I am a community college student in my freshman year and was recently accepted to USC. It is my number one choice school, and I really would love to attend; however, I feel as though I’d like to spend one more year in community college to save money (since I got no financial aid) and work on major personal goals, while spending time with my family.
With that in mind, if I apply again next year do you think that they would see my application as a whole new process or would they consider my declination of admission this year as something that would hurt or help my application?
Maybe you can defer the enrollment for a year and continue taking community college classes. This would still mean that you accept their offer. I know that USC offers spring admission sometimes, and some students choose to take classes at a CC to make up credits in the fall, so maybe you can do that for a whole year. Call the USC admissions office and ask.
If you decline the acceptance however, your application next year will be reviewed as a whole new process. I don’t think declining will hurt your chances if you apply again, especially if you explain your circumstances and why you declined. I know people that were accepted as a freshman admit and chose somewhere else, and accepted again as a transfer, so I don’t think it’ll hurt your chances. However, there is also no guarantee that you will be accepted in the next application cycle just because you were accepted this term.