USC SCA Acceptance Rate and Admissions Statistics

The University of Southern California is one of the most competitive universities worldwide. According to prepscholar.com, the School of Cinematic arts has an acceptance rate of only 3%.

However, Filmschool.org members have reported much higher acceptance rates. Thanks to our Application Database, we are able to calculate actual USC SCA acceptance rates and tabulate additional data, including accepted applicant demographics, prior filmmaking experience, lowest accepted GPAs, test scores, and more. The site has over 780 applications to USC SCA in our database. 380 for MFA production, 232 for Writing for Screen & Television, 140 for Peter Stark Producing, 25 for USC SCA Undergraduate film, and 3 for the Media Studies MA program.

From these applications, the current acceptance rates for the USC SCA film programs are 28% for MFA production, 27% for Writing for Screen & Television, 29% for Peter Stark Producing, 36% for USC SCA Undergraduate film, and 67% for the Media Studies MA program.

Our admissions statistics for the programs also show the lowest accepted minimum GPA, lowest accepted SAT, ACT, GRE, TOEFL and IELTS scores, and much more... however that data is only available to Supporting Members. FilmSchool.org is 100% ad free so Supporting Members are literally what makes this site possible. Thank you!

Also be sure to check out our guid on applying to USC SCA:


And our interview with USC admissions:

USC SCA Undergraduate Acceptance Statistics​

USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) (BA/BFA) Acceptance Rate (All Programs/All Years)

See our full Admission Statistics for this program including interview and acceptance notification dates, accepted GPAs, waitlist acceptance rate, demographics of accepted applicants, $ amount of scholarship awarded, and more...

Thanks to the applications in our database we also have a ton more information than just minimum GPA and the acceptance rate, we also have important information like when USC SCA decisions come out. Currently decisions come as early as March 23rd however be ready for your interview as early as February 11th. See the acceptance data page for more information.

Supporting Members also have access to even more data such as how many are admitted who were interviewed and the film experience of accepted applicants. We have also started to collect information on the sexual identify, race, and sexual orientation of accepted applicants but this data is limited as it is optional and not everyone has added that information to their application.

Remember to log your application once you apply so that we may improve our data.

USC SCA Film Production MFA Acceptance Statistics​

USC Cinematic Arts - Writing for Screen & Television (MFA) Acceptance Rate (All Programs/All Years)

See our full Admission Statistics for this program including interview and acceptance notification dates, accepted GPAs, waitlist acceptance rate, demographics of accepted applicants, $ amount of scholarship awarded, and more...

With currently only 63 out of 232 accepted applications to USC SCA MFA film production in our database, USC is quite competitive. According to the data on our Acceptance Statistics page, the earliest date you'll hear back from admissions on your acceptance is February 20th, while the earliest interview notification date is January 11. Of course these dates may change as the site gets more data. Supporting Members again get access to even more data including lowest accepted GPA and other test scores.

Supporting Members also get access to interesting data such as the film experience or the undergraduate degree of accepted applicants. Scholarship awarded data is also provided.

Remember to log your application with our database once you apply so that we may improve our data.

USC SCA Writing for Screen & Television MFA Acceptance Statistics​

USC Cinematic Arts - Writing for Screen & Television (MFA) Acceptance Rate (All Programs/All Years)

See our full Admission Statistics for this program including interview and acceptance notification dates, accepted GPAs, waitlist acceptance rate, demographics of accepted applicants, $ amount of scholarship awarded, and more...

The screenwriting program at USC SCA is extremely competitive as well with only 63 out of 232 admitted applications in our database. There is no formal interview for admission to USC Screenwriting but applicants may be contacted for more information or clarification of submitted materials. 3 applications in our database are marked as being accepted after an interview.

The Admissions Statistics page also lists important dates such as Earliest/Latest Interview Notification Date, Earliest/Latest Interview Date, Earliest/Latest Decision Notification Date, Earliest/Latest Admitted Off Waitlist Date, and Earliest/Latest Scholarship Notification.

Supporting Members get access to GPA and test data as well as other stats such as the undergraduate degree of accepted applicants. Film related degrees seem the highest but also Creative Writing, Linguistics and even Biomedical Sciences.

Remember to log your application with our database once you apply so that we may improve our data.

USC SCA Peter Stark Producing MFA Acceptance Statistics​

USC Cinematic Arts - Peter Stark Producing Program (MFA) Acceptance Rate (All Programs/All Years)

See our full Admission Statistics for this program including interview and acceptance notification dates, accepted GPAs, waitlist acceptance rate, demographics of accepted applicants, $ amount of scholarship awarded, and more...

Only 41 out of 140 applications in our database were admitted. According to our Admissions Statistics page, the earliest notification date of decisions is February 10. Supporting Members get access to additional statistics such as the level of film experience for admitted applicants. Around 20% of accepted Stark applicants have no film experience whatsoever.

As always, remember to log your application with our database once you apply so that we may improve our data on the site.

I hope this data is helpful to everyone. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions.

If there is any other data that you would like to ask to be recorded with logged applications let us know.

Also, I want to take another moment to thank our Supporting Members as they are literally what makes this site possible.

Good luck applying to film school!