On March 26th, the USC Office of Admission mailed out admission decisions for Fall 2014. High school seniors were at home brimming with anticipation and excitement, not unlike that of a young child on Christmas morning, as they anxiously awaited the news of whether they had been accepted to the Trojan family. Little did they know that, this year, the competition was fiercer than ever before. Not only did USC receive a record number of applicants -- more than 51,700 to be exact -- but those who applied were among the finest students in the world. The time spent evaluating the candidates totaled more than 20,000 staff hours, which equals ten years of full-time work for one person, according to Dean of Admission Tim Burnold. Furthermore, the admissions team was finalizing their decisions up until eight hours before the envelopes were officially mailed.

The USC Undergraduate Admission Blog released these facts about this fall's admitted freshman class:
• 51,700 first-year applicants
• 17.8% admission rate
• 3,150 different high schools represented from all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and 80 other countries
• 44% from California
• Outside California, the most represented states are Texas, New York, Illinois, Washington, Florida and New Jersey
• 17% are international students. The most represented places of origin are China, South Korea, India, Canada and Taiwan
• 1-in-8 is the first in their family to attend college
• 65% are African American, Latino, Native American, Asian, Pacific Islander or multi-ethnic
• The average un-weighted GPA, on a 4-point scale, is 3.82.
• 28% of admits have perfect un-weighted GPAs of 4.0
• 47% enrolled in 8 or more AP courses
• 75% had standardized test scores in the 95th percentile or higher. More than 3,300 had standardized test scores in the 99th percentile.

Those who were accepted took to Twitter to share their joy.

Contact Executie Producer Jackie Giordano here.