So I’m a rising senior and I recently attended a USC webinar - afterwards the assistant director sent a thank-you email to everyone who attended and said “feel free to reach me personally on this email.” I responded with another thank you, wishing her well, then just asked a few questions about what kinds of stuff that USC alumni in my desired major go on to do, as well as if there is any way for me to reach out to current students who are on the premed track so I can bring my questions to them. not too impolite i’m hoping??
i also emailed my regional admissions officer with scholarship questions.
but it’s been 8 days and none of them have responded??? do usc admissions officers usually take longer than a week to respond? is early May a busy time of year for the admissions office due to committing and making waitlist pulls? was there like a red flag in my email that discouraged them from responding sooner?? usc is my top choice and i’m a little worried
ok i’m not really familiar with categories but i think this is finally the right place to post this question
Admission folks are a little busy trying to get freshman enrolled this week and dealing with that, I would wait a month or so and send another email, again their focus is not you right now it is the kids they are trying to get on campus for the fall , or at least get their money on campus this fall.
May is probably one of the busiest times of the year for admissions officers. Don’t worry too much. If they still haven’t responded in a month, send another email when things have calmed down. They’re likely only responding to high priority emails concerning deposits and enrollment for the class of 2024.
thanks I probably overreacted! esp given the pandemic they’re probably still sorting things out. I also heard from a friend who got in that usc admissions tends not to reply to emails and their listed numbers aren’t even registered? must be very busy i guess
Ever? I can understand a slow response now but to ignore emails as a matter of course seems wrong. When I did the college search process with my daughter, she almost always found admissions very helpful and responsive to queries, across the spectrum from ivies to her safeties.
@butterfly1997 It was nice of you to send a thank you. Of course they answer inquiries that need answering, but they also get a lot that frankly, don’t. It sounds like you emailed them pretty much on May 1st? The day about half of the committments for fall’s class come in? That’s like trying to get sales help on the phone at Macy’s the day after Thanksgiving. They are giving priority to current students, new admits and revamping the entire system for next fall. Re-doing housing, cancelling study abroad, processing transfers, handling appeals, I think they have plenty to do just making sure fall is squared. It’s all hands on ship at these universities as they forge new ground. There’s a lot of online resources for questions too, are you sure the answers to the scholarship questions aren’t on the website? Their online resources are amazing. Don’t just ask things to ask things, that doesn’t look good, be sure to do some research before you do.
I also agree that AOs aren’t the best people for telling you about recent employment histories of students in a particular major. Look at the department’s website or contact the undergrad coordinator in that department.
@CADREAMIN yeah i emailed on the 28th, really should have emailed a couple weeks earlier whoops
i actually did considerable research on the scholarships and still had questions after I read over their website. partially why i emailed my AO is because I was genuinely curious about how their mention of considering “candidates’ talent, perseverance, innovation, involvement and leadership” for merit scholarships connected to the character of an ideal USC student (e.g. do scholarship finalists tailor their time and focus to fewer interests or are they typically involved in a wider variety of commitments?) in hindsight probably wasn’t a good question to send since that’s kind of asking them to set their “holistic admissions process” in stone but I was just curious about how my regional AO in particular evaluated applicants and I wanted to learn more about if I would be a good fit at USC
i also didn’t find much on the website about what they are looking for in the usc supplement (aside from this: https://admissionblog.usc.edu/supplementary-my-dear-watson-breaking-down-the-usc-supplement/ but it didn’t talk about scholarships oops) so i also asked my AO what particular personal qualities stood out to him from past scholarship finalist essays he’s read over that attracted him to vouch for these students.
thanks for putting it into perspective and i guess i’ll send a follow-up in a month or so?
@CheddarcheeseMN yeah i sent out emails to two separate admissions staff; I sent the one about recent employment history to one of the directors of dornsife admission. not sure if that’s much better than emailing the AO about it but i’ll try the undergrad department thank you!
My daughter sent an email to the AO for our state and never heard back. Low an behold, she was accepted into a major that reportedly takes 1-2% of applicants. They really go through the supplemental material, so make that your focus. Post-acceptance, the AO is now a different person and when she reached out to him, he got right back to her. Good luck! It’s a great school and they’ve been great with communicating, setting up Venmos over the past two months, so don’t give up! The AO for your area just might be overwhelmed or a tad lazy. No harm in emailing again!