@stargazer1001 i recieved a surprise phone interview this past week (wednesday i believe) the professor that interviewed me asked for a skype interview but i do not have an account, so we settled for a interview over the phone
Did anyone else get a letter & pamphlet about the Honors programs at USC? It was interesting, but never specifically said whether D is invited to be in an Honors program. Was it just informational? Maybe something they send to all of the scholarship candidates?
@jmek15 I got one too. Probably went out to all the “early” admitted students.
GUYS THERES LIKE ONE MONTH LEFT I AM DYING
My exploreUSC session came to an end today. Safe to say that I’m ready to commit!
- Dorm life is fantastic.
- People are unpretentious and very amicable.
- Go to the top of SGM, it had an alarm and I chickened out but they say it's beautiful.
- Birnkrant is deliciously awesome.
- Showering with other males is gulp fun
- New North is filled with the occasional drunk, and it's fun to interact with them.
- if you graduate from USC in Eng., you're almost guaranteed a relevant job at Qualcomm.
- Beautiful campus and the girls are gorgeous.
Wow. Not sure what the shower part refers to - and not asking.
How was the interview? What kind of questions were asked? Did they say when you would hear back with the results?
IMO the interview was easy and fun - I was jovial and passionate in what I said, something that was very well received and reciprocated by the admissions panel.
The panel consists of 1 student who received a scholarship, 1 faculty member in your college, and 1 admissions staff member. My panel’s faulty member actually coordinates with the professor I did and published my research under at Stanford, and when I mentioned my work (which he took interest to very much and was fascinated by) and my professors name, he immediately recognized and we hit off well. My student ambassador was also the same person I had played blackjack and Cards Against Humanity with the very night before at #ViterbiAFTERDARK, so our relationship was solid. The admissions staff I didn’t know at all, but sounds like she felt my passion. All 3 also (very surprisingly) took interest to my education non-profit, and for a good amount of time I was asked questions about that (I’m the technical guy so I talked about it in an engineering perspective). That’s why I personally thought it went easy.
The questions were (at first) run of the mill - stuff about you, passions, why your passion and why your passion at USC. The basic stuff. After that, questions are tailored to your application. For me, it was about my research, my non-profit, and a couple questions about wha criteria I looked for in a school). I was also asked about what other schools I applied for - guys, please don’t lie - they know you’re smart, which is why you got the Trustee scholarship - to lie and say that you didn’t apply to any good schools would be to fall into a trap of dishonesty that they’ve set for you - be honest, but be conservative in your answer.
ALSO, please for the love of god bring a resume. I brought one and my interview panel was thoroughly impressed.
This advice should be taken with a grain of salt because I interviewed with Mr. Ledesma, the head of Viterbi admissions, before scholarship decisions when USC came around to Emeryville. The panel probably had a file of what he asked and my responses to his questions, and may have tried not to repeat what he had already asked and what I had already answered.
To all scholarship and even non-scholarship folks - April will be a busy time. Good luck and Fight On!
What was the overnight experience like @LesPronoms
Flying in tomorrow!
@drblack I stayed in Trojan Hall, which is the oldest dorm on campus (but they recently renovated the lobby, which looks awesome). It’s pretty frickin’ sweet staying over with a scholarship-recipient at USC. They’re intelligent, introduce you to their friends (who are equally awesome), and are in general amazing human beings.
So, you meet your host at 5:30 PM, and then you go put your luggage inside their room, and then walk to eat dinner at one of the residential dining halls (Parkside, Birnkrant, New North, Trojan) where all USC students get their 3 meals. You meet a lot of people - I had a blast meeting some of my older friends who I knew went to USC, and got to meet some fantastically social folks. After that, you’re free to do whatever you want (until you want to sleep of course, which is a good thing because interviews run from 9 to 12 AM the next morning). Since I’m in Viterbi, there was a #VITERBIAfterDark event where some Viterbi Student Ambassadors played games with us in i think Parkside A&H cafe (personally, I played blackjack, texas hold’em, mafia, and cards against humanity). It’s a good thing to get to know these ambassadors, because they’ll be interviewing you the next day as a part of your interview panel (faculty + staff + one scholarship recipient from your school at USC). After this #AfterDark event, which ended at 10:30ish, my host took me and a couple of others up onto the roof of certain campus buildings, like OHE. A couple of us needed a midnight snack, so my host took us Pizza Studio, which is close to the USC campus, and Ground Zero, which is a bar-type facility that offers oreo’d and reesus’d milkshakes. After that, we just ran around the dorms meeting all of my host’s friends, and then finally slept at 1 AM or so. My interview was at 9 AM the next day, but I usually don’t get any sleep at home anyways, so I woke up at 7 AM as usual and got ready. It takes less than 10 minutes to walk from your dorm room to the location of your interview, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that commute.
Since you’ll be sleeping on the ground of your host’s room, make sure to bring a sleeping bag and some pillows!
I just got a letter today inviting me to participate in the university (Viterbi) honors program. Has anyone else gotten this letter, or tell me more about the program?? Thanks guys!
@bsb4389 Speaking as a Trustee candidate, I think all candidates who were Trustee delegated got it (not sure, everyone that I know that’s a Trustee got it so far). That would make sense considering that Trustee’s are the top 1.5% of the applicant pool, and the university honors program sends out letters to the top 10% of the incoming class. But I guess congrats to the both of us! 
I received this email this morning, Does it mean anything or just standard?
February 26, 2015
Thank you for your strong interest in the University of Southern California and for submitting your admission application to our freshman class. We have completed a preliminary review of your application file and are writing to request further information.
Specifically, we would like to see the results of the first term of your senior year course work before we take final action on your application.
My counselor has already submitted the mid year report, but I guess they haven’t processed it yet.
@ninadasiy when did you apply? Was it before December 1st or was it at the regular deadline?
@itsdomoo I applied on December 1st
@ninadasiy There is also a place in the portal to self-report first semester grades as well, they may want you to fill that out too.
Send in your first semester grades-- your application may be on the edge.
@ninadasiy well I’ve received that email from other colleges, not USC, but usually it means is that they have come to somewhat of a decision, and they need one more factor to either go along with that decision or to go with another one…
I’m a Film Production applicant and I received the midyear report request. What do you guys make of that? Does everybody receive the request?
Are A’s/B’s in 3 AP classes good?
@platinumxx2 when did you apply?
@Itsdomoo December 1st