Why isn’t there a place for me to submit an appeal letter on the USC portal? I got the Trojan Transfer Plan. Can I not appeal that?
Is it appropriate to disclose information about a personal trauma I endured during high school that affected my grades and caused a clear decline in my GPA? I know that it can be risky to disclose very personal information within appeal letters but i truly feel that it is an integral part of my application that may have helped me get into USC. Thoughts on this? Best of luck to you all on your appeal process!
@vaurora18 I think you should write about it because at this point you don’t have anything to lose. Maybe making it personal will stand out more.
write about anything that might of affected your GPA or test scores. And why you think you were over looked asa qualified applicant.
Are appeals binding? I want to appeal but if I’m a spring admit I don’t think I would want to attend
how do we format the appeal? they didnt even give us good information lol
i chose to write mine as a formal letter though i’m not entirely sure if that’s what USC is looking for. submitted it yesterday
@calibeachgirl12 Appeals are not binding like early decision. Appealing a decision forces admissions to give you another look. Good luck!
Hi Everyone: Our son did not get accepted to USC as well. My husband and I are diehard Trojans; our daughter graduated 3 years ago (she applied kicking and screaming and did it as a “favor” to me but actually decided it was the school for her). It has always been our son’s dream to attend USC. My father-in-law was a professor at the University for nearly 30 years and even donated money when the tennis stadium was being built. In my son’s rejection letter, they stated that “this was a very difficult decision given our Trojan ties.” They also suggested the Trojan Transfer Plan and that he would be able to meet with an advisor who would discuss with him how to “maximize his chances of admission.”
Our son was actually insulted at that–if he wasn’t good enough to attend as a freshman, what makes them think he would be good enough to transfer? As far as he is concerned, he has worked too hard to go to community college.
Needless to say, our son was disappointed (he had similar numbers to his sister: 3.9 GPA and 33 ACT). I think my husband and I were more upset and we were even thinking of appealing this decision.
After much thought, we decided not to. He has been accepted to Pepperdine and they even gave him a scholarship! We think Pepperdine is a much better fit for him, and besides, who wouldn’t want to go to school by the ocean? This is a wonderful opportunity for our son, and we know that this is his college experience and that he will make the most of it.
By the way, he applied as a biology major to USC, so maybe there were too many Asians that applied as well (he is half and half). Also, as a biology major at USC, he would have had to take biology and organic chemistry in the first semester as this is their weeding out process to see who the serious students are.
I just wanted to share our experience, and good luck to those of you who are appealing and congrats to all who were accepted.
@scfamily Thank you for sharing! I was also accepted to Pepperdine and I think I will go there since the chances for the appeals are very low. Good luck!
Good morning, CC2080. Congrats to you on getting accepted to Pepperdine. Best of luck to you in your studies. Maybe we’ll run into each other at the Open House next week!
@vaurora18 A formal letter is fine. In general, an appeal is a formal letter.
I tried to upload my appeal to you.usc under the “Submit Documents” tab but there seems to be nowhere to upload it. Is anybody else having this problem? Should I try to email it instead? I would send it via snail mail but it would not arrive at USC in time because I live in Florida.
does it matter when you submit your appeal?
Will I receive my appeal decision earlier if i submit early?
@charcoalatey2021 You need to go to the document library section. There is a place to submit your appeal. You could always fax your appeal if there is still no place on the account
@giriboy I think the sooner you submit your appeal, there is a higher chance of you getting your appeal decision earlier. However, there are no guarantees and you want to make sure you take your time and are thoughtful when writing the letter.
@jshack9999 Oh ok! Thank you so much!
is anyone submitting recs? I know it’s not required but I have a rec from a teacher that she wrote for scholarship recs and I was wondering ifI can submit it?
Are you permitted to make it longer than a page?
@sprinkle I’m not submitting recs because it seems like they do not want us to and I wouldn’t make it longer than a page because they specify one page only and you want to show that you can follow directions 
@sprinkle I email to ask them to make sure and they said only one page