HERE THEY COME! For those just joining the party -----
Acceptance packages will start arriving in Socal between 10:30am-11:30am. Obviously depends on your mail time. Much of Socal receives today but some in San Diego don’t get theirs until second day so don’t freak out there. Norcal will be Saturday. I always think Norcal could be day 1, but they never seem to be. I think they would have to be on truck leaving Socal early in the morning for that to happen. The surprise is how fast these things move and how they reach a great part of the country on the second day after mailing including major metros, the east coast and FLA - all on the second day. So the majority around the country will receive them Saturday, but that said, there are plenty of folks that don’t get them after that which will be after the portal update that night after 12:01am PST so Saturday late night/early Sunday morning. For the last couple years portals start updating right after midnight, even thought they say by noon that day. The portal process has been painful, with it staggering throughout the morning, but most acceptances come within the first 2-3 hours. Late night, at least its a weekend!
THE PACKAGE
The packages have been sent in white boxes that fit in most mailboxes check out USC Instagram. They are impressive and beautiful packages that are gorgeous on the inside.
The package includes an acceptance letter, a certificate of acceptance, and tells you which major/school you were admitted. It also includes some general school/housing/marketing pamphlets.
YELLOW Package - In recent years they have used a light yellow box to indicate a spring acceptance. Not sure if they are sending yellow box or just putting the info on a letter on the inside this year…we’ll see.
HOW?
It is sent United States Postal Service - the good ol’ mailman. It is not UPS (the brown trucks). Since they come USPS, meaning postal service, and in your mailbox, setting up a My UPS account won’t get you anything here. International packets are sent DHL, some of those arrive quickly (areas of China reports early) some take weeks (reports of some places in India). Internationals should rely on portal update.
USC does not enable tracking on these packages, so you cannot track it. The SENDER (USC) has to enable tracking. But ahhh some of you think - “we have have Informed Delivery Daily Digest” - the postal service that tells tells you what is coming in your mail that day. HOWEVER - these packages are not scanned into that system, because USC doesn’t want them to be. This was again tested during the scholarship period in January, no one saw it in the Informed Delivery Daily Digest. There will be many conspiracy theories on findings ways to beat the system and find out early. It never works or hasn’t so far.
PORTALS
Will update for everyone after midnight PST on Saturday night/Sunday morning.