<p>Quick question-
I got an email requesting additional information from USC a week ago and I sent the two items in yesterday. I received fax confirmations that both were received but only one of them shows up under the received section of the document status. The other is still in the required section, not even pending. Should I resend it again tomorrow or should I just wait a while and see what happens?</p>
<p>Thanks for the info! But please help me clarify… My parents had a total income of 10k in 2009, and the FAFSA EFC = 0. However, on my USC financial aid package, even after the financial aid, my estimated family contribution came out to $4500. This is really upsetting, because there is no way I can pay this. Do you think USC has made a mistake? People were telling me about assets, but the only asset we have is the inventory from my parents’ closed business worth about $20,000. Is that what gave me the extra $4500?</p>
<p>Also, so then if I had outside scholarships, it will only reduce my loans and not the $4500???</p>
<p>@kwwboarder- email the financial aid office. It happened to me too. I submitted a document as a substitute for another and they wouldn’t accept it. They finally rid the document from the required section after I explained that I had no other document.</p>
<p>Thanks… getting info about grad school is nearly impossible!..</p>
<p>Have to borrow 16K. Eh, the things I do for SCA.</p>
<p>Good Morning!</p>
<p>nulifer - blissfulting has answered your questions, but I want to correct the bit about USC running out of money - USC has not run out of money. The things that they might “run out of” are some of the Federal aid prograns like SEOG, Perkins loans or work/study which are limired by Federal regulations to a specific amount for each school. Pell grants and Staffords do not have school limits, and USC has plenty of money for USC grants.</p>
<p>Randy - as blissfulting suggested, call or email the financial aid office. Something on your application made them think there should be a schedule “C.” Tell them your mom wasn’t (as far as you know) required to file one and can they check why they think she did.</p>
<p>holty - CONGRATS! The associates scholarship plus a university scholarship!!!</p>
<p>Starlight - call the financial aid office to discuss this. Most likely your parents taxes show that they own a business. It might not be clear from the paperwork that the business is no longer operating, or other issues. After you (or your parent) find out what the issue is, you can write up a clear explanation and ask them to reconsider your aid.</p>
<p>mdaxton - sorry I couldn’t help more!</p>
<p>franz - lucky SCA!!! I am glad the package works for you and your family.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone jumping in to help answer 
!!!</p>
<p>If I missed any (sorry!), post again and I’ll do my best to answer!</p>
<p>Haha that is the only school my parents would even consider taking out loans for. When my mom heard the word grant she was very happy. Nice to be a Trojan with work-study! Just gotta ask clarify the housing contract and then I can breath a sigh of relief.</p>
<p>Thanks alamemom :D</p>
<p>A note on the questions about late FAFSAs:</p>
<ul>
<li>If you are a California resident</li>
<li>And you would have qualified for a Cal Grant</li>
<li>But you didn’t get your FAFSA in by March 2nd and so were not awarded the Cal Grant</li>
<li>USC will not make up the $9,708 you would have received from the state of California if you had your FAFSA in on time.</li>
</ul>
<p>@ blissfulting
thank you for your comments. I filed FAFSA in february but filed PROFILE march 15th and uploaded tax return forms on the same day with PROFILE.
Im not really sure whether if i filled everything out correctly. I mean we dont have any assets and we live in turkey. so i filled everthing by converting to dollars.
@alamemom and blissfulting: do you think it helps if i call the financial aid office and tell them this situation that although my EFC is 270, we can pay 20k??</p>
<p>Question:</p>
<p>I received their university grant. I will need it again next year. Is USC good for keeping their grant amounts the same as long as my EFC is the same or lower? My friend warned me that after the first year, some schools become greedy with aid :(</p>
<p>nilufer - I think you should wait until you get your award. There would be no advantage to calling them to tell them you want to pay more.</p>
<p>sayyeah - have you read page one of this thread? The loan amounts you will be offered each year are carefully explained. The Stafford loan limits rise $1,000 sophomore year, and again Jr. year, and then remain the same senior year. USC will calculate aid next year using the FAFSA and the CSS/Profile and their own formula to find your USC-determined need, just as they did this year. If every piece of information on every form were to remain exactly the same (and this is highly improbable), your grant would be $1,000 less because your Stafford loan would be $1,000 more. If your family has a higher or lower income next year your aid will be a different amount. If there are two undergraduates in your family right now and one graduates, your grant would be reduced significantly. All of this information, and much more, is painstakingly explained in the first two pages of this thread.</p>
<p>April 10th and still waiting on financial aid.
Probably means the earliest I’ll get it is Tuesday, 13th.</p>
<p>I wanted to attend an off-campus reception on Tuesday, but I don’t know. It’s not worth driving hours away if I don’t even know if I’m going to the school yet, hmm. It’s getting closer and closer to May 1st…</p>
<p>this just, sucks. I kinda wanna know my college fate, and so do my parents.</p>
<p>LMU,
Try this…instead of calling the general financial aid office, try calling your area admissions counselor or the school where you have been admitted such as Annenberg, Viterbi or Thornton. </p>
<p>If you do not have the number of your school they are listed in the Applying to USC 2010-2011 brochure. </p>
<p>You have been patient, in my opinion. I hope you will be able to attend the reception.</p>
<p>I just got a 3,000 Engineering Merit Scholarship. It says, “If you are receiving other scholarships or need-based financial assistance, this scholarship will be coordinated into your financial aid package and used to enhance the quality of that package according to the ‘2010-2011 USC COMPETITIVE SCHOLARSHIP GUIDE’ you received with your Presidential Scholarship notification.”</p>
<p>I don’t have that scholarship guide anymore… can anyone tell me how the new scholarship will affect my financial aid? (I got some loans and a little bit of grant as part of my financial aid package). Thanks!</p>
<p>Congrats on the new scholarship! You can ask at the admitted student’s reception or call & get confirmation from your admission’s counselor of the engineering school. I believe it reduces your loans first, but best to check so as not to have nasty surprise.</p>
<p>LMU10, We’re in the same boat. We had planned on driving down tomorrow and attending an Information Session at the Health Sciences campus on Monday and then checking out the main campus (It’s Explore Day). But, that would mean a 7-8 hour drive one way, gas, two motel nights, meals and two days of missed school for our daughter. It would surely be worth it if we knew the FA offer was going to be feasible. I have my doubts after listening to alamemom and reading other posts here. 
So, I’m going to have to write the Director of Admissions and tell her to give our space to someone else unless that FA award magically appears in the next few hours. I’ll need to cancel our hotel reservations so we won’t get charged.</p>
<p>Geez, they sure like to keep us dangling, don’t they? All of our other schools have reported back with their financial aid packets. Hey, if I positively KNEW that USC was giving us something wonderful, the waiting would be *more *than worth it! But, we’re not holding our breath.</p>
<p>Good luck to you!</p>
<p>**LMU10 wrote:</p>
<p>April 10th and still waiting on financial aid.
Probably means the earliest I’ll get it is Tuesday, 13th.</p>
<p>I wanted to attend an off-campus reception on Tuesday, but I don’t know. It’s not worth driving hours away if I don’t even know if I’m going to the school yet, hmm. It’s getting closer and closer to May 1st…</p>
<p>this just, sucks. I kinda wanna know my college fate, and so do my parents.**</p>
<p>Aw, I’m sorry to hear that 2Leashes. Why are you so doubtful about FA? Home equity or other things reported on the Profile?</p>
<p>That really stinks. Have you tried contacting the FA office and seeing whats up? Did you meet all of the deadlines?</p>
<p>I’m gonna call tomorrow, for sure. I’m gonna try the general FA office again (btw my college was CLAS). Should I explain my situation about attending the reception? I don’t want to be rude, but I kinda wanted my package by now. There was a problem with USC receiving some items from me, but I have submitted every item by the deadline. That’s my only worry, but when I called the guy said my application was in the final stages, and a decision should be given over the weekend. I don’t want to be a pest by calling again, but it seems like everyone has gotten their aid by now that I’ve spoken with…</p>
<p>Thanks, LMU10. After reading what alamemom is saying here about home equity playing a big part on the Profile, I’m concerned that they’ll want us to borrow from that. She said our EFC could essentially double from $15,000. We have a $20-25,000 yearly budget that we can pay out of pocket right now. If USC says we need to come up with $10-20,000 more, that’s just not going to work. So, I’m trying to be realistic and not have any expectations.</p>
<p>We sent in our information early. My husband is fanatic about getting our taxes as soon as we get everything back. He loves Turbo Tax! 
Anyway, we definitely met the deadline. On March 15, however, they emailed my daughter stating something didn’t add up right (some tax stuff). My husband checked it and it certainly did. But, he faxed it again, nevertheless. That would be the only thing that might be holding it up. They said we have everything in, so I would imagine the FA packet should be ready soon.</p>
<p>I had called and spoken to one woman last week and she seemed to think everything was there, although she didn’t seem like she knew a heck of a lot. I told her of our situation and asked if my daughter called Friday would they give her the FA award over the phone if it was ready? Sure—IF it was ready. Well, it isn’t. I left a message Friday with the FA counselor assigned to our school. Didn’t hear back from him.</p>
<p>So, I cancelled the information session and hotel. Truth be known, as much as my daughter initially wanted to attend USC (and still would like to), it’s looking more and more like Cal Poly SLO is where she’s going to hang her hat for the next 4 years. If that’s the case, she can always apply to USC for OT grad school later. </p>
<p>My husband is still thinking positive about the FA award, though. Me–not so much. :-/</p>
<p>Good luck, LMU10. I hope you can find an answer tomorrow.</p>
<p>**LMU10 wrote:</p>
<p>Aw, I’m sorry to hear that 2Leashes. Why are you so doubtful about FA? Home equity or other things reported on the Profile?</p>
<p>That really stinks. Have you tried contacting the FA office and seeing whats up? Did you meet all of the deadlines?</p>
<p>I’m gonna call tomorrow, for sure. I’m gonna try the general FA office again (btw my college was CLAS). Should I explain my situation about attending the reception? I don’t want to be rude, but I kinda wanted my package by now. There was a problem with USC receiving some items from me, but I have submitted every item by the deadline. That’s my only worry, but when I called the guy said my application was in the final stages, and a decision should be given over the weekend. I don’t want to be a pest by calling again, but it seems like everyone has gotten their aid by now that I’ve spoken with… **</p>
<p>LMU,
Here is the phone number for USC College admissions. They may be able to help you through the FA problem. It is 213-740 5930.</p>
<p>WHY on earth is USC being SO SLOW??
i’m getting EXTREMELY furustrated. most of the other colleges sent their fin. aid pacakges
a day or two after sending their admittance letters.</p>
<p>i live abroad during the summer to visit my dad, so i want to make a decision quickly
and purchse airplane tickets accordingly.</p>
<p>EVERY DAY i check the mail and every day my college decisions keep getting delayed b/c of this. </p>
<p>i mean, i love USC but this is getting ridiculous. what are they going to do, drag it 'till the end of april?</p>