<p>I’m not sure the status page means anything…my daughter received her acceptance package last week, first wave, and the status still says her application is being reviewed.</p>
<p>Yes, idano, that’s what a lot of us have been suggesting all along. 
Every year very clever students try to figure out what it all means–and no one has because there are always strange inconsistencies. </p>
<p>And re: NMF good or bad? I’m sure USC has every reason to want to attract NMFs since the number of NMFs adds to their academic ranking, and makes up a highly prized community of excellent students. In order to make such vast strides in ranking and reputation over the past 20 years, USC has brought in stellar professors and students. Trustee/Presidential, and NMF Presidential is how they attract those high caliber students. </p>
<p>I (kindly) think there is a little too much panic and overthinking at this stage. Very understandable–who wouldn’t be a little freaked out? But I urge you all to stay calm. The reason USC does not offer admission to every single top student who applies (whether NMF, top SATs, top ranking, whatever) is because they look for more than just stats. If a student’s essays or teacher recs hint that the student feels they are better than others, deserve more than others, or have a chip on their shoulder, it isn’t attractive to adcoms, no matter how high the scores. While any top university can tolerate a handful of hardly-social geniuses, they can’t stock the entire class with them.</p>
<p>Hope everyone can chill a bit. Things have a good habit of working out for the best.</p>
<p>Well said, madbean. Unfortunately, the “status” and “letter” theorists ignore anything sensible. Sigh. It is getting harder to be kind (and you are doing a much better job of it than I am).</p>
<p>alamemom, I’m not taking any of the status and letter stuff terribly seriously. It’s a good distracting investigation to keep me occupied whilst I wait. (:</p>
<p>^exact same mentality. I truly appreciate your patience and kindness though, alamemom and madbean and many other posters =)</p>
<p>^ya same idea.</p>
<p>^yea same here!</p>
<p>(jumps on bandwagon)</p>
<p>Indeed… When you are trapped within the confines of an insane system, is a little insanity so unexpected!? We are all just afraid that the last 4 years of our life will melt away - understandably we get the jitters. Forgive us for being a little annoying.</p>
<p>To clarify my NMF comments earlier - I was just wondering if the pool for NMFs will be more competitive. As you said, they automatically give scholarships to NMFs… But obviously they don’t have an unlimited number of scholarships to give. There is a bit of a contradiction there. If you follow that line of logic, then there must be a maximum quantity of NMF’s they are allowed to accept, given the financial obligations they represent. Or is it really an obligation? Can a NMF be denied the presidential scholarship? Is USC so desperate for NMFs that they really CAN give out a presidential to every qualified NMF candidate who picks USC as their first choice? I get conflicting information everywhere I go. It is enough to prompt some theorizing when I’m already in a panic state. :P</p>
<p>
]NMF automatically get the scholarship. If their statistics do not warrant admission, they may be denied admission, but it will be their RECORD that triggered denial. The NMF would be the thing that might keep them in the running.
Funny! USC enrolled 232 NMF last year - they have no trouble attracting them because they offer an automatic 1/2 tuition scholarship. And they do not admit just “any” NMF who names USC as first choice - you have to be admitted first.</p>
<p>^ Oops, accidentally redundant - I meant to say they do not give the *1/2 tuition scholarship *to just “any” NMF who names USC as their first choice, you have to be admitted first.</p>
<p>My child is a NMSF and will find out in a few days if she becomes a finalist. So far, no letter, status changed from ‘view’ to ‘completed’. </p>
<p>SAT 2260, ACT 32, GPA 3.9, 4.5, lots of EC with leadership, I really suspect it’s the NMSF status that’s hurting the application now. How’d know a national recognition will become a bad thing…</p>
<p>“disappointed to hear that NMF might hurt admissions chance”
WHAT??? OH please!!! you are jumping to a conclusion based on conjecture by another nervous applicant! EVERYONE who is a NMF AND is a GREAT student as well has a MUCH better chance of being ACCEPTED at USC than other not so great students! Take a look at last years accepted student profile!! If USC did not want to attract NMF’s, who most of the time ARE great students[ which is why they want them in the FIRST PLACE], they would NOT be handing out 1/2 tuition scholarships. MOST accepted students get their acceptance letters from colleges, including USC, in March. I don’t see a lot of hyperventilating about “changes in status” on other college forums, so I strongly suggest that everyone who still hasn’t heard from USC just chill out, NMF’s included.</p>
<p>First, none of us could ever question any waiting applicant or parent of applicant that comes here to cc to vent, share, compare, and try to figure out the fate of their application. That’s one of the strengths of online communities, to share in frustrations and in victories! And USC adds some quirks and odd perks to the process, without EA or ED, but with E Scholarship invitations that can seem to defy reason. All the more fodder to mull over. It can be hard to bear all the waiting and endless status updates, but hang in there folks. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Personally, when I read all the status questions and speculations, I don’t try to get too involved in talking people down. I do get the fundamental puzzle since it must mean <em>something</em> or why are the statuses changing? Still, we oldtimers can reassure you that over the past several years there are people who get accepted whose status never changes, changes weirdly, and everything in between.</p>
<p>collegeproject (love your screenname), I would caution you not to get disappointed by any speculation you read here on cc. No one has yet provided evidence to all these theories, and we have never heard that NMF is a detriment to acceptance. It’s the opposite, in fact. USC wants to admit NMFs in large quantities, so that status is only to the good. Since the adcom process starts with regional admissions reps who select from their pool, it’s unlikely they are keeping track of who is NMF at the first read of the file. However, just being named NMF will not in itself be enough to guarantee admission to USC. While most NMFs have excellent stats, USC will look at essays, geography, gender, URM, ECs, leadership, and more to balance a class and each individual school (architecture, theatre, engineering, business, SCA, etc) makes final decisions on their own admittees. </p>
<p>So, national recognition is never a bad thing. It’s great. Will it get you admitted into the top programs in the country (Yale, Stanford, Princeton, USC-with Presidential, Trustee, Deans, or NMF-Presidential),I’m sure you all know by now–there is never a guarantee for these top prizes.</p>
<p>Again, madbean said it so well. I am always glad to see a new parent on the board - welcome collegeproject!</p>
<p>I am also, however, feeling frustrated with the unfounded pronouncements being posted about statuses, letters, and now NMF. collegeproject, I just can’t help being frustrated with posters who come on here and post, in big bold letters as though it is fact, something like being a NMSF will hurt admission chances. I want you to imagine your child coming on this forum and seeing your post. How would your teen, a NMSF, absorb what you have posted?</p>
<p>USC actively recruits NMF by offering them an automatic 1/2 tuition scholarship if accepted. How in the world do you come up with it hurting their chances? If you are following berk104’s flawed logic that USC can’t accept NMF because of this “obligation” to offer a scholarship - what??? USC is a private university that can do whatever they want with their money. They are not obligated to offer scholarships to anyone. They CHOOSE to offer scholarships to NMF because they WANT NMF. The more NMFs who enroll, the higher that ranking goes. Being NMF only helps with admissions to USC.</p>
<p>Everybody, take a DEEP breath! As the parent of a USC applicant who has very competitive stats and ECs, yet has not been offered a scholarship–or even acceptance yet–I can relate to the INITIAL disappointment that these students and their families must have felt. It’s entirely normal to feel that way for the first couple of days. But then it’s time to move on. Second-guessing USC, venting, and formulating all kinds of conspiracy theories is not going to change the outcome. In fact, all of the above are utterly counter-productive in that they are likely to make you feel even worse. Chalk it up to a super competitive landscape and move on. Things WILL work out in the end. These applicants will, for sure, get multiple acceptance and scholarship offers–just maybe not at USC.</p>
<p>As for the seasoned USC parents who post regularly, I’m sure that I speak for everyone when I say that we greatly appreciate your input. But, please, don’t let your annoyance get the better of you. Implying that some NMF students are great students while others are not, and that somehow the “great” ones get accepted, is also counter-productive. The truth is, each applicant has unique strengths and weaknesses and selective schools have the luxury to let their own considerations shape the incoming class each year. That doesn’t automatically make the accepted applicants “great” and the rejected ones less so.</p>
<p>And just before I get off my soap box here, I want to make one more comment in case USC admissions people are, indeed, perusing the posts. While you must be providing these status updates with the best intentions in mind, you may want to revisit the granularity of this information. I don’t believe we need to know about every single step, such as when files get “forwarded” from here to there. Frequent updates have a tendency to be superfluous and, as such, do nothing but cause anxiety and encourage speculation. Somebody before me pointed out that no other CC forum experiences the level of emotion that we see on this one. It’s true. But then no other school that I’ve been following has attempted to update the status quite so often and with, at times, inconsistent messages. Just my 2 cents…</p>
<p>So again, good luck everyone and try to take a break from USConnect. Especially, you, students. How come you’re not in school? :-)</p>
<p>Tomismom, thank you for your perspective, but I do not agree that in the posts responding to those who claim being a NMF will “hurt” admissions chances in any way imply that some NMFs are “not so great.” The responses have been that
USC wants NMFs.
USC recruits NMFs.
USC rewards NMFs with large scholarships.
The only posters who have suggested that USC doesn’t want NMF are berk104 and collegeproject.</p>
<p>Being a NMF is an advatage in admissions at USC.</p>
<p>Thanks, alamemom. I entirely agree with your assessment of USC’s policy vis-a-vis NMF recruitment and I don’t subscribe to the view that being an NMF will ever hurt your chances. I was rather objecting to comments (by others, not you) along the lines of “if you are NMF AND a great student”–I just don’t think that frustrated parents whose feelings are hurt are going to respond well to something like that. Again, my best advice for these parents is take a step back and put things in perspective. I know it’s worked wonders for me :-)</p>
<p>Yes, I really do appreciate your perspective, Tomismom. And you are doing a great job of maintaining your calm!</p>
<p>I read the comment you mention as referring specifically to collegeproject’s child - clearly a great student, well qualified, who is very likely to be admitted - and admitted with a big scholarship! I don’t think is was in any way referring to the qualities of any other applicant - NMF or not. (But then, I have seen so many wonderful, supportive posts from that poster it is easy for me to see what they were trying to say).</p>
<p>The admission director of Stanford said that 80% of the students who apply there have the stats, ECs, everything that indicate they would thrive and excel at Stanford. Alas, they only have spaces for about 9% of those who apply in each freshman class. </p>
<p>I hope I have never inadvertently suggested that the accomplished and motivated students who are/are not receiving admissions or scholarship consideration are in any way better or worse than any other. I’ve posted all over the boards the complete opposite, in fact. No adcom, no matter how experienced and intuitive, can really know the inner heart of each applicant or their potential for happiness and success at any college. They don’t sort through the pack and find the “best” students (as if there were such things anyhow), but the ones that seem to fit what they need to balance an incoming class. </p>
<p>I admire the kind parents who post on the USC boards because they truly want to help dispel mistaken beliefs that can cause pain. Their experience was so valuable to me when my S was applying two years ago that I try to add a bit of my own observations if it can be of help now. I also admire the brave 17 year olds who are placing their future hopes on the universities that seem like the perfect match for them at this time and are in that tender place where they don’t yet know <em>where</em> they will land. And, I really admire a mom like Tomismom who seems be see the big picture so clearly even with her own fabulous kid in the game.</p>
<p>I often post about Spielberg not being admitted to USC film school–twice. I do it to remind kids that 1) no one in admissions is infallible. Why didn’t they see what his potential was? Because they are just human and they were wrong. And 2) it is quite possible to be uber-successful in life even if you are not admitted to the university/program you think is perfect for you at the time. In fact, it may be because of the path you take instead that you make all the right choices, contacts and learn the right lessons.</p>
<p>Yeah I know that IN GENERAL, NMF’s are at the “top of the top” in applicant pools, with great test scores, grades, and great EVERYTHING’s all around…thats no fact, and it makes sense that USC would appreciate having those kids apply/admitted.</p>
<p>But what about for the occasional applicant who might consider himself BORDERLINE (about 5-10% I’d assume), the student whose NMF-status might not be consistent with his/her grades and/or EC’s? In essence, the kid who’s a borderline admit–good enuf to barely be admitted, but a question mark in terms of whether he/she deserves money. Wouldn’t USC stop and think for a sec, wait, do we really want to give a BIG AUTOMATIC scholarship to this kid we nearly rejected?</p>