<p>Anyone else just see their FA letter on their portal? Ours was definitely good news.</p>
<p>not yet, could you elaborate? was your ‘good news’ need based? because we have a high efc, so really anything would be ‘goog news’!</p>
<p>Yes, it was need-based. I will have a low EFC for just this year and then it will jump next year (self-employed, 2014 will be a great year) and then my EFC will jump even more the following year (if my business trend continues) as my daughter will be graduating college. Even one year of a big grant is appreciated. Heck, anything is appreciated!</p>
<p>GamerGal, did they apply your entire annual EFC to the Spring semester (as others have posted here in the past) or did they apply 50% of it? (I think your child is a spring admit). Did you get any aid for the Paris study abroad program?</p>
<p>Since the whole Paris study abroad is still TBD they have not incorporated any FA for the Fall. I am not certain how that will shake out (despite what they said on the phone which I won’t believe until I see it in writing.) Nowhere does it say on the letter what my EFC is (per USC). I know that another poster states that the grant indicated for the Spring may be what it would have been for the entire year. But it doesn’t say that on the letter.</p>
<p>I can say this, the grant they gave us for one semester is bigger than any grants received from other colleges for the entire year.</p>
<p>Sorry I could not be more helpful.</p>
<p>Congrats Gamer Gal! It sounds like everything is working out well for you and your son. If/when you get any clarification on the study abroad FA please let us know.</p>
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<p>Yes that was me, although others whose kids were bumped up to fall will tell you the same thing. Unless USC has changed the way it does FA since 2012, that is for the entire year. I’m glad you got good news.</p>
<p>Our aid just posted - nothing but $5500 loans. I am wondering if merit scholarships are just awarded to the original people who were admitted in January and we had no chance anyway. It appears on here that anyone posting that they have additional merit awarded are all ones who already had a big scholarship.</p>
<p>Guys if you want to find the EFC they assigned to you based on FAFSA and CSS Profile, do the following:</p>
<p>Go to financial aid status check,
There is a really tiny link at the bottom left “Shopping Sheet”, click on that.</p>
<p>At the bottom of the page that opens there is a “Family Contribution”, that is the EFC they assigned to you.</p>
<p>Thanks, but mine shows up as the exact cost of attendance, so I guess it must be calculated as higher. :(</p>
<p>I barely uploaded my W2 this Tuesday. The wait is making me anxious, hopefully the package shows up tomorrow. /:</p>
<p>Yes if you “Family Contribution” = COA, means your EFC > COA.</p>
<p>Ours has shown “still under review” for longer than a week. :-(</p>
<p>mine was under review at least 2 weeks, well before admissions came out. It would be nice if they showed my actual calculated efc for planning purposes for next year when I will have another child going to college. The FAFSA efc was 40k. It just shows the whole COA as USC EFC.</p>
<p>So, jbourne, it looks like USC’s EFC is around 25k higher than the FAFSA EFC? In that case, we are doomed!</p>
<p>USC is the only school out of all son’s acceptances that hasn’t processed the financial aid yet. All the other ones came at the time of admission or within 24 hours of it. What was interesting for us is that some of the private schools gave us an EFC that was LOWER than our FAFSA.</p>
<p>^ That is very unusual. The FAFSA EFC often underestimates your USC calculated EFC-- it doesn’t take into account many assets that the CSSProfile or Need Access forms do. Relying on that is misguided for many people. </p>
<p>Our USC EFC was only $5,000 higher than the FAFSA EFC.</p>
<p>We have been told that 4/4/14 is the USC target date to release FA awards. They are the only school we haven’t received FA news from yet. My son even has FA award from a waitlist school! The USC scholarship page says the notification for all scholarships is 4/1/14, so merit aid doesn’t look promising for those still waiting. </p>
<p>My FAFSA EFC was around 40k but the USC calculated one is equal to the cost of attendance! Am I safe to assume that a mistake has been made and I should contact the FA office? I’m so worried :/</p>
<p>@corclan Should scholarships show up without the financial aid package?</p>