work at a school with a 10% admission rate.

• Only score submitters appear. The percentiles cover enrolled students who submitted an ACT. Anyone who enrolled without submitting one is invisible in the 32 to 35 range, which means the band reflects a self-selected slice of the class.
• Applicants are not in it. Denied applicants are not counted. Neither are admitted students who chose a different school. The band is a picture of who showed up, not of who was considered.
• Testing policy is not in this data. Nothing here establishes whether USC requires, recommends, or disregards the ACT. That question has one reliable source, and it is the university itself.
• There is no section-level data. The figures used on this page are composite only. Any claim about a USC English, Math, Reading, or Science target is fabricated. Science on the Enhanced ACT is optional and reported separately from the composite in any case.
• The 34 is a reported midpoint. It is the middle of the published range, not a verified median and not a class average.

For a fuller walkthrough of how these figures are built and where they mislead, see the guide to ACT scores.

Turning 32 to 35 into something you can practice against

On the Enhanced ACT the composite is the average of English, Math, and Reading. Science is optional and reported on its own. That makes the arithmetic simple, and worth doing, because it shows how a tight band punishes an uneven profile.

To average 34 across three sections, those three scores have to total 102. Combinations like 34, 34, 34 and 35, 34, 33 both get there. To average 32 they need to total 96. This is arithmetic about the composite, not a USC figure and not a USC requirement: the school reports composites only.

Now apply it to a three point band. If two of your sections sit at 35 and the third sits at 28, your composite lands near 33, and a single soft section has moved you from the top edge of the reported range toward its lower half. Where the reported middle 50% is only three points wide, sanding down your weakest section usually moves your composite more than polishing your strongest one.

The format details that shape your pacing: English is 50 questions in 35 minutes, Math is 45 in 50, Reading is 36 in 40, and optional Science is 40 in 40. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so leave nothing blank. The Enhanced ACT 2025 guide covers the changes in full, and how to improve your ACT score covers section-by-section triage.

Free Prep36 tools for a one to three point climb

Everything below is free, because a score page is useless if the practice behind it is locked.

• 1,026 original practice questions, the entire bank, free, with an instant explanation on every answer. These are Prep36 questions written to the Enhanced ACT format, not official ACT questions.
• Six full-length timed forms, two of them free. Timed forms are how you find out whether a 33 was a real score or a good day. Start with the ACT practice test guide.
• Free score forecast, which projects where your current work is heading so you can size the gap between your composite and the 32 to 35 range before test day rather than after it.
• Free study plan builder, which turns weeks remaining into a schedule. Pair it with how to study for the ACT and the calendar in ACT test dates.
• Free Enhanced ACT Cram Kit for the last stretch before a test date.
• Superscoring, if you plan to test more than once, is worth understanding early. See ACT superscore, then confirm directly with USC how it treats multiple sittings, since that policy is not in this data.

Open the practice app when you are ready to start. Prep36 is not affiliated with ACT, Inc.

What these composites cost in raw questions

A composite is not a number you score directly. On the Enhanced ACT it is the average of English, Math and Reading, so reaching one means hitting that scaled score across three sections. Science is optional and reported separately, so it is left out here.

Below is what each scaled score actually costs in correct answers, and how many questions you can afford to miss to still land on it.

Read this correctly. These are not section targets for this school. The College Scorecard reports composite percentiles only, with no section-level data, so nobody can tell you what English or Math score this school expects. What the table shows is the raw cost of a 32 and a 35 in each section, whoever you are aiming at. Build your own section goals from your own practice results.

Turn your practice raw scores into a composite with the free ACT score calculator, then drill the sections costing you the most in the free question bank.

Frequently asked questions