<p>I can wait! I am so incredibly anxious about the decisions being released. USC is my dream school, and I would do almost anything to get in. I'm hoping we'll know within the next 3 weeks!</p>
<p>I am in the same boat. I hate this feeling of nervousness because I know I’m right on the edge of acceptance (28 ACT, 4.11 GPA). The waiting is literally killing me!</p>
<p>Good luck to you both!</p>
<p>Any tricks this year to find out from the website? s2 has applied this year…S1 had applied and gotten accepted 2 years ago and the trick back then had worked ;)</p>
<p>For the early admits, I think there was a trick that if the website let you sign up for ExploreUSC events, that meant you were admitted. I’m not certain how it works though.</p>
<p>My daughter was in the same boat last spring. Dying to get into SCA. (She did and loves it!) I seem to remember that before any acceptance came from USC the financial aid people were asking for more documents. Or, at least, they were looking for clarification on submitted financial documents. Not necessarily you haven’t submitted the usual required financial documents, rather they were asking for further documentation (such as monthly spending) This made us hopeful because (as they said) they don’t work on anyone’s financial aid package (i.e. read through and need clarification or further documentation) until they know that that person has been accepted and they’ll therefore need to present a package*. Don’t hold me to this, but I THINK I remember that happening last spring.
RedStar17</p>
<p>*BTW they are really really late in presenting FinAid package. Where most schools almost bundle it with the acceptance, USC delivers their’s almost at the acceptance cutoff date. Made it real dicey with her other acceptances that she was considering. Also, unfortunately, there FinAid package was horrible and took months of arguing to get a minor bump (but that’s for another forum). Hey GOOD LUCK!!!</p>
<p>pixeljig–how is your older S1 doing? Still up in the Bay area working?</p>
<p>good luck to all nervous waiters this year. I think I’m feeling a little vicarious post-traumatic stress this year recalling last year (S2) both for admissions news and, like RedStar17, the final financial picture to see if we could make it happen for S2.</p>
<p>Hi REDSTAR17</p>
<p>Your message re: the request for additional financial aid documents, gives me hope that my daughter has been accepted. In February, we received a request for tax returns, a copy of my divorce decree, an outside letter confirming that I do not receive child support from her father, etc. In addition, we had to fill out several additional USC financial aid forms - all to be faxed directly to the financial aid office. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but based on your message, and the practicalities, I can’t imagine that they would request this kind of additional documentation from 47,000 applicants. </p>
<p>Also, my daughter’s grandfather - a UCLA alum (undergraduate & PH.D) has twice in the past week received invitations from USC to attend events for the “Trojan Family.” We can’t figure out how USC got his name and address - but the fact that my daughter is applying to USC is the only connection to USC that our family has. He is 86 years old and has never received anything from USC previously.</p>
<p>So - we are hoping that taken together, these are signs that she has been accepted. USC is her first choice by far and she will be heartbroken if she doesn’t get in.</p>
<p>I received similar requests (Whole divorce agreement, tax returns and such)…can anyone weigh in on this being a sign of acceptance. Is everyone asked for these documents? I hope it does mean acceptance!</p>
<p>Last year people were getting admitted around this time of the month (I think) and then another wave of acceptances went out at the end of march. I don’t know if the beginning of the march letters were for finalists for others scholarships? I am guessing we can hear any time now! Good luck to everyone!</p>
<p>madbean,</p>
<p>I’m curious as to how the financial picture played out with 2 kids at SC. Did your EFC get halved between each son? Did you have just one tution bill? Did there seem to be any kind of “break” — not an official one, but any kind of noticeable break in having 2 kids enrolled?</p>
<p>Again, at this point, I should be so lucky as to worry about tution. But since your brought it up, I might as well ask.</p>
<p>PalmSprings and KitKat:
I can’t speak as an authority. But I remember frantically trying to get to the FinAid people to explain a missed tax document and that I got a general rule of thumb that they work on accepted financials only and that they were aware of our situation. Now, the could have automatic line items that trigger requests for materials, but again they don’t get personal unless they were told acceptance.
My D had the marks for USC, but the SCA film major’s number of acceptances were too low to hope for in my mature mind because we had no Trojan legacy and knew no one from California to advocater for her. She was very strong in film, but I told her to forget about USC. The financial aid call made me a little somewhat hopeful. In the end she got right in, so see how wrong us parents can be. </p>
<p>PalmSprings… bizzare Trojan Family requests. I dont know your child’s qualifications, I’d guess a yes in that why reach out to a non-associated non-Trojan unless you were now family. I’m just a dad from the East guessing with you all.
Best to everyone. I really think that no matter wherever they land there’s a great chance that they’ll love it. Having said that, my D loves USC.
(Fight On)</p>
<p>Have been harnessing <em>all available self-discipline</em> to avoid the ‘reading the tea leaves’ thing, but here I go, anyway, LOL: </p>
<p>DS applied to SCA in November. In February, we received emails from FA asking for “Additional Information”-- specifically, tax filings for our rental property (Schedule E Federal Tax Return). </p>
<p>We guessed this was an automated follow-up from the Fin Aid Office. Is this ‘personal’ enough to indicate that perhaps they are processing DS’s FA and that he is possibly-admitted-in-a-reading-the-tea-leaves sense? </p>
<p>More likely, it is nothing. </p>
<p>Sigh. This is silly. But it’s also a bit fun. :)</p>
<p>Ha, it’s most likely nothing but I got the same financial aid document-type requests. Also applied to SCA!</p>
<p>I applied to USC in December, and while I consider myself a strong applicant, though by no means a guaranteed admit, I received only generic Financial Aid reminders from USC: send your CSS, FAFSA, 2011 tax returns. Just a postcard and an email. Nothing specific.</p>
<p>Long story short, I would take any specific financial aid requests as a positive sign! :)</p>
<p>Hi Madbean, very excited for S2 and very laid back after the action packed 2010 with S1!</p>
<p>S2 is very very keen on USC, he has applied only to a handful and I really hope he gets accepted!</p>
<p>S1 is doing good, yup still in the valley. He has matured way beyond his years, has launched his own startup and has got funding from investors. It has been a worry some last one year for me but seeing how far he has come makes me proud. </p>
<p>I am hoping he will finish his formal education at some point.</p>
<p>Meanwhile we too got some additional financial documentation request from USC recently, fingers crossed :)</p>
<p>pixeljig–I wonder if the moms of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg kept hoping their sons would return to college. I think maybe NO. lol. Hope your S1 does just as well as they did.</p>
<p>Fingers crossed for your S2 and kids of all other great parents here. </p>
<p>I don’t recall postings here about requests for specific FinAid clarification and documentation in past years, so I wonder if a new tea leaf has just sprouted? </p>
<p>We should know very soon indeed.</p>
<p>LegacyMom asked: “Did your EFC get halved between each son?”</p>
<p>They calculate the EFC and that is what they expect the family to pay TOTAL for their college kids, whether both are at USC or at different schools. And they calculate you to pay half that EFC for your freshman. </p>
<p>“Did you have just one tution bill?”</p>
<p>No. Each student has their own private Oasis account, student number, and billing statements.</p>
<p>“Did there seem to be any kind of “break” — not an official one, but any kind of noticeable break in having 2 kids enrolled?”</p>
<p>LOL. I wish. 
The only breaks are 1) the enormous relief and joy that both kids get the same terrific opportunities, 2) that sometimes you can get kid1 to take kid2 out to dinner, 3) the family only has to travel to 1 parents weekend and 1 student dropoff, and 4) that USC offers some of the best merit awards for continuing students soph-senior years, and if they do well as freshmen they can try for some of those. For instance, the SCA has dozens of these scholarships and the application, as it happens, was due yesterday.</p>
<p>Hi CollegeChica,</p>
<p>Not to be a buzzkill to those reading tealeaves from financial aid requests. Maybe it is a good sign. I don’t know. That said, S1 was accepted to USC 2 years ago and at no time did we get any additional requests for financial information beyond what was initially requested (from USC or any other school for that matter) – the FAFSA, CSS profile and parent tax information. Of course, we didn’t have anything complicated in our financial history – no divorces, rental properties, additional income outside of regular jobs etc. Not saying it isn’t promising to have additional requests. But, I wouldn’t worry too much about a lack of a request if your parents’ financial situation is uncomplicated.</p>
<p>madbean,</p>
<p>Yes, reason #3 is particularly appealing. Living in the midwest, it would certainly be helpful to only have to travel in one direction and to have our sons on the same academic schedule. Sighhh…fingers crossed…</p>