Love the freshman quad! My Trojans that go/went there and the many I meet on frequent visits all say it is the place to live as a freshman, whether they lived there or not. I get people like shiny new and A/C, but closed door hallways make it harder to meet people, no question. Not impossible, but harder. And meeting people is one of the highest priorities in ensuring college success and happiness. But everyone likes what they like and there really isn’t a bad choice. @overit2019 nailed it, apply as soon as it opens. More tips and summaries once the acceptances come out, let’s get ya’ll in first!
^^^ As stated above, when it comes to freshmen housing, everyone has a different set of interests and priorities.
My oldest daughter wanted space… a unit that included a full kitchen, storage, a private bath and a living room. And to her, A/C throughout the unit was essential. For her, Webb Tower and its apartments was the only real option (at the time / it is no longer an option for freshmen). She found a prospective roommate here on CC, and they then picked their top choices in the exact same order. They only picked Webb and Fluor. USC Housing suggested that as the best approach, as they can satisfy two freshmen simultaneously.
She picked Century Apartments for her sophomore and junior years for the same basic list of reasons. For her senior year, she found a much cheaper private apartment on Royal near Troy.
My younger daughter joined her there for her freshman year experience. While it offered some advantages, I do not recommend that approach for freshmen. She missed out on a lot by not being on campus directly. Plus, the USC Housing commitment then does not apply. You will forever be considered a non-resident by USC Housing unless you partake in freshmen housing. It turned out okay, as she ended up living her sophomore and junior years within a sorority house. She has opted to live at Gateway for next year, her senior year.
Once admitted, I suggest reviewing the Housing Options page via https://housing.usc.edu/ as soon as feasible. Each building, whether a freshman residence hall or suite option, is described in fairly good detail, with floor plans and a description of features & amenities. As mentioned above, many are not air conditioned. Even some that are air conditioned are not so throughout the unit. You each can decide what is critical or not to you specifically. Many do of course opt for virtually no amenities… as they can only perceive of living in the dorm style residence halls. Doing so can of course aid in your social life. My daughter preferred socializing away from her apartment and then returning to the relative peace and quiet her apartment afforded her. I just recommend choosing wisely.
And yes… sign-up just as soon as the housing portal is open for applications. You can alter your choices and roommate selections, if applicable, later. But being signed up sooner… or having a roommate who did so… is helpful in terms of getting the assignment you are seeking…
@CADREAMIN Has your birdie heard if the online switch for next week will effect when the portals are planned to be updated?
how can you become a spring admit? I guess my question is, what distinguishes a spring admit from a rejection?
a spring admit means you’re not rejected but admitted for spring 2021, which is a transfer student
I don’t think Spring admit is considered a transfer student. You can take community college courses if you want during the fall but your’e not required to. Calling @romns116 - he can speak to this better. But my understanding is that Spring admit is simply one of the things you could be offered rather than Fall admit.
USC on Spring Admits:
https://admissionblog.usc.edu/5-questions-answered-about-spring-admission/
Being a USC Spring Admit means your student will start attending on campus in the 2nd semester of their Freshman year. Once the student is on campus, there is absolutely no distinction between a Fall or Spring admit. The biggest downside (in my son’s opinion) was not being on campus during football season 
Just like the incoming students in the Fall, the Spring admits have all of the same welcoming events to help the student (and family) feel welcomed. Winter Welcome Week is jam packed with some larger events (ie convocation in Bovard) and some smaller, more focused events (each school has orientation sessions). We left welcome week very impressed with the way USC goes out of their way to help the student assimilate into campus life.
The 11% acceptance rate, helped solve the housing shortage incoming freshman dealt with in 2018. Both Fall and Spring incoming freshman students for 2019 had no issues with housing. The following is quoted verbatim from the acceptance letter.
“Spring admission is USC’s way of managing the size of the entering class. Some institutions do this by asking students to remain an uncertain, wait-list status; we instead offer select students the opportunity to begin their USC studies in January – just one fifteen-week semester later –when we can typically accommodate more students.”
Ultimately, we viewed the spring admission as a two-fold blessing: more time with our son at home AND a $38k COA discount.
How do they handle housing for spring admits?
Size-wise, how many Spring admits they offer each year? Any one has any clue?
On campus housing is guaranteed for all spring admits, but no guarantee the student will get one of their choices.
Our son followed @WWWard ’s recommendation of matching up housing app preferences with their potential roommate. This seemed to help in our case.
There were ~350 students present at the convocation this past January. I remember reading that ~670 students were offered spring admission for c/o 2023. In SCA, there were ~29 students, including 5 in CAMS.
The high yield isn’t surprising because (based on our interactions) the spring admits really wanted to be at USC. A handful of students spoke about turning down acceptances at higher ranking schools.
Lastly, a surprising amount (again limited by actual conversations) of students got in through appeal. If you really want to be a Trojan, crafting a convincing appeal may not be as far fetched as some think, but that’s for a different conversation.
Last year had way more successful appeals than ever before, maybe because of the scandal, enrollment predictions off or other factors, not sure. Over the last 10 years, Brennan always gave the stats on successful appeals at some meeting or another, and sometimes it was less than 10, and some years between 10-20. About 1000-1100 send in appeals. Last year was definitely atypical for appeals, don’t recall the figure I heard and don’t want to guess. We will see what happens this year!
Spring admit allows them to fill spots in classes and housing left by students studying abroad and allows them to admit more excellent students that they just didn’t have room for. Definitely not a transfer student, you are an incoming freshman.
@romns116 @CADREAMIN Thank you so much for the info. It’s a relief to know this.
@CADREAMIN how do the spring admits do socially, do you know? Is it harder for them to assimilate? Make friends? Are the grouped together at all? I’ve often wondered about this. I know it’s still a great option if USC is a top choice.
@CADREAMIN , since many schools are cancelling study abroad programs, will USC not have as many spring admits this year?
@throwaway0324 Ya know, that makes sense, but obviously there is a lot in flux - they aren’t cancelling abroad study, just bringing home current students in some cases (Italy and South Korea). We can hope a lot of this is settled in the fall and we get back to the norm. But they don’t know exactly what will happen either so they just do their best with algoriths. Estimating the yield which has usually been pretty static is now more of a guessing game with new variables like the scandal and certainly current events. It will be interesting to more or less appeals. Last year a lot of spring got moved to fall, which has a lot to do with major/size of program, not just overall university figures. It is a juggling or shell game to say the least - lots of moving pieces given current events.
I really don’t see how packages could go early now that they are doing the online beta test this week, there has to be a lot to do to make sure 7000 classes are up and funtioning online, grading processing fine, etc., on top of making plans for an landscape that is changing daily. While not admissions, the impact of all this must be felt staff-wide. They are a college, not Apple or IBM in terms of staff. I hope to hear in the next day or two as my birdie flies around.
I don’t know if it has been mentioned but Spring Admits can become Fall Admits if there is less than expected students accepting admissions for the Fall. In a way, it is USC’s waiting list since they don’t have one.
Does anybody know when the decision is supposed to come back? I know it said April 1st, but multiple people on reddit and CC have said it’s before or April 1st exactly. I applied economics to the arts and science school if that makes any difference. Thanks!
@schmendy27 see posts #926 and #939 re dates decisions are expected.