@cgb2017 Thanks! Was the deadline 12am PT? I submitted mine at 9:30pm, but I’m on the east coast and think I missed it by 30 mins 
@cgb2017 9:30PM EST is 6:30PM PST. Which school have you applied to? My son submitted his application on November 30th and have not received anything about the result of scholarships too.
If you are being deferred to a March decision, the portal only changes in one way… when you click on “Check you application status”, it then adds a new link to click on…
Current Message:
Information about the Scholarship Process Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2017
you can then click on the link and see the same letter being emailed to you.
otherwise, the portal looks exactly the same as before.
Hi, did anyone else not get anything at all?
No email, no portal update, no box
I submitted on like 11/15 and my counselor submitted everything too so im p sure i submitted on time
@young177 in the exact same position. I just need some closure lol
Decision: Accepted (Presidential finalist)
**Objective: **
SAT I (breakdown): 2180 (730,710,740 - one sitting)
ACT (breakdown):
SAT II: Math II 730, Lit 750
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.93
Weighted GPA: 4.46 (didn’t report)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1
AP (place score in parenthesis): 3 AP’s - 2 5’s, 1 4
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: 3 AP’s - AP Lit, AP Human Geo, AP Physics + French 3
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Commended Student, AP Scholar
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Student Council President (4 years, 8 hours a week) + some other leadership positions within school (all for four years each, 4+ hours a week)
Job/Work Experience: Summer retail job (didn’t mention it)
Volunteer/Community service: Founder and president of a charity that has raised over 70,000 USD and has received several awards from the Indonesian government + president of another charity that has given half/full scholarships to 150+ impoverished kids in Indonesia - 3,500 hours in total for these two over 4 years
Summer Activities: Retail job
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 8/10, my teachers and editors all really liked my essays and so did I but looking back they weren’t like super good. One of mine was just my stanford intellectual vitality essay, but I got rejected from there so it can’t have been that good lmao. My USC essay was super specific, though!!!
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: 8/10 - AP Science teacher, she wrote about my academics (I got the highest AP score in her class last year) and a lot about my EC’s (Charity + StuCo)
Teacher Rec #2: 6/10 - AP Cal teacher, talked about what I add to the classroom dynamic and how I am in the top 3 students of her entire teaching career (she adored me lmao)
Counselor Rec: Not sure, but it came from my principal and she’s very good at these things
Additional Rec: StuCo advisor, she talked basically about how community-oriented I am and about my work with StuCo
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Public Policy
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant): Indonesia (US dual citizen)
School Type: International
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: F
Income Bracket: Below 100,000 USD
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I’m gay?? Not sure if that’s a hook anymore, but I wrote about the discrimination I’ve faced in Indonesia for being gay for my Common App)
**Reflection **
Strengths: Volunteer work, rec letters
Weaknesses: Average scores and academics (very little APs tbh + no math), terrible midyear report
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: My why USC essay was really specific lmao. I think I showed them that I really wanted to go to USC. I presented to them what I wanted to do with my education and a very clear plan of what I wanted to do in the future.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Rejected from Stanford REA (my dream school ) Waiting to hear back from like 10 other schools in March/April.
General Comments: I am beyond ecstatic right now! Being rejected from my dream school REA was a huge hit to my self-esteem and I really wasn’t expecting to be accepted to USC, let alone be selected as a Presidential finalist. My advice for the why USC essay is to be super specific; every single sentence should be specific to USC. Also, find an angle! My scores weren’t that good, so I focused on presenting my EC’s in the best possible light to take attention away from my scores. Good luck to everyone else! If you didn’t get selected, don’t worry about it! You’re all ambitious and intelligent and you’ll be fine wherever you go! 
Still haven’t received, email, portal update or box either! Is it alphabetical or by school maybe?
is there anyone that gets rejected this time around? i didn’t think so but some people are insinuating that they have, or maybe I’m just misunderstanding
It is not a rejection by any means.
While many seem to want to take not being among the 1200 getting in early with a scholarship offer as being rejected, in reality, it simply means that the other 7800 or so offers of admission have yet to be determined and will be announced in late March.
Portal update seems to be a bit random so give it until the end of the day at least to see if you get an email or update. S got his around 7:30AM EST or so (no scholarship or acceptance at this time). I was starting to worry that his app somehow was not considered on time for merit review (though it was submitted on the last day, it was not acknowledged by USC until Dec. 2). He’s NMSF so that part was important for the next part of the RD process. But he got the email and the portal update though way later than many
So I got the message this morning saying I wasn’t being considered for scholarships which was obviously disappointing but I thought all national merit finalists are guaranteed half tuition off? I haven’t been notified if I am a finalist yet but I assumed I would still be in the running until I was confirmed to not be a finalist. Help?
@camillepowers The people saying they are rejected are implying they couldn’t attend without a scholarship so for them it is a rejection. Many know they can’t afford 70K per year and they won’t get financial aid which is a lot of the middle class.
@niki08 Yes, the letter says if you are NMF you will get the half tuition if you are accepted. But that acceptance doesn’t have to be now, it can be in March.
This is for my DD:
**Decision: Accepted **
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): N/A
ACT (breakdown): 34C (E 34, M 31, R 35, S 35) W 24
SAT II: US History: 780; Literature: 740
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 15%
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP English Language and Composition (5); AP United States History (5); AP World History (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calculus AB, AP English Lit, AP Government, Economics, Photography, AP Biology, and TA
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Class President - all four years
Mock Trial - 10th thru 12th grades
Student school board member - 11th grade
Youth Council for our city - 11th grade
Peer conflict resolution (invite only) - 11th and 12th grade
Other leadership ECs and volunteering
Job/Work Experience: None
Volunteer/Community service: Various throughout high school
Summer Activities: Last summer was scholarship recipient for local school district Ivy League Connection program and attended UPenn 3 week summer program on Social Justice
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Did not see her essays but I’m sure they were good as this is her strong point
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: Did not see
Teacher Rec #2: Did not see
Counselor Rec: Not sure, she didn’t know her well at all
Additional Rec:
Interview: N/A
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Political Science
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public high school
Ethnicity: Mixed (African American and Caucasian)
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: ~$75k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM
Reflection
Strengths: ACT score, extracurriculars, GPA
Weaknesses: Low ACT writing score, no awards
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: Strong overall app
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: Tulane (accepted as Presidential scholar, honors college), Howard (accepted, Presidential (full ride) scholarship). Still waiting on UCLA, Columbia, Fordham, UPenn, George Washington, and Georgetown.
General Comments : Finalist for Presidential scholarship
@CADREAMIN thank you, that’s what i thought but was just checking
@wwward agree about this process, have never liked it, as thousands go through getting rejected twice. The process wreaks of arrogance to me and mine got the package previously, still didn’t like it.
I was just wondering if everyone got deffered. Does USC reject people in the merit scholarship deadline? I believe all people either got in or deferred to regular admission.
Is USC’s need-based aid generous? And when does one find out? Thanks.
And to me, it all seems problematic in terms of results too. If you are unnecessarily stressing out thousands of applicants by clinging to what seems to be an out-dated admission methodology and the final result is a 34% yield rate anyhow… that seems to suggest that you may want to rethink your approach.
Last month, USC put out an excellent article offering their insider’s guide to admission. In it, they compared their success as a university to Stanford. So why not take that further and actually start to mirror Stanford’s approach to admission as well?
The top four schools in terms of yield rate are: Stanford University 80.4%, Harvard University 79.8%, Brigham Young University 79.8% & Massachusetts Institute of Technology 72.8%. USC is languishing in the 150s I believe with a yield rate of 34%, even well below public universities like University of Louisiana—Lafayette 52.8%, North Dakota State University 51.3% and the University of Florida 50.6%. So why adhere to a admission methodology or mindset that seems to being missing the mark.
I would instead suggest an admission’s system that attracts the best and brightest… but also firmly rewards those fully committed to attending USC. USC’s yield rate should be double what it is… or certainly above 60%. And USC should want that too… at least you would think so…
@binky17 Yes. USC is committed to meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need. That being said… FA is not going to make it totally free, even if your EFC is very low. But they make it affordable for those who need significant financial aid.
Pretty shocked right now. Got home from school to see this package. Had no idea anything from USC was comnig my way. Never even fully sent in all the financial documents because I was just so unconfident about getting in. Apparently I’m a finalist for their Presidential Scholarship…Not sure whether to feel happy or dismayed since I’ll never be able to afford the tuition.
Here’s some stats on me in case anyone is curios.
SAT: Old- 1890 (640R, 560M, 690W)New- 1310 (710CRW, 590M)
GPA: 3.69UW, 3.78W
Class Rank: 61/568
AP Scores: 5(Lang, US Hist, Span Lang) 4(Macro) 3(World) 2(Physics 1)
Senior Course Load: AP Lit, AP Span Lit, AP Psych, AP Euro Hist, AP Stat, AP Comp Sci
ECs: NHS normal member, Beta Club Website Manager
Honors: Questbridge Finalist, Questbridge College Prep Scholar
Race: “Hispanic”
Not sure how I’m a Presidential Scholarship finalist…My stats are bottom-of-the-barrel without a doubt LOL. That said, those who are doubtful of their admission, don’t lose hope! I got in somehow.