What is this infamous white package?
@nyudream2221, NY is in a two day zone, and may be possible to receive on Saturday, but depending on your carrier and whether you are rural or urban could impact things. If you do not get it Saturday, it absolutely would not mean you did not get admitted. You would find out in all likelihood on the portal early Sunday morning. If you get mail on Sunday, it could come Sunday or even Monday. Very unpredictable so not really sure you could “expect” anything for sure either way.
@jj1999, why assume bad news? You’ve gotten into some great schools and anything is possible with USC. In my view, you should NOT “accept the L” but maybe stay off CC for a day, go for a run, listen to some music or whatever might help you to “relax” a bit. You have a shot at admission until you don’t.
@anotherdooropens The white package is USC’s admission packet that is actually mailed to the student. You can read @CADREAMIN’s post #1921 for complete info.
I think Maryland is a two day zone. If I don’t get it Saturday, is all hope lost?
@prepro986, absolutely not. See post #2021. USPS can not guarantee delivery in 2 day or whatever day zones. It is an estimate. If you do not get it Saturday, you will get your decision on the portal early Sunday. Good luck!
@Nomorelurker Actually they received scholarship info on THURSDAY March 23rd last year, the same day they were mailed, which is why I am still guessing the 22nd for this year. But could be wrong of course…I am not in charge, just seen it for the last 6 years.
Sorry regulars, but it seems to be time again…
WHAT?
Regular Decision is coming and they are being mailed THURSDAY!
Over 63,000 students have applied and acceptance rate is down to 13% per statements made at recent USC events by the AD.
WHEN?
Mailing is THURSDAY THE 22nd. They will start arriving in Socal between 10:30am-11:30am on the 23rd. Obviously depends on your mail time. Much of Socal receives first day but a lot in San Diego don’t get theirs until second day so don’t freak out there. Norcal is always second day so will arrive there on the 24th. The surprise is how fast these things move and how they reach a great part of the country on the second day after mailing including major metros, the east coast and FLA - all on the second day. So the majority around the country do receive them the second day after mailing, but that said, there are plenty of folks that don’t get them until after the portal update that night at about 12:01am PST March 25th - so Saturday late night/early Sunday morning. For the last couple years portals start updating right after midnight, even thought they say by noon that day. The portal process has been painful, with it staggering throughout the morning, but most acceptances come within the first 2-3 hours. Late night, at least its a weekend!
THE PACKAGE
The packages are white boxes that fit in most mailboxes, some are left on porches if not. They are a little bigger than a piece of paper and about a half inch thick. They are impressive and beautiful packages that are gorgeous on the inside.
The package includes an acceptance letter, a certificate of acceptance, and tells you which major/school you were admitted. It also includes some general school/housing/marketing pamphlets.
YELLOW Package - In recent years they have used a light yellow box to indicate a spring acceptance.
HOW?
It is sent United States Postal Service - the good ol’ mailman. It is not UPS (the brown trucks). Since they come USPS, meaning postal service, and in your mailbox, setting up a My UPS account won’t get you anything here. INTERNATIONAL packets are sent DHL, some of those arrive quickly (areas of China reports early, sometimes on day 2) but some take weeks (reports of some places in India). Internationals should plan on portal update.
USC does not enable tracking on these packages, so you cannot track it. The SENDER (USC) has to enable tracking. But ahhh some of you think - “we have have Informed Delivery Daily Digest” - the postal service that tells tells you what is coming in your mail that day. HOWEVER - these packages are not scanned into that system, because USC doesn’t want them to be. This was again tested during the scholarship period in January, no one saw it in the Informed Delivery Daily Digest. There will be many conspiracy theories on findings ways to beat the system and find out early. It never works or hasn’t so far.
SHOW ME THE MONEY
Folks awaiting scholarship news - last year, the portals updated with scholarship interview results the same day as packages were mailed, at 4:02pm. If they stick to last years model it will be the 22nd. Some have been told Friday over the phone (which has prove unreliable in the past), so it could be then, but let’s hope for the Thursday like they did last year.
MERIT & FINANCIAL AID AWARDS - Financial Aid comes out March 27 per USC Instagram. It is usually within a week or so of decisions so this fits. It is not with your acceptance package, so some will be very excited to get in then have the big downer when they find they can’t attend because they don’t get the aid they thought they would. So if you interview for let’s say Presidential, you will find out if you get that scholarship (yay) with the regular decisions, and you will not know until April what your financial aid award is (if you applied for FA). So this process is complex, and final answers about merit $$ vs FA will come through separately.
DO THEY SEND A LETTER IF DENIED?
Last year they still sent letters with the news that a student is not being admitted. They go out same day as packages, but they are sent first class which is slower than the priority mail of packages. However, they tend to catch up with the packages and some in Socal do get it the first day, the same day packages start arriving.
Good luck all! USC is utterly fantastic, I wish there was room for all that want to attend.
Did anyone applying to the School of Dramatic Arts just get an email from them regarding the notification dates?
@CADREAMIN, my bad, I thought it had been a Friday last year when they released the scholarship merit award decisions. I suppose it is possible that they got a lot of calls on Friday last year (after releasing the decisions on Thursday) and decided to move the scholarship merit award announcements to Friday this year, but if they end up releasing the info a day earlier on March 22, that would be great. Either way, it’s coming up this week and the wait will be over soon!
@WWWard, agree with many of your points regarding safeties in your earlier post, recommending future students to apply to a healthy number of schools with a variety of “reaches”, “matches” and “safeties”. Your story is a powerful one in demonstrating that nothing is guaranteed for some of the smartest students, with or without a hook. Great that it worked out for both your daughters.
The only thing I would question is regarding a comment made about your daughter’s friend who you referenced had not applied to enough matches and was “unfortunately relegated to her in state public university safety as a back up”. I suppose it may have been unfortunate in the sense that she initially was disappointed, and reading many of your excellent and well thought out posts here, you probably did not mean to denigrate the public instate school.
I just want to advocate for students who end up either not being able to afford an elite university tuition (whether USC or other school) or for other personal reasons choose to stay instate, that public universities can provide an excellent education and have the added benefit of saving $$$ for grad school or other future expenses. Many who get the good news of admission to USC this week may not end up being able to attend due to the financial aspects, even with some scholarship. Those students who attend their instate public university can thrive and will be successful. It is not necessarily the school but the students who will drive their own future success.
does anyone know how much emphasis is put on legacy status? I am an out-of-state applicant and my mom attended USC and was very active in the school during her time there.
@WWWard Your story about your daughters’ experience is very compelling. As we are going through the process for the first time this year, we thought our S was in good shape by applying to 4 schools (Bradley’s Game Design program, Loyola Marymount’s Film School, Chapman’s Animation program and USC’s IMGD program). We approached it as Bradley (safety), LMU and Chapman (targets), and USC (reach). He’s been accepted at the first three, and of course waiting for USC, although we realize it’s a long shot for him (he is an okay student with a 3.4 GPA, although very artistically talented). I’m thinking we might have lucked out on this process, and with our D21, we will be encouraging her to apply to several more schools. From many of the posters on here who’ve been through this with several kiddos, it seems as if each year it’s becoming more and more competitive.
@CADREAMIN Thank you for your unflagging patience in reposting the same informative post every few days. I’ve been following this thread sporadically (although more frequently this month) and you can feel the anxiety, tension and freak-outs just building every day!
@ttg1125 Yes, my son got it too. According to him SDA has already sent the decisions.
Does applying for financial aid hurt your chances?
My family can pay the tuition in full, but I applied for it…
USC is need-blind, thank goodness
@kajukr is this an indication that we got in? I know that they have sent a postcard in the past to admitted students a couple days before decisions inviting them to the Open House and the email indicated that we should RSVP to the open house as well. Just wondering because it’s pretty cruel of them to send out this email reminding us haha
Sorry if this question has already been asked, but do the acceptance packages and the rejection packages look different? I’ve heard that the rejection packages look thinner and are lighter. Sorry if this seems like a trivial question I just want to know!
@iloveavocados yeah the acceptance ones are a thicker white package (yellow package for spring admission) while the rejection ones are just a letter 
How popular is PoliSci at USC? Thank you!