Paul Stainthorp

Students are using creative methods to grab the attention of elite universities' admission offices.

By Andra Lim

How far will Southern California students go, and how creative will they get, to attract the attention of a university admissions office in a viciously competitive market made worse by the fear of unemployment that grips anyone aged 16 to 26?

The old joke is the student who sent a shoe to the office of admissions with a note chirping: "This is my way of getting my foot in the door." These cheesy pickups do not work on admissions officers. But college applicants still morph from dedicated to desperate every year. The Six Top College Admission Tricks:

latinasleadingtomorrow.org

Well, you're right. Latinos officially became the largest minority group at American colleges, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. A 24 percent increase in smarty-pants brown kids last year put them past African Americans in enrollment, according to the Center.

Here are the numbers:

KLM

The bros of Pepperdine.

Maybe it's our Bruin bias, but you can't get much douchier than a college where redneck parents send their kids to be walled off from the West Coast's most-notorious barrio.

USC students have money, yet they think the Mustang GT is the epitome of sports car class (discuss). (Actually it made the list the last time we saw it -- in 2009ish). Anyway, GQ decided to pick on this school instead: