Hey all - can anyone share their experiences with financial aid as a transfer student at USC? I am coming in as a junior, my family’s Estimated Financial Contribution from FAFSA is ~6kish, GPA is 3.95, stellar ECs (write for HuffPost, consult w/ UN, TEDx, etc…). I was recently admitted as a transfer student and, while I want to celebrate, it’s really hard to do so because they are taking a very long time to send my financial aid package. I will appreciate any insights you can share with me.
It totally depends on the person. USC didn’t skimp on my financial aid, but it varies person-to-person. Good luck.
That’s awesome. I’ll let update the thread when I get my package.
Hey. My EFC is $0 and my cost is $20k before loans. USC is being stingy as hell this year. I read through the CC admission threads and a lot of freshman admits are getting stiffed by aid. I don’t know if USC pre-preemptively readied themselves for this, but I anticipate the yield this year will be embarrassingly low.
I’m going to file an appeal because I actually want to go to USC. In the mean time, if I get regents from UCLA, $20k/yr is hard to swallow compared to $0/yr + $4000 scholarship, especially for someone in my financial position. I wonder if USC knows how hard they’re tanking their reputation by doing this. I really don’t want to say it, but if this goes on for another year or two, USC’s “spoiled children” stigma is gonna come back. It used to be that at least poor people, if not the middle class, could attend. For their own good, I hope this year’s yield shocks them out of their sudden greedy stupor, even if I regretfully am unable to attend.
No offense intended to the good people of USC, I’m just disappointed.
Oh, boy. Even if USC likes me, I don’t think I will get better aid than that. I currently do not have to pay to attend my current college, so I would never pay 20k+ to attend somewhere else, even if USC has the perfect program for me (PPD).
@applenana I’m exasperated as well.
All other estimates came to ~$10k/yr which I guess is reasonable for the premium price tag demanded by a private university, which would total around $20k upon graduation, which I’d hopefully pay off in 2-3 years of living frugally.
At $20k the first year, and the second year being an unknown quantity (knowing that they have a tendency to roll grants into loans the longer you enroll), and accounting for rip-off interest rates of unsubsizied school loans, I’d have to pay back around $60k after school. Or… I could go to UCLA and graduate with a clean slate (or 60k debt and a BMW M3).
This is disappointing because USC was my first choice. Let me know what your package comes out to. I’m drafting my appeal right now. Will needle in on the fact that they probably have quite a bit left over in their coffers for transfers after they scared away all the freshman admittees…
Ahh. I see. I won’t be able to attend USC if it is going to cost me more than $12.5k a year, as I plan to spend 3 years to get both my bachelors and masters. This is not to say I am cheap, but rather that is the maximum price tag I can realistically afford and pay post-graduation.
USC uses Need Access or the CSS which provides more information than FAFSA. So the EFC on FAFSA shouldn’t be used as a ballpark because it’s almost always off for many large private universities.
Meets 100% of need includes their calculation of your loans and your parents taking out loans and other assets you might have available as well as family assets.
I am a transfer student and I got full tuition in grant aid from USC, so it -does- happen! Good luck!
…and I am a transfer student and I got no FA from them, which means I pay $67K out of pocket. So it ALSO DOESN’T HAPPEN.
Has anyone heard back regarding any scholarships?
@applenana Wow, we’re going for the exact same thing at USC. Sol Price and the Progressive degree!