<p>I got this email today (the first paragraph is what I'm concerned about):</p>
<p>"Hello <fiyero49>,</fiyero49></p>
<p>I am writing from the Admission Office for the USC Thornton School of Music. I am very happy to be able to tell you that the faculty were impressed with your work at the audition and have recommended you for admission to the program. You havent been admitted yet and we are still working with the university admission office to review the rest of your application, but we would be lucky to have you join our program this fall.</p>
<p>I noticed that you did not indicate a teacher preference when you applied. Teacher preference is not required so you may not yet have a preference as far as who you would work with if you enroll at the school. Additionally the faculty dont consider students for a specific studio until after admission. On the other hand if you do have a teacher preference at this point I wanted to make sure the faculty were aware of it when theyre ready to make that consideration. Are you interested in indicating a teacher preference yet?"</p>
<p>Is this like "we're accepting you, but we need to make sure you check out with the mother-system first"? If so, I'M EXCITED.</p>
<p>Also, how does this look for normal Dornsife admission?
UW GPA: 3.81
W GPA: 4.12
SAT: 720CR, 800M, 740W</p>
<p>1st Semester Grades:
B+ AP Calc BC
A- AP Envir. Science
A- AP US Government
B- AP Eng. Lit
A Concert Choir
A Chamber Singers
A- Spanish 3
--These are basically the worst grades I've earned in my HS career, but there is context of a lot of issues at home. Do you think I should send a short note explaining the context, while not trying to use it as an excuse? Or would that be sabotage?</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post, I just need to ask in order to be under as little stress as possible haha.</p>
<p>this is kind of like a “likely letter” that some colleges send out[ though its the frst I’ve heard of from USC] .
I’'d be very confident that you are IN at USC.</p>
<p>seems there are so many variations on “letters” …USC might be well advised to asess the letters they send out. Between the T/P Scholarship, Town and Gown, we need moreinfo/mid year grades, and the variety goes on, perhaps, they should re-read them for clarity next year.</p>
<p>The audition faculty recommend for admission based on the audition only. Then they have to see if the university will accept you as a “student”. Your grades and test scores are well within the ranges for USC so I suspect that the music folks want you and feel confident you will be admitted and want you to be thinking and getting excited about becoming a Trojan. Having said that, nothing is final until you hear officially and that won’t be for another 6-8 weeks. I would take this letter as a very encouraging sign.</p>
<p>viclet47, Thornton has been making this sort of contact to applicants for at least the past three years (my son received a very similar phone call to the OP’s email). The USC film school has also been known to contact selected waiting applicants for telephone interviews and such. </p>
<p>While it’s true that there may be a need for USC’s general admissions contact to be standardized, audition/portfolio-based programs at most universities often make unique and separate contact. (S also received personalized application-related emails from the music department at NYU.) I don’t think that will ever change.</p>
<p>Jazz/Shreddermom, I think I was unclear. I was speaking about the general admissions office…this prompted me to think of that as they have sent out all kinds of different letters…sorry I was not clear…</p>