Out of the 37,000 people who applied to University of Southern California last fall, 2,852 received acceptance letters and committed. Approximately 0.75% of those in this group stand out from the rest—they graduate high school in 2013.

Lawrence Liu, a junior at Carlsbad High School, was offered the chance to apply to USC last fall. Recently, he found out he was one of the 20 juniors accepted into the internationally recognized program.

“Well, they offered it and I decided to take it,” Liu said. “I’ll also be granted a scholarship since I received a Letter of Commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Program”.

Ranking within the top of the top 5% of the 2013 graduating class and dedicating himself to many extracurricular activities, Liu’s application easily addressed the specific qualifications for early admission.

“The focuses of the application were leadership, merit and achievement, participation in the community and dedication to extracurricular activities”, Liu said.

Liu’s current academic abilities can be attributed to his bright childhood; he could solve complex multiplication and subtraction problems in preschool, and he took Algebra 1 in third grade. This early knowledge in math and many other subjects have allowed him to take Calculus 3 and several AP classes this year as a junior. He also received a 2300 on the SAT and scored highly on the Math II, Physics, and Chinese SAT II tests.

Although very academically inclined, Liu isn’t a strict scholar and doesn’t consider himself as such. He practices his skills as a magician, writes piano composition, plays percussion and holds a black belt in martial arts.

Liu’s past and current accomplishments foreshadow his inevitable success at USC. As with most students, however, his future is still uncertain.

“I’m planning on majoring in mechanical engineering, but I’m not sure. I’ll probably triple major though,” Liu said.