@maggiepie, ya the holistic process is hard to figure. A friend is convinced her S didn’t get the scholarship offer because she sent in their fafsa early which indicated clearly how much money they made. Ya supposed to be need blind but many feel aid shares this with admissions since they sit next to each other at virtually any school. A few schools have been busted about this recently. Anyway, their S had 2350 SAT, 36 ACT, three 800 scores in sciences/math and some amazing ECs including a national science award. But they feel they were doomed cause they make a good living. idk, but the process makes people wonder. All worked out, kid accepted at four ivies and chose to go to Princeton. Ya never know what a school is looking for, internationals are a big population at USC. Good luck, everything happens for a reason!
@ngj123 if the college of your first choice major doesn’t select you and you applied to a different college as your second choice your application will then go to them for consideration.
@scout07 unless the second choice is Viterbi. They don’t evaluate second choices. In that case the person would be evaluated for Dornsife Undecided. That is what happened to my son.
@GamerGal27 So if someone wasn’t accepted through Viterbi they would automatically put them into Dornsife undecided for consideration? They wouldn’t just give a rejection?
@blueskies2day every school seems to be looking for something different every year. It can go either way honestly, I know someone who was accepted EA at Harvard and didn’t get USC merit. I got a USC trustee invite but deferred at Harvard. It’s honestly a crapshoot with so many great kids and so few spots.
@scout07 Yes. That is how Viterbi works. They said they had 10,000 who made Viterbi their first choice last year so they would not evaluate those who had it as their second choice.
I am a little offended by this, to be honest. Yes, I am an international. Yes, I do have a 2150 SAT. However, I spent two years working on my Cinematic Arts Supplement, and I have many other achievements that counteract the less-than-stellar SAT score. Stats are what they are - stats. They don’t tell you anything about the actual person applying, or about their essays and recommendations, so to claim that internationals with lower SAT scores - who otherwise would be full pay - shouldn’t deserve merit aid seems a bit ignorant.
@LayraSparks you go girl!! It is easy to forget that over 17% of students (and disproportionately more applicants) are in their highly regarded arts programs (cinematic arts, dance, music, theater). Just look at an alum list from these schools and it’s a who’s who of hollywood and the performing arts industry. As such, these schools search for the best talent, whereas scores and grades are not always proportionate with talent (sorry tiger moms…). Further, USC places a premium on a diverse campus, and thus admits one of the largest proportions of internationals in the US. As such, international students have different academic backgrounds and generally score lower on SATs for various reasons. However, many countries have a far more advanced secondary educational system than the US, so they come in with lower SATs but with math/science knowledge of a college junior. I think it’s great that USC tries to spread its merit awards evenly across all schools and all types of students. If they didn’t, only Viterbi students would get the big scholarships.
I agree, @layrasparks. People have pointed out a number of times that USC takes a holistic view of each applicant. Having the highest scores is great, and certainly is an advantage, but scores are just one indicator of how an applicant will fit at USC. No one can predict what piques their interest in one student over another. Also, admissions counselors probably have a pretty good radar for picking out who has their eye on an ivy. And LOL, @Cameron121, D is a perfect example that even Viterbi values things other than having the highest scores!
Okay let’s be honest here. Usc doesn’t admit so many internationals students (usually with lower stats) because they put a premium on diversity. Internatinal applicants do not recieve financial aid, so even with the scholarships, they end up paying w lot
Has anyone been accepted to Thornton for music industry?
@couplemoreweeks Yes, what you’re saying is true, but we were talking about the merit scholarships here. And how it’s been pointed out before, merit scholarships are not based on how much money you’d otherwise pay.
@USCdreams01 hi i applied to that major but have heard nothing or even been updated. do you know anything?
@cdcupcake I wouldn’t think you would hear until March, since your major is non-audition (unless you were invited for a merit scholarship).
@USCdreams01 and @cdcupcake
I have created this CC account for the sole purpose of delivering this message to you because I think each of us has the right to know what the hell is going on.
I, too, applied for the music industry major at Thornton and have not received anything in the mail, gotten an email, or had my portal change. To my absolute displeasure, I am telling you that none of us have been accepted as candidates for merit scholarships. Thornton has already sent out notifications to candidates, and so, receiving nothing means you are not one.
This is information I gathered after speaking to no less than 5 USC admissions employees over the phone, and I am disgusted that I have to be the one to deliver this news to you due to a serious lack of organization on the university’s part.
I am truly sorry that neither of you were selected as a candidate, but I hope that you are both able to attend whichever school you please. If you have any questions regarding the specifics of my conversations with the admissions office (which includes employees from both the main admissions office and the Thornton admissions office), feel free to ask.
Sorry this has been what I can imagine is a long agony waiting for news that never came. This is made worse by being on college confidential versus a state of oblivion like others who have no idea early offers came out. But not sure why you didn’t receive info - so you checked your portal at you.usc.edu and no change there? That is maddening. I don’t believe anyone got snail mail this year the notification of no scholarship is online only up to now as far as I know from others that applied this year (my S did not). fwiw, I think the result delivery system is so poorly executed and makes a few kids happy while totally stressing out the masses and leaving them sour as you feel. Not good PR, but it seems they can do what they want with so many wanting to go there. Info should go out and be delivered at the same time but it has been this way forever. Frankly it was worse before the online notification because people would wait sadly by their mailbox for days on end. You may still get good news in March right?
@bringerofbadnews thank you so much for this information. I called 3 times and failed to get this out of them. Not cool… I do wish you the best of luck throughout this process!! xo
@bringerofbadnews @USCdreams01 also where else did you both apply for Music Industry?
@blueskies2day That is correct. No mail, no email (yes, I checked the spam folder), and no portal change. But yes, it’s still possible to be admitted.
@cdcupcake I also applied to NYU’s music business program. How about you?
@bringerofbadnews same here! I wish more schools had similar programs. Good luck