I thought they said by April 1? So it could be any day.
Thanks! You, @CADREAMIN , and @WWWard have been very helpful these past few days! Best of luck to us both!
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You would need to file and copy them before any college or university, most likely, finalizes your FA offering.
Why did they just ask me for my parent’s 2019 tax form this morning… it’s literally on both FAFSA and CSS profile that they received months ago!
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It’s part of their verification process. Just the FAO double/triple checking.
It is a stretch. Over the years, I have tracked many who thought FA contacts and requests meant a probable admission… only to learn that they too were rejected. Clearly, many are also admitted who experience the same via FA. But it is in no way an early indicator.
FA and Admissions are operating on separate paths now, and you cannot gain any hints at this stage. I can see from many recent posts that a # of you are trying to do so, but USC is very experienced at this and does not offer early hints.
There used to be one such documented early hint via SDA, when they would invite admitted students early to an acting showcase, but that too has ended as best I can tell. At least it did not occur during the last two cylces.
You may not believe so, but they do.
I somewhat agree with this… I just spoke with a FA rep regarding a waiver we thought was already approved. She advised me they do not look at waivers until admissions sends acceptances over. They are now looking to fill empty holes/collecting data.
On another note, I still think it’s a waste of time for them to follow through and request data from specific students if there’s no chance of an acceptance. Totally counterproductive but hey, that’s just me cashing in my 2 cents.
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In my two daughters’ cases, they asked for all tax return copies for both parents and the students each and every year. They do not care that you told #s to CSS or FAFSA. They want the copies too. And it is completely normal. To be honest, they ask for a lot. And they often ask more than once… even after you sent it in. They are meticulous, and it can get a bit annoying. But such is the price of receiving FA these days, if applicable. In our family’s case, it was all worth it, as the FA was sufficient to allow two daughters to attend USC… even with one overlay year.
Good luck…
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@WWWard @CADREAMIN I’m sorry because I know that this has been discussed before but I can’t find it. My daughter was just awarded a $2,500 National Merit Scholarship. She has to accept it by 4/7. If she is admitted to USC and decides to attend, does accepting that affect her ability to receive USC NMF $? I remember reading you could accept one type of NMF scholarship but maybe that Corp or school sponsored. I may also be getting it confused with the Benacquisto Scholarship rules. TIA!
D is applying for SDA, no special correspondence other than we too are needing to send 2020 Tax returns etc.
I’m not actually sure. But you will know if she is admitted by then, and NMFs who name USC as their top choice get half off tuition. So I would simply wait and see. Hopefully someone else will chime in too by then to confirm.
I have not heard of anyone bringing up those SDA invitations this cycle. Back before 2019, it used to be an early indicator. If you had applied to SDA and received that special invite to an event on campus in April, it basically meant you knew you were in. They were received back then 1-2 weeks before the admissions announcement date. But again, I cannot recall that being the case in 2019 or 2020. Good luck.
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How does the USC admissions cycle work? Do they compare you against kids from the same school? Or is it like the school you applied to rates your application? R my chances higher if I applied I was the only one from my school to apply to USC and I applied to less popular major/school?
I don’t know everything about this so I’ll leave holes in what I don’t know but here goes.
Do they compare you against kids from the same school?
Yes, if multiple people from your school applied to USC they will look at your performance in high school compared to theirs when trying to judge the “context of your achievement”. (i.e. You got an academic award but 70% of your school gets one anyway so it’s less prestigious). Unless you’re applying for the same major, I don’t believe you are directly competing with your classmates for a spot.
Or is it like the school you applied to rates your application?
The school you applied to and the USC Office of Admission (more notably your admissions counselor from what I’m aware of) both review your application.
R my chances higher if I applied I was the only one from my school to apply to USC and I applied to less popular major/school?
If you applied to a less popular school, yes your chances go up statistically, however if you’re trying to “game” the system they’ll be able to see through it in your application. I don’t think you being the only one from your school to apply to USC will have any bearing on if you get in or not.
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unfortunately there were over 7400 high schools whose students applied to USC and none of applicants were admitted.
In general, if a school is new to AO, it is slightly disadvantaged. In particular, I don’t know if USC are doing so.
There were schools that USC admitted 25 and 14 kids. It left little space for other HS with over 3 students who were admitted to USC last year.
The other way was to drill down how many actually number of students actually enrolled (not just admitted) to USC, state by state. e.g. Utah 8 , Wyoming 1, OK 2, MT 3, CA 1731, KS 12, TX 129 etc, make your own observation and interpretation
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Tagging onto what @lemonlulu said, if your school uses Navience, you can see how many students your school admits to USC year over year approximately. Some schools will admit more or less than others. That’s just how it goes.
There were schools that USC admitted 25 and 14 kids. It left little space for other HS with over 3 students who were admitted to USC last year.
Notably, most of these schools were in California, so there’s definitely a preference given to local students unfortunately. However, it’s not the end-all-be-all, since everyone is still given a fair review.
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it is helpful say if you know 4 to 6 of your HS alumni have been admitted to a univ in past 3 to 4 years. There is higher chance you can get in. I seen this but don’t want to name the univ name here. it is not top 20 but people on CC would not say that univ is saftey to any one My guess is AO knows the performance to the previously admitted student in their univ and seen the LOR likely from same teachers.
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Yeah, in my personal experience, my school admits about 8 students to USC year over year (we had 14 students one year but then it got slashed in half). I remember hearing somewhere that USC actually compares performance from students who are currently attending from your high school to make decisions as well.
I assume the number of students admitted per high school is based on the performance of prior admitted students from your high school.
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Is the USC new tuition plan legit? Will families making less than 80k really get free tuition? If so, how much does it leave families to pay for? It just seems too good to be true.
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