same here!
I still have not received anything in the mail from Viterbi acknowledging that I have met the December 1st deadline. I did, however, receive an email saying I will be notified of my decision by April 1st, what does this mean???
@sunnysunflowers The acknowledgement appears on the CommonApp dashboard - if you click on your USC submission, you will see when you application was downloaded, and when you press the “What’s next” button there you will see at the bottom of the message that all application received before December 1 will be considered for merit scholarships.
@sunnysunflowers See post #130
My S applied for Interactive Games and Media. He is a decent student (3.35 GPA UW and 30 ACT), but has a really amazing art, and animation portfolio. He has been accepted to Bradley University’s Game Design program and just found out that he was accepted to LMU’s Film and TV Production school for Animation. USC is definitely his dream school and we hope that USC will look holistically at apps, but he recognizes that the competition is fierce. We look forward to participating on this journey with you, and wish everyone the best. In the end, everyone usually ends up where they are meant to be!
Not long ago D checked the portal and was asked to provide her parents (ours) tax information. Is this standard for all applicants?
@sandiegodad2017 yeah thats standard
@sandiegodad2017 Yes. It is all 100% standard.
There are no early hints related to financial aid, communications from admissions, etc. Even direct communications from a School within USC may not indicate what you would hope… as even the creative schools seeking out applicants for interviews, auditions, etc. also seem to have lower admission rates. So the majority interviewed, etc. still face rejection later.
In general, it is all standard. 800-1200 or so of the applicants who applied by Dec 1st will learn their fate in late Jan, as they are offered some form of merit scholarship offering… signalling admission as well. No one is actually rejected during that Jan phase.
But the other 54K+ total applicants will all learn their fate together in late March… first via “old school” snail mail and then via portal updates thereafter.
But that is it. Every cycle, applicants search for hidden meanings in everything. But there are no such hints. Over time, they have all been proven false in prior discussion threads like this one. With an admission rate overall of only 16% and likely falling, at least 84% of all applicants will be unfortunately disappointed by late March. And that will include applicants who applied super early, had fully complete admission portals, had fully complete financial aid portals, etc. USC processes everyone fully… and then the Schools decide in terms of majors and the university overall decides. 8900-9100 or so applicants will be admitted… either to USC and to a School… or just to USC as Undeclared (no assigned major yet).
As a parent of two students at USC now, my advice is to focus on finalizing all application packets, including financial aid, at every school being applied to… and to make sure that list of schools being applied to includes (IMO) at least 2-3 safeties, maybe 3-6 matches and maybe 3-4 reaches.
My daughters each applied to more… 17 (my older daughter) and then 15 (my younger daughter). My older daughter went 5 admissions versus 12 rejections (and despite her having stellar stats, etc. - so the results were all very surprising). My younger daughter went 8 admissions versus 7 rejections, so she did better & chose a different set of schools to apply to overall. While their stats (test scores/GPA) were nearly identical, my younger daughter likely had better essays, more extensive ECs and a creative portfolio (not applicable to my older daughter). That seemed to be the key difference… the intangibles beyond test scores and GPA/Rank. She even got into Princeton, for example, but of course chose USC instead.
I suggest a careful evaluation of your application credentials and to not make any broad assumptions. USC, for example, declined admission to 90% of all legacy applicants and to 3K applicants with test scores in the 99th percentile. In my opinion, applicants should treat any school that admits 30% or less as a reach school. Assume nothing and make sure to apply to enough schools in each potential range… safety, match and reach. Most applicants wrongly assume that a school is a match when it is likely really a reach. Do not be left without viable options come April 2018. That scenario almost happened to my older daughter when she faced those 12 rejections… including 5 that she saw as matches vs reaches.
Good luck to your daughter and to all applicants this cycle…
Kind of late to join the thread but…
do we not get general interviews off campus like most other schools?
Also, the “downloaded date” doesn’t matter as long as I submitted by Dec 1st right?
It says that my downloaded date is Dec 2nd…
When we attended the “Discover USC” event here (Minneapolis), one of the admissions reps discussed the interview process and said they were optional, and that they would be hosted in various locations around the country. She made a point to say that because USC was not coming to Minneapolis to hold interviews, they would not expect anyone in the room to have to travel to participate in an interview, and that it honestly would not negatively impact their admission chances if we chose not to participate. If you are in a location that has interviews, however, it might boost your chances among candidates from your area.
@ShrimpBurrito Yay for computational linguistics! Sorry to just randomly pop in, but that caught my eye 
Just before I graduated, my advisor told me that there were only about six comp ling majors. I was the only comp ling graduate this year. Hopefully you daughter and others help increase the size of our small group! 
Hi @zettasyntax
D has been interested in Linguistics for a long time, and then when she visited USC this fall she got to sit in on a Language as Computation class. She was so excited afterwards: “This is exactly what I want to study!”
So what are you doing now with your Comp Ling degree?
@ShrimpBurrito Language as Computation was my absolute favorite class at USC! She picked a great class to check out. Since it’s his class, that means she already met the professor that developed the major.
I was actually short a couple of credits (I was a spring 2016 transfer admit), so I took a few courses during the summer, took a small break to avoid joining the adult world, and recently applied for a job. I had been offered to go in and interview well before I graduated, but I wanted to put it off until I was sure I actually had my degree. It has to do with programming in the medical field. It’s not exactly what I was expecting, but I suppose the programming skills that I acquired can be applied anywhere. The salary is fantastic too! My mom was even jealous She also worked at a hospital. In the Language as Computation class, the professor shows how linguistics has contributed to the bioinformatics field, so maybe I didn’t deviate all that far, but it’s a great starter job if I actually get it.
@zettasyntax That’s fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing your experience. Best of luck to you.
I have a question that may be a bit too late, but I accidentally sent my unofficial ACT score twice, since after the first time I did, I never got a receipt in my email. Will that kill my chances?
So is it possible the some of us will hear back by February?
Hey guys! I applied to Marshall during the Dec 1 deadline! I was wondering if there was a certain deadline in which we have to send any supplemental documents for financial aid? Thanks alot!!
@laffytaffany I believe that the Office of Financial Aid expects everything in by the end of Feb.
@field2life Only 800-1200 or so of the 55K+ applying will learn their fate early… by late Jan / early Feb… when they are moved forward in the merit scholarship process. Everyone else (so roughly 98% of all applicants) will not know if they are admitted or not until late March.
Good Luck
@WWWard Yeah that’s what I’ve read, but if decisions regarding scholarships come out late Jan / early Feb, is it affected if I turn it in later? I plan on submitting the documents in the first few days of January after I can call the financial aid office to clarify some questions regarding the paperwork, but I was just wondering if there was an earlier deadline for scholarship stuff. Thanks for helping!