My D got the coveted white box last year. While we were down there for her interview, I sat in on a student panel for parents and one student’s story resonated with me. He said that when he first got to USC he doubted himself and didn’t think he was good enough to be there. He felt everyone else was smarter and more accomplished than he was. He had to tell himself that USC thought he was good enough to be both a student there and to eventually be an alumni.
I do think that USC is looking to build a unique class that will do great things both as students and as alumni.
My D’s stats were certainly above average but not perfect by any means. But she was passionate in her EC’s and conveyed that in her essays. She believes that USC saw someone that would jump right in and get involved and she certainly has!
@WWWard It’s crazy but USC yield was up just over 40% this past year! It had been at 37% prior. They admitted fewer students trying to get to a class of 3000 but the yield went up by 3 percentage points and they ended up with 3400. I expect to see an adjustment this year to even fewer students accepted. Between more fall and spring admits enrolling, housing has become a big issue this spring!
I am not a loan expert by any means, but you do need to do FAFSA for the Stafford loans - these are the student loans that are in the student’s name and it seems virtually anyone can get (again, no expert here). They can take these each year, one is subsidized and the other is subsidized.
^^^ Yes, all traditional financial aid disbursements… university grants, federal grants, federally supported work study and federally supported student loans… will require an initial CSS profile, FAFSA and complete signed tax returns by both parents (regardless of martial status) and the student (if applicable). And you will have to re-file all of these items (except for the CSS profile) each year thereafter.
Thanks for all the information on this forum especially to @WWWard and @CADREAMIN. My S has expressed interest in all his essays, statements etc about why he’d love to be a part of USC. Hopefully, that interest will help him out since he is weak on his EC’s owing to his condition.
“Among the 2017 entering first-year class, nearly two-thirds received some form of financial assistance, with more than 21 percent receiving a USC merit-based scholarship.”
Note those figures are based on entering class - people that actually commit, which is only 3400 - the percent of applicants (64,000 of them) that get offered merit is very small. Not to be a downer, just to set realistic expectations and fend of huge disappointment. Good to dream, but keep it real too.
Yes, most is almost an understatement. Of the 40,000 that applied by December 1st deadline for merit consideration, about 1200 will get notified of merit/interviews. Add to that another 20-25,000 applications that come in after December 1st and you are talking 1200 of about 64,000 applications. That’s a pretty small amount of students getting merit notifications, yet there are still many that think a 4.0 and some good ECs is a slam dunk to USC merit, when even an acceptance is still hard. It’s sooo competitive.