I believe NT come out separately after admissions around time of FA.
Regular posters bear with me, re-posting so we don’t have to answer the same questions over and over for new folks coming on over to this thread.
WHAT?
Regular Decision is coming and WE KNOW THE DATES!
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 on 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. 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.
MERIT & FINANCIAL AID AWARDS - Financial Aid come 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.
@CADREAMIN Thanks for posting this repeatedly so we won’t need to go back pages to look for your earlier posts. I mentioned to my son the dates and he just said, ‘mom don’t tell me the dates’. He is as anxious as I am! He doesn’t live with us so I am asking if he would come home next Friday. I am extra anxious because even if we received the package, we don’t know if he got in the dance school - his #1 choice till we actually see the letter. His 2nd choice in USC is biology. He got accepted at UCLA biology so I guess that’s a good sign, but it’s not like he can transfer or double major in dance. For dance if you don’t get in you’ll have to audition again next year and start Freshman if you are lucky enough to get in.
My youSC page is asking for senior year grades when I click ‘submit your midyear grades’… Is this possible a “sign” that I got admitted?
This weekend was a tough one! Waitlisted at UCSD which we thought would be a definite yes and rejected from UCLA. It’s so difficult to tell what the UCs are looking for, but it’s definitely a humbling experience. D still has her heart set on USC but doesn’t have much hope anymore. This experience has sure changed since I applied 30 years ago.
well, the top of the page says “Senior Year Report” – but if yours is literally asking for senior year grades in some other way, you may be on to something. DC’s doesn’t, which is fine. Without scholarship, USC is unlikely.
@nyudream2221 This is something that’s been there forever. You should have inputted your grades when you got them.
@collegesavant1 Yeah I was denied to my dream school UCLA with a 4.3 and 1540 SAT as well. Probably because I was Korean.
There will never be any hints on your portal about admission until they are updating portals on the 25th. No hints, zero, zip, nada. Things will move around but there is no correlation to getting accepted. Try to find other things to keep you busy this next week!
Hey guys,
I’m wondering how likely it is that I get into USC.
Took 2 APs all of high school (4 on AP psych and currently in AP Calc AB) and many honors.
28 ACT, 29 superscore
3.95 unweighted GPA, 4.5 weighted GPA (what it says on my school transcript), but my UC unweighted is 4.0 and weighted capped is 4.3 (around 4.5-4.6 uncapped)
Good ECs, probably good LOR, and good essays
Senior year got straight As again (at least first semester)
Accepted at: CSUN, LMU, Chapman, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, and cal poly SLO
Waitlisted at: UCLA
Waiting for: USC, UCSB, and UC Berkeley
Thank you!
@collegesavant1 Similar story here, had a 4.0/4.0 and got 1500 in SAT, but UCLA’s waitlisted me twice. I suppose universities have very different measures of admissions and acceptance, so numbers really don’t factor in so much. USC has their own metric and method so I’d suggest you do as much research to see if you fit in to the school. I’ve known a lot of people qualified for Ivy Leagues but got rejected all the same: it’s really about how you fit in and what you’d contribute I guess. PRetty much a generic answer, but I hope you make Marshall!
So what if im international? When will I get notified of decision?
Has anyone ever heard of any Presidential/Trustee scholarship finalists who eventually didn’t get the awards they interviewed for?
@MrReshokar, somebody posted much earlier on this thread that her daughter interviewed for Trustee and was bumped down to $4,000. However, I think she said USC was not her daughter’s first choice and that may have reflected in the interview. Dean Kirk Brennan indicated at ExploreUSC in March 2018 that “a little more than 50% of students who were nominated for Pres or Trustee awards will receive the scholarship interviewed for” and that approximately 4% will be bumped up. That may mean that roughly 40% may not get what they interviewed for? Your guess is as good as mine.
I hope usc considers 2nd semester improvement when selecting students… my first semesters have been terrible (9th grade - tech department gave me the wrong email and password so i didnt know my grades, 10th - spanish teacher is notorious for giving Cs and Ds, 11th - had the flu during finals and couldnt focus. Walked in with 3 As and a B then walked out with all Bs, it sucks) and only amounts to a 3.08 GPA. In my first semesters collectively (9-11), ive only gotten 2 As out of 13 possible grades. However my 2nd semesters are a completely different story. I got 11 As out of 13 possible grades and amount to a 3.85 GPA. Will this help me in any way shape or form or is my low GPA just gonna screw me over? I have a 33 ACT and my dad graduated there in 2002.
Don’t give up @wigrlpwr and @Booajo . My S17 seems similar in stats to you(rs), and he DID get the white box last March. Don’t give up–just a little while longer to wait. 
@collegesavant1 1550, 4.4 gpa, rejected from ucla too. let’s see if we get in to usc. altho marshall is harder.
good luck!
will it increase my chance if i put usc as #1 choice as a nms finalist?
You put them as first with the NMSF which has to be done by May 1st to get the 1/2 tuition if you are admitted. I am not sure USC sees that information prior to the 1st. But regardless, 99.9% of the decisions are likely done. They are packing and stuffing.
To USC’s credit, it is not as purely stat-centric as some other elite colleges and universities. Due to constraints based on the # that they plan to enroll and its increasing yield rate, USC is only going to accept a certain # of applicants from a pool of tens of thousands of qualified applicants. In that process, they will be reluctantly forced to reject 90% of all legacy applicants and 3K+ applicants with test scores in the 99th percentile. But that reality also means that USC is looking for more than just pure stats. A # of applicants will get in with lower GPAs and test scores than what many expect to be among the category admitted.
Many posters here focus singularly on just their unweighted or weighted GPA and their SAT and/or ACT score(s), especially when looking to get “Chanced” for USC. But USC is looking much deeper. It is why no one can accurately predict what USC may or may not do in any individual case. And that would be true even if a poster claimed a 4.0 Unweighted GPA and a 1600 SAT or 36 ACT. USC has rejected plenty of those applicants as well. Those who succeed, for the most part, in securing that allusive “white box” are those who stand out on other fronts… ECs, leadership roles, community involvement, strong essays and/or written samples, etc. And having a strong “Why USC?” answer is likely what differentiates many… both in terms of why USC is the right university for you and moreover what USC gains by selecting someone like you. Hopefully most of you posting on this thread were as diligent on those fronts in terms of supplying that side of the equation to USC.
And to future applicants… that is where I believe your focus should be. By week’s end, there may be some posts here on this thread from applicants with stellar stats who are astonished that they have been passed over for those with lesser stats. The key reason may simply come down to all of those other elements of your application. It is getting tougher each year to get into USC and to similar elite colleges and universities, but the best of these schools continue to evaluate candidates holistically in a bona fide effort to craft a well-rounded and diverse freshman class comprised of bright and talented individuals who seem best suited to attending that university specifically. Generic overview essays that could apply to a host of colleges no longer sway admission committees. They want to know that you have done the research and that you offer one or more compelling reasons why USC or any other elite college or university is the best fit for you and vice versa.
Good luck to all of you awaiting an answer this week…