<p>@Damsel123. Ahh I know, I’ve been counting down the days! So nervous.</p>
<p>Where did you all see the decision date? I can’t find it… and what is the exact decision date, and will they mail them or post online? Thx.</p>
<p>Scratch that… just found it in the beige FAQ letter - “We intend to notify you by e-mail on Thursday, May 10, 2012.” Good luck all.</p>
<p>With all the people getting bumped to Fall, does that bode well for appeals. Maybe their yield was lower than they had thought, especially being the first year going to common app. Any thoughts or better still, any facts?</p>
<p>People being bumped to fall means more spring spots I believe. I don’t know if I’d accept it :/</p>
<p>Just thought you guys might find this article interesting/enlightening. This was published in the Daily Trojan a few years ago. It was titled “500 appeal USC rejections, 32 admitted”. FOUR more days guys, our wait is almost over! Today is my birthday and having my appeal accepted would honestly be the best birthday present ever. Here’s to hoping! Best of luck to everyone. </p>
<p>“We have arrived at the end of our application review period, and I’m sorry to say that we are unable to offer you a space in next year’s entering class.” Every spring, roughly 21,000 students hoping for a huge package from USC proclaiming “You’re In!” pull this message from a standard envelope.
While this can be a heart-wrenching experience, there are alternatives to settling for second best. A page of frequently asked questions in that same envelope explains how to appeal their admission rejection.
This FAQ page says that applicants can submit a statement explaining why their applications should reviewed, as well as adding any “new and compelling information.” “An example [of new and compelling information] might be the significant illness of a parent that they didn’t disclose in their original application, but that explains why they had a bad junior year, or something like that,” said J. Michael Thompson, dean of admissions. This can also include grades that weren’t available when the original application was due, he said.
Once applicants send in their appeals, a select committee of senior admissions managers goes over the new information – along with the original applications – and sees if any students really should be admitted.
This year, 500 applicants appealed their rejections: 32 of them were granted admission – roughly 6 percent.
Although the letter asks for information that is new and compelling, many applicants do not provide such information, and are simply hoping for another review of their original application.
“Sometimes they just give us an update on their recent activities. We want students to have confidence that we’re doing our job thoroughly. We want to hear students who just want another review,” said Kirk Brennan, senior associate director of admissions for file review and a member of the appeals committee.
Erin Daniel, a senior at St. Joseph High School in Santa Maria, California, will be attending USC this year and majoring in biochemical engineering even though she received a rejection letter in March.
Daniel said the rejection letter surprised her because “I’m ranked sixth in my class, and I’ve taken every honors and advanced placement class my school offers.” Her high school guidance counselor, Michael Tscheekar, said he felt a mistake was made and that Daniel should have been accepted.
“Often I’m not surprised at all when a student doesn’t get into a school, but in her case I really was,” he said.
Both Tscheekar and Daniel wrote letters to send to the committee, and Tscheekar sent a transcript that included grades from the most recent quarter.
Daniel said her letter didn’t provide anything new or compelling to the committee. “It said that they wanted new and compelling information, but nothing had really changed at all. I just basically wrote about what my life was like and what my activities were,” she said.
Tscheekar’s letter, however, sought to put her transcript and accomplishments in context – specifically that St. Joseph is a private, college preparatory high school, and that Daniel took the most challenging classes available, he said.
While he could not say exactly why Daniel was admitted, Johnson said the letters Daniel and Tscheekar wrote were very compelling.
This appeal worked. However, the overwhelming majority – 94 percent – does not. While the committee found Daniel’s appeal compelling enough to reverse the original the decision, the committee finds the average appeal less convincing.
“The most common appeal is a student who tells us they really want to go here, but who hasn’t demonstrated in the classroom that they’re prepared to go here,” Brennan said.
While the committee may find a family tragedy or steady academic improvement compelling enough to reverse a decision, they do not feel the same way about Trojan pride.
“When someone sends in something that says ‘I really really really want to go here,’ we don’t find that very interesting. There are a lot of students who really want to go here,” explained Elizabeth Slattery, associate director of admissions and a member of the appeal committee.
Nearly all of the overturned decisions are based on new and compelling information, but occasionally – maybe once or twice per year – a decision is overturned because of a simple error, Thompson said.
“We’re open to the idea that these are human beings making decisions and we can make mistakes,” he said.
However, because so few rejections are overturned, “Most of the time it just confirms that we made good decisions in the first place,” Slattery said.
Along with confirming the validity of most admissions decisions, the appeal process also helps to improve and streamline the regular admission process.
By understanding what kind of information students provide that result in overturned decisions, Thompson said the admissions department can start to get that information in the first round.
“When we see decisions being overturned on this new and compelling information, we think, ‘huh, maybe we should ask everybody for this in the first place,’” he said.</p>
<p>Happy 18th (im guessing) Birthday Trojans17 
… Thanks for putting this article up really gave a good insight to the process and what USC is looking for. Good Luck.</p>
<p>a bunch of my friends who were spring admits just got bumped to fall</p>
<p>@Damsel123: Thank you! Haha yes, it’s my 18th :)</p>
<p>@designed2succeed: Yeah I’ve been hearing that a lot of spring admits were bumped to fall! Hopefully this means good news for us appealers :)</p>
<p>so nverous. i really want to be with my boyfriend :(</p>
<p>TWO MORE DAYS!!! </p>
<p>Ok, so in the past, people’s statuses on USConnect started updating the day before decisions came out. For example, if decisions came out on May 14th, some people’s accounts showed a status update on May 13th while others did not see a status update until May 14th. I am sure what the status update was, so if anyone would like to clarify, please do! I am assuming that the “application status check” on USConnect will simply change to say something new instead of what it currently reads from the regular admission cycle (all admission decisions have been sent out, you can call USC office starting april 3rd etc. etc.). </p>
<p>Haha sorry if what I just said makes no sense…hopefully I didn’t confuse anyone. I don’t think we should get too caught up in statuses this time around, but I just wanted to let you guys know about it. If anyone does check their USConnect tomorrow and gets a status update, post your update here! :)</p>
<p>Im going crazzzzzzzzzzzzzzy</p>
<p>We receive an email tomorrow right? What time?</p>
<p>I called and they said those who are granted admission will be emailed by the end of the day (no specific time) and those rejected will receive a letter in the mail who knows when</p>
<p>Does anyone know if they are accepting more/fewer people than last year?</p>
<p>hope4usc: I also called today and they said that everyone will receive an email tomorrow regardless of admission status.</p>
<p>Okay good because I would feel really crazy about not getting an email</p>
<p>Today’s the day!!! FINALLY. </p>
<p>Keep everyone posted throughout the day about any updates/be sure to post on here when you recieve an email! Good luck!</p>
<p>i’m so nervous :(</p>
<p>In the past couple of years the emails starting to come in at between 3 pm and 4 pm Pacific Coast time. Good luck everyone!</p>