Well, they botched the early batch this year with online clues giving out the outcome, so they ended up just providing a portal notification early. We will see how it goes this time.
For those for whom USC is a line in a spreadsheet this is just an annoyance.
Whether those for whom USC is a top choice prefer to be tortured that way, I do not know, but I know my son appreciated timely online notifications from his top choices.
^^^ USC was the top choice for both of my daughters, but neither liked or appreciated their notification methodology. My oldest got an early indicator of admission from SDA, so the box showing up was just confirmation of that. My youngest thought she was rejected when the box arrived a few days late, leading to unnecessary angst and depression for that time frame. She instead found out that she was in fact admitted via the portal update.
The box and its contents are all a nice touch, but in our opinion, it is just as nice when it arrives after the portal update. I feel that USC should simply abandon their approach to date and notify everyone online simultaneously… with the boxes arriving thereafter… as is the method used by the Ivies, Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice, Emory, etc. I cannot think of any other elite college or university that handles it as USC does, and USC should realize that being last to change and evolve may not be the best decision. If they disagree, they should scour threads like this one for the past many cycles during those announcement weeks. The angst and turmoil affecting tens of thousands of applicants is unwarranted and unnecessary. Even the lucky 7K or so admitted are often put through the same. My daughter certainly was so.
@Pocket22 Ya, that is why I wanted to get another confirmation, because they typically don’t send them out during spring break, but not sure with all colleges are dealing with right now if they will want to work through it and push them out. Best to plan on March 23rd-ish and just hope earlier!
I know that @CADREAMIN 's birdie is probably correct about the date but I can’t help but freak out whenever I see packages on informed delivery lol.
What are EASYPOST / PYK GLOBAL INC. and LAX - DINGHONG sending me anyways???
@cadman6
They will not be on USPS informed delivery. When sent in bulk like this, the sender has option to disable tracking on it. There is actually a cost to the sender to provide tracking on mass mailings and USC does not pay for this as they don’t want it visible. I know what comes is visible with USPS, but not this, at least so far. The scholarship packages in January didn’t show up on USPS Informed Delivery, so expect these will not either.
Of course, things change year to year, but so far, this mass mailing has not appeared. After all this waiting, why not see if it comes in the mail? Finding out via USPS isn’t nearly as fun as seeing it in the mailbox. The angst of waiting is gonna happen regardless, hang in there!
@mom2jw Our son received requested tax information via email yesterday too that will probably cause them a deep dive in the review. We did apply for financial aid. I am his mom and I have been sick for a long time and we are able to claim our medical expenses on our taxes due to the extremely high cost of my care. This is the first school to ask for backup medical information that is on the CSS Profile. Our son is the third child to go to college and we have never had that question before. We were totally fine to pull it for them and we returned it in less than 2 hours of the request. It was just a lot of documents. We don’t know if this is a good sign that he has been admitted and they are reviewing a package to give him or if they working on a financial package for any student who applied even if they are getting rejected. Any thoughts on if this is potentially a good sign? My son is ready for this to be done, good luck to everyone.
@“Texasparent1720!”
Speaking generally financial aid and admissions are separate, so it wouldn’t be indicative of decisions. Unless things are different at USC…
I’m so sorry you are dealing with illness. I hope things improve for you!!
@mom2jw Choral Music. There were only 6 who auditioned for that program, so it’s small enough that they realistically could have sent a thank you to everyone who auditioned. Still, I’m hoping it’s a good sign…
Wow, that’s some cozy little choir they have:)
@“Texasparent1720!” I really don’t have any financial aid experience but I disagree with the above poster. I think it is a good sign, especially that it is this late in the game. I believe that the financial aid process is separate, but I would also think that the decisions makers in admissions might at some point go to the financial aid people and ask them to work up the packages for admitted students, or verify the claims on the forms before they pull the trigger on making an offer (I would think that is only fair, and possibly some people can’t back up their claims?). I just think going through that effort for 40,000 + people would me ridiculous and at some point they must work off of a narrowed down list that your son if hopefully on
So I’m not sure it’s a definite yes, but I think it’s probably a good sign that he is at least in a pile with some hope of being admitted.
Best of luck to you and your family, especially with dealing with your illness.
USC moving all classes online for three days prior to spring break, as a trial run in the event COVID-19 requires it
Also, “ Over the last two weeks, USC has brought students back from many of its study abroad programs in Europe and Asia in addition to canceling all upcoming international spring break programs and Maymester classes.“
What was the early indicator your oldest daughter got? I applied to SDA as well!
Does not receiving a request for more tax information indicate a rejection? Or does receiving one just mean they want clarification on the information you provided? I applied for all three SCA scholarships and the hispanic one but haven’t received any emails from usc since. I’m already destroyed from other decisions and not getting into usc would be a final blow to me.
I believe that the consensus is that anything reflected online at the FA portal, past or present, is far from definitive, especially since they have not finalized all applicants’ packets to date. There are a # of threads related to various colleges across CC wherein people are trying to decipher messages via FA portals… but I doubt that any of them are definitive. Traditionally, FA offices – including USC’s – work independently of Admissions and should not be looked to as a sign one way or the other related to acceptance status.
@sydn226 What I was referring to above was an SDA Open House Invitation that went out just a week or two prior to the March 2014 admission announcements. Back then, at least for the prior years and up to that year, 2014, such formal invitations sent out by SDA did seem to be a rather significant indicator that an acceptance was pending. At least the historical evidence seemed to point to such via CC postings over a span of a few years, and it proved true again for a # of applicants here on CC that cycle. I cannot though speak to what they may or may not be sending out now and whether or not such mailings still represent any form of early indicator.
Thankfully though, all applicants will know for sure in just a couple more weeks. Good luck to all of you…
@CindyLeuWho It just means you sent everything in, all good! It isn’t rocket science that has different interpretations, but a big automated checklist that needs to have everything checked off. When something is missing, they ask for it. It is a separate process, but I get that it is hard to believe it is not. When an applicant, it is hard to not take any form of communication from them as a good sign! But no communication just means they have everything they need, it’s all good.
Don’t let this process destroy you - I know it’s a tough time, no one likes not being accepted, but there are so many great schools out there. College will be what you make of it wherever you go, not just what the school makes you. Hoping you get great news - pretty soon now! Keep busy and enjoy wrapping up senior year!
That helps a lot. I just want the choose of schools, not for my rejections to choose for me. My high school experience has just been “I’ll get through it” and I really don’t want to just “get through” college
@syd226 we received two postcards from SDA. One in December that was a Save the Date sort of thing for the Open House in April, and the second postcard came a few weeks ago. This postcard was an Invite to the SDA Open House on April 11th with an RSVP link. It will be interesting to see if it does indeed correlate to admissions! Waiting… waiting… lol
^^^That has always been what some call a “likely letter” and has only meant good things are to come! Keep us posted.
I will, absolutely!!! @CADREAMIN
Last year’s “USC Freshman Housing Options” thread had some good overviews for folks who were interested. CADREAMIN had some good insights. Including that you should sign up asap when the housing portal opens up. The housing website has overviews. Also Youtube has video tours of most housing options, some semi-official, some definitely not official. And a word about AC, most freshman dorms do not have AC. In fact all the “freshman quad” dorms do not (at least that I can think of). But don’t let that dissuade you from the freshman quad. It is what makes the school seem small undergrad scaled to those living there. I have heard from multiple freshmen that they “feel” the school has about 5k undergraduates because of the frequency of routinely seeing friends around the freshman quad area.