Is USC harder to get into than Virginia Tech?

Yes. USC is widely considered harder to get into than Virginia Tech overall, and most students would view USC as the more selective school on a college list. It gets a very large national and international applicant pool, its admissions process is highly selective across many majors, and strong applicants are often competing against other students with similarly top-end academics and extracurriculars.

Virginia Tech is also a solid, well-regarded university, but it is typically not viewed in the same overall selectivity tier as USC. For many applicants, Virginia Tech is more accessible admissions-wise, especially outside its most competitive programs.

Major does matter at both schools. At USC, programs such as business, engineering, cinematic arts, and some arts programs can be especially tough, while at Virginia Tech, engineering and certain popular majors can be more competitive than the university overall. Even with that variation, the broad answer is still that USC is the tougher admit in most cases.

For building a college list, it makes sense to treat USC as more of a reach for most students, while Virginia Tech may land closer to reach or target depending on residency, major, grades, rigor, and test scores. Virginia Tech can be notably more competitive for out-of-state applicants than for in-state students, which is one of the biggest factors that can shift the comparison for an individual applicant.