They send more invitations than they give awards. For example, they will invite 400-450 trustees, some will get it, some won’t, some won’t interview, some will go elsewhere. In the end, 100-110 will attend USC with Trustee.
Today will be very very busy - here comes Norcal and most areas of the country. Socal areas missed yesterday, major metros up across country and down east coast and areas around them. Even Florida, unless you are @WWWard. 
But as said many times, mail is unpredictable, it has taken 3+ days to get to Seattle sometimes and certainly rural areas. I have also seen a borough in NYC get it in two when the one next door takes three. Same in NJ. So cautiously hope for the surprise box, but know portals will spin tonight. East coast kids, go to bed and check in morning - IF history repeats itself, it updates between midnight and 1am PST - so 3-4am for you. And it takes a couple/few hours for everything to update, might as well sleep through it. And who knows, maybe they change it up??? They are in charge of this thing, we just do our best guess based on last several years.
Don’t blow a test waiting for it to update - get some sleep! I watch Australian Open so am up with the night owls on the west coast. 
Did USPS Informed Delivery show anyone their package yesterday in LA?
No can’t be done. Let’s put that to rest folks. Tracking has to be enabled by the sender, says so on the website. USC does not enable tracking.
@WWWard it might be time to bring back the chug game. 
No white box for me yet. Mailman just came. I live in Long Island New York…
Updates tonight at 12:15 PST right?
@cadreamin Indeed. Would have been like 80 chugs since Monday so far though…
To all posters, especially new ones… maybe at least read through the last 2-3 pages before asking the very same question for the 20th time By now, everything has been asked and answered… and asked again and answered again…
Quick recaps:
- you cannot track the box or get advanced notice via USPS.
- you will get an email from USC when your portal updates, so you do not need to check it and refresh it constantly.
- USPS is unreliable… so if you get a white box today or tomorrow - great. But if not, reserve your panicking until your portal updates. It will let you know if you are moving forward in the merit offering process or not… and it will do so by tomorrow morning.
- And only 3% of those who applied by Dec 1st are even getting a white box (roughly 1200 out of the 30K+ who applied by Dec 1st). So again… this week, no one is rejected. 89% of all those admitted to USC will find out in late March - not this week.
Good luck of course too…
Does anyone if being a national merit finalist/semifinalist lowers the chances of getting a merit scholarship?
Thank you @CADREAMIN, @WWWard and everyone for the info you shared. Good luck students!
@cc4help you’re welcome
NM Scholars get half tution if they are accepted, however within the interview, if they do really well, they can be bumped up to a bigger scholarship.
I apologize if this is a stupid question/already answered, but does no notification/box mean zero merit aid, or just that you missed out on the “big” scholarships?
@QwertyTV, I can’t believe that being NMF would hurt your chances. Many of the high stats kids that will eventually be awarded merit scholarships are likely NMF’s.
I think the question regarding NMF is whether being in that category lowers your odds for getting a scholarship and/or admission. I guess it represents an outlay of money from the school and there could be a temptation to award a scholarship to a prospective student to kill two birds with one dollar as it were.
@QwertyTV @kcheves I heard otherwise cuz they have a cap on number of nmf’s. I’d think if you r one and don’t make it at this round, your chance will be lower than non nmf’s at RD
@piranhavator My son is applying for Thornton and I think he’s an academically qualified musician but he hasn’t received any emails concerning scholarships. Of course he’s a little different since he’s a junior applying RHP.
@abell73 No I haven’t figured out how we can register for explore USC yet. Let me know if you figure it out. I’m thinking maybe on Friday when everything comes up online we’ll be able to.
I live around 25 miles east of USC, definitely in the one-day mailing area. I did not receive anything yesterday, but I am still hopeful that I receive something today. If portals are updated tonight and I find out that I have not received any form of scholarship, I am most likely going to be sad. However, this is just a reminder that not everyone who applies by December 1st receives a decision by February even though it seems like it on CC. This is a reminder that everything happens for a reason and it is okay to not receive a white box. There are decisions coming out in March, and even if rejection happens it happens for a reason. It is okay to cry and it is okay to be sad, but remember that it is not the end of the world. There are many other opportunities, it’s just that this one isn’t the one. Bottom line: it is going to be okay <3
Apparently when the you dot usc dot edu admission portal is updated today/tomorrow, we’ll have a link to register for Explore USC.
@caleegalee, your comment about there being a cap on NMF conflicts with what I was told by admissions.