Marshall does not have a language requirement either.
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Since the National Merit Scholarship Corp says a student can get only one award, if a student remains undecided on first choice college in March (before they know if they are accepted) is there a risk the NMSC gives them one of their $1-2.5K scholarships and that this would make them ineligible for the larger USC half-tuition award, or is it unrelated?
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Unrelated to the half tuition scholarship. I can explain more details in the NM thread if you have additional questions.
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Anyone got email from USC about mid year grades
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Got an email asking to submit mid year grades
No email. But school counselor uploaded the mid year grades to common app around Jan 26 and then USC automatically downloaded them. They do want them, so do get it to them asap.
USC even posted on social media a few weeks ago to please submit mid year grades.
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Any idea when decisions will be out?
Our school sends them automatically as soon as they are ready - this year it was around February 3rd. USC does want them and has downloaded them, so get them in as soon as you can.
@CADREAMIN posted recently
They always publicly use 4/1 date, but they also always get them out by March 23-25th - for years and years. Waiting till 4/1 would be silly and behind every other school they compete with for applicants.
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Thank you!
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This is not true though for Yale or Princeton - they don’t have merit for early actions as an exemption.
@catlalib I hope you were able to get this sorted out with FA office. Replying because I didn’t see one from anyone else, but you probably figured it out.
We had similar confusion when dealing with the ID (9 digit vs 10 digit) years ago. The 9 digit number is a reference to the application, and the 10 digit number is the actual ID of the applicant. When you log into FAST, top right corner is your 10 digit ID.
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We are now likely 30-33 days out from USC’s RD announcements. Here’s hoping that the circa 78K applicants still awaiting the final decision are managing the waiting process well. I recall distinctly the angst and turmoil of that waiting process back in 2014 and 2017 for our family. The wait from late January to late March was especially frustrating.
Hopefully most applicants already have a solid admission elsewhere in-hand to soften the blow should an admission to USC fail to materialize. Unfortunately, only 5500 or so of those circa 78K will be receiving good news via USC.
Are most similarly elite colleges and universities announcing around the same time, March 21st-24th? Hopefully some schools manage to announce earlier.
And let’s just hope that all of these admission decisions are rendered thoughtfully and fairly… and solely by well-qualified evaluators. Hopefully the day will never come when such decisions will be instead made dispassionately by some A.I.-centric algorithm or computer model.
Good luck to all awaiting the balance of your admission decisions at USC and elsewhere…
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My son is a national merit finalist. He applied EA to USC and got deferred. USC is his first choice. Would listing USC as his first choice by March 1st be considered as documented student interest and perhaps influence admission decisions in late March? He is considering listing Boston University as his first choice only because their deadline is March 1st. But he doesn’t want to loose any chance of notifying USC that they are still his top choice before they make their final admission decision. Sorry if this has been answered somewhere else before. Thanks for any advice.
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Same situation. Except had already listed USC as first choice. I doubt they even bother looking at it.
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BU requires that an applicant declare their first choice by March 1. USC’s deadline is May 31.
According to the USC Common Data Set, USC does not track demonstrated interest.
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We are now of course entering the period, through April 1st, wherein hundreds of thousands of high school seniors are awaiting the balance of their college admission decisions. Good luck to all of the applicants who applied to USC and elsewhere this cycle. Disappointment will unfortunately be experienced by far too many. I urge those experiencing such disappointment to simply focus on the positive opportunities elsewhere versus dwelling on the lost ones.
USC is clearly a great option for college, but it is also only one of many potential pathways to greatness. There are literally scores of elite colleges and universities out there, and many of them can serve as an equally valuable foundation for your eventual success.
I have made the following statement each cycle, as I believe it to be very true…
Unfortunately, rejection does come along in life. It’s what you do next that matters most. Steven Spielberg desperately wanted to attend USC SCA… so much so that he tried three times to gain admission. He was rejected all three times. And now there is a building bearing his name within the SCA complex. Another film director, Bryan Singer, tried and was rejected by USC and SCA. He tried a second time and got into USC but again not into SCA. He then succeeded as an internal transfer on his third try and was finally admitted to SCA. Persistence can also pay off.
Many have faced rejection to their dream schools. In my day, for me… it was Harvard… but Harvard saw it differently. Harvard also rejected Dr. Harold Varmus twice. He simply went on to win a Nobel Prize in Medicine. Harvard also rejected Warren Buffet. They surely would like a do-over on that one.
Every year around this time, it is important to remember that rejections need not control our lives. And with the way that things have evolved… with the Common Application making it far too common for high school seniors to apply to 10+, 15+ or even 20+ schools, those rejections are bound to add up. My older daughter was rejected by 12 out of 17 in 2014. But these rejection letters are not true assessments of student aptitude or ability or the quality of an application. They are simply the natural evolution of a cruel #s game.
USC could clearly admit tens of thousands of quality applicants this year. They are instead stuck with the arduous, unwelcome and nearly impossible task of only picking circa 7900 out of a field of 80K+. They already admitted 2400 or so EA and will now add another 5500 or so next month. In that process, USC will even have to reluctantly disappoint 90% of all legacy applicants.
As Warren Buffet says in the article linked below: “The truth is that everything that has happened in my life…that I thought was a crushing defeat at the time, has turned out for the better. A temporary defeat is not a permanent one. In the end it can be an opportunity.”
To all of you active on CC or just following along without posting… good wishes and the best of luck getting in. If you do not get into USC, hopefully you will find your place at another great option. But clearly some will face disappointment. Some will not gain admission into their dream school. I wish it could be otherwise.
Here’s a link to an excellent article on the subject of those who went on to great success after facing such a similar set-back as aspirational high school seniors aiming for that dream school scenario…
Before They Were Titans, Moguls and Newsmakers, These People Were…Rejected
Some of the biggest names—Warren Buffett, Ted Turner and Nobel laureate Harold Varmus—were once rejected by the school of their dreams.
Good Luck to all those who applied to USC this cycle. But if the answer you are seeking does not come via USC by late March, simply embrace that alternate path to greatness. It’s out there waiting on you.
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What do you mean by list as first choice? Where do they do that? Thanks so much!
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Is this the National Merit finalist ranking or something additional? Thanks!