<p>Why can I only view the Welcome Letter when I click on my financial aid? Can other people view their's? :/</p>
<p>Financial aid awards are sent by mail in the 1st-2nd week of April. That’s why they’re not available online.</p>
<p>Oooh Ok thanks :)</p>
<p>Really?
I just checked mine like 20 minutes ago and it was up online. Yesterday it wasn’t though.
On the welcome letter, on the very right hand side, on the bottom half, there should be a button that says “continue” which then leads you to your financial aid information. It was kind of hidden at first, I had to search around for it haha. Not sure if this works for everyone, but it worked for me.</p>
<p>Strange. I just logged into USConnect and tried clicking on “Financial Aid Awards” but was prompted with an error message.</p>
<p>
That’s the message I got yesterday, haha. It told me that my financial aid wasn’t processed yet or something. That’s the one right?
But when I checked today, it was up.</p>
<p>^ Oh, awesome! I didn’t know they were posted online before being mailed to us. Thanks for the heads up! It might not work for me, but I’ll go try it anyway. Hope it’s enough for you!</p>
<p>@Handlebars Yeah that’s the message I got…I’m anxiously waiting to see my financial aid letter…</p>
<p>FYI, I got terrible financial aid from USC, even with the presidential scholarship.
USC calculated my EFC to be 30k, while UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UCSD calculated mine to be 17k… My parents told me that my budget would probably be 25k max. Guess no USC for me… good luck though!!</p>
<p>I still think FAFSA calculated my EFC wrong (at least from my POV it looks like it). Via FAFSA methodology, my EFC is about 42K. The UCs pretty much based my EFC on that of the FAFSA calculated one; I received nothing from the UCs. I’m kind of weary on what financial aid I’ll receive.</p>
<p>Just checked right now. I got the error message too =[</p>
<p>“FYI, I got terrible financial aid from USC, even with the presidential scholarship.
USC calculated my EFC to be 30k, while UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UCSD calculated mine to be 17k… My parents told me that my budget would probably be 25k max. Guess no USC for me… good luck though!!”
Contact the FA dept and appeal! Send them the EFC that the UC’s calculated. It’s worth a try, as USC prides itself on it’s generous FA program.</p>
<p>what “welcome” letter? Does it take the place of the error?</p>
<p>The UCs don’t calculate an EFC. They use the FAFSA EFC.</p>
<p>Handlebars, was your FAFSA EFC $17,000?</p>
<p>greymatters, if you think your FAFSA information might have been wrong, you should double-check all your numbers and submit a correction if you find errors.</p>
<p>If you post on the financial aid forum, they can often tell you if your EFC is not appropriate for your finances - but they ask for a LOT of info to come to that conclusion. Good luck!</p>
<p>
Oh, I see. Yeah, my FAFSA EFC was a little under 17,000. I don’t know why there’s such a huge difference with USC’s calculation though…</p>
<p>
Haha, I don’t want to give them too much trouble. I probably won’t end up attending USC anyways…</p>
<p>^USC also uses the CSS/Profile which considers assets the FAFSA does not. If at some point before May 1st you are considering USC, you can call the financial aid office and they will tell you what made your expected contribution higher at USC - and you would have an opportunity to correct errors (if any). </p>
<p>Good luck at your UC!</p>
<p>jazzmom,
The Welcome Letter shows up when you log into the “Financial Aid Online Services” and click on "2010-2011 Awards. Since some students are getting the error message, I guess it means their FA award hasn’t been finalized yet. At the bottom, there’s a “continue” button for those who are able to access the Welcome Letter - this will lead them to a detailed awards list.</p>
<p>@handlebars
I agree with menloparkmom. It’s worth a try appealing!</p>
<p>Wow, this is getting to be an even tougher decision after seeing USC’s FA for me…Middlebury was VERY generous…and now USC is too. I can barely pick out cereal…how am I supposed to choose for something as important as this?!</p>
<p>Good to hear, blissfulting!</p>
<p>The best part is you can’t make a wrong choice - you have great options!</p>
<p>$55K financial aid from USC 
With about $2500 in loans.</p>