So my daughter had a busy day. She has a 3.9 UW, 4.56W, 32 ACT, 9 APs when done + a dual enrollment. Very solid - but I read about a lot more stout folks. Still, she got the out of state waiver…worth at least $85K. Busy day, Charleston came in - $12K but Honors Weekend so not sure what that means. Indiana came in - and Denver last night ($30K - but a lot higher baseline tuition). Good times. Congrats to all.
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My daughter was admitted OOS with the minimum 85,000 over 4 years scholarship! She’s so excited. UofSC is her first choice right now. Really hoping for good news from the Honors College in February!
Ours too. Wondering why no mention of scholarship with similar stats as several posted here.
Congrats to everybody who got in. For those who got deferred, hang in there. You may get in the RD round.
Hopefully the Honors decision will be out in a few days based on previous year.
Good luck !!!
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Could it be that you/your D/S has been identified as a Top Scholar invitee so these scholarships won’t apply?
My daughter is also OOS, test optional and deferred. We were surprised at first since her stats (other than test score) were higher than the average of kids who have historically gotten in from her high school. Then when I started scrolling through the responses on this thread, I was surprised at the stats of the kids who were accepted. They are much higher than what I thought was average for this school. So now we’re totally confused because this school was a target for her and one of her top choices. Getting deferred has put us all off a bit. They may need more time to review the test optional kids, but you can’t discount the emotional toll of a deferral. The acceptances she’s gotten from other schools are looking a whole lot sweeter and we’re planning our trips to go visit those other schools now.
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Hang in there. Mine got in but has friends who were deferred and had high stats. Could it be based on major?
UoSC has the number one Honors College in the country though, and that application was due 11/15 so I would venture to say their EA applicant pool were skewed by higher stat applicants.
Totally hear you on the deferral reaction. My OOS daughter is very “average” in the grand scheme and while we expected deferrals (and she’s already gotten a denial from a school that we thought was a match, as did her counselor), it’s still making us second guess everything. So, what did we do? We rolled up our sleeves and sent in a bunch more RD applications. The stress is more than we bargained for at this point. Wishing you some good news soon!
EA acceptances are usually significantly higher stats than the final accepted stats across all application plans. UGA does a fantastic job in their transparency and sharing of EA accepted mid-50 versus overall accepted mid-50 ranges. I haven’t seen those datapoints published for USC, but I would hypothesize the trend would be similar. I also concur with the reply that the Honors College further drives those stats up for the EA acceptances. I share this only to give you and your daughter hope that a deferral is not a sign she isn’t competitive or to lose interest. Many deferred students will receive their “yes.” It just requires a bit more time and patience - both of which, I understand, are in short supply these days. Best wishes her yes comes soon!
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Thanks everyone. Definitely a different experience this time around as this is my younger daughter and I’ve been down this road once before. I think the whole test optional situation is changing the landscape. And USC may have been on the top of her list because it was one of the few schools we were able to visit before the pandemic. She has 3 acceptances in hand right now and we’re going to focus on those. I think my point was more in how USC may be doing themselves a disservice with a high number of deferrals because while we wait, our kids may fall in love with a different school that showed them the love a lot earlier. As I learned from my first kid, so much of the choice comes down to emotion and what school she felt really wanted her.
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Hi, where do you find the scholarship info? If there is no mention of scholarship in the letter, does that mean no award? OOS. Thanks!
Well said and I agree 100%. I think that the test-optional thing has thrown the admissions folks for a loop, too. We were hoping to get the benefit of the doubt, but maybe it’s the opposite? In any event, it is what it is and we press on. And wait. This is our second go-around, too. My eldest daughter ended up completely NOT where we thought she’d be - all in a good way. Got a surprise admission sort of late in the game and the rest was history. While I know it always works out in the end, like Tom Petty once said, “it’s the waiting that’s the hardest part.” Keep the faith and good luck to all!
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My daughter was deferred from UGA (a bit of a surprise, and one of her top 3) so I can relate. I think there are several new factors in play this year - the message early on was to apply EA and it seems that the message was received! UGA’s EA’s were up 28% and I’m hearing similar stories from the other schools she applied to. The “test optional” caveat has translated into kids applying to more schools than ever in an attempt to get a miracle acceptance to a school that their test scores wouldn’t normally get them into. Also, test optional has resulted in admissions people having to do a lot more work to get through the increase in applications (hence the increase in deferrals).
Hang in there - if your child was deferred. Stay optimistic because you never know, but also encourage them to fall in love with the schools that give them the “yes” on the first round. There’s a lot to be said for schools that are excited to have your child right from the start!
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Great advise!! My daughter also was deferred UGA, accepted to UofSC and some other great schools. Its all stressful and exciting at the same time! They all end up where they belong!
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Lot of familiar stories this morning. D21’s first decision was EA with UGA, we thought it was a strong match, her UGA GPA was above the 75th percentile of accepted EA applicants they posted that morning, had # of AP’s in the middle 50, but was test optional. She got deferred that afternoon, and it was a total gut punch. Acceptances at Tennessee and UofSC have helped, and I have to still think she’s in a great spot to get in RD with UGA, but it definitely bumped them down her list.
It’s a whole new world out there, my D18 applied to 12 schools and none of the decisions (good or bad) surprised me the way the UGA one did, if at all. I doubt it will be the last this cycle.
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The $40k minimum scholarship offer in the letter is a huge disappointment. We need instate to have her attend considering all the great schools my D has been accepted to already it would make zero cents to spend the extra money or take out loans to attend SC. We are going to still hope the final scholarship offer I’ll be the in state tuition offer.
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Mine was originally thrilled with getting the 40k until we broke it down and realized it still left us with about 37k a year with all the other fees. Hoping more comes through as it’s her number one. In fact she would have committed yesterday if it was hire lol
Crazy stuff this year. My OOS daughter has heard from five schools so far: one acceptance, one denial and three deferrals. In two of the deferral situations, we’re treating as good news. The third deferral seems to have turned my daughter off. I have to admit that I was worried about a massive amount of deferrals, and that seems to be how it’s playing out. The denial was a bit of surprise; we thought a deferral would be worst-case during EA. We’ve decided to cast a bit wider net and hope for the best. I know it’ll all work out in the end, but this roller coaster is going to go on for awhile longer, alas. Good luck to your daughter on UGA.
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My DD was deferred and pretty shocked by it. She’s applying OOS test deferred. Did anyone get accepted that didn’t submit test scores? She been accepted to several good schools already and the deferral didn’t go over well with her.