Wasn’t there an option for the student to put this in themselves? I believe my kids did this. Certainly, there was no option for UCs.
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Yes – and he did. The review of questions on the Common App doesn’t show it, though. (But it has been sufficiently explained to me by @derulz. Each school has their own filters for security and USC filters out test info on the preview and review, apparently.) I don’t know about other applicants, but my kids never had an interest in the UC schools – just USC. But we don’t live in California. I understand it is common for CA kids to apply to USC and the UC schools.
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I have the same; the top one containing the line Financial aid summaries will be released starting in early April. Does anyone else have this, especially if decisions come out <2 weeks?
is anyone’s financial aid portal down - I have never had this problem before
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yeah everyone has it. ppl talked abt it on reddit too and everyone had it.
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FA generally comes out 5 - 10 days after acceptances which is why they say early April. It’s usually that first week in April. Except for those they need more info from…
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so usc says their acceptance rate this year will be less than 10% (bc they’re adding ea people to rd people so obvi their acceptance rate will be lower). but i wonder how many of the ea people are actually unqualified and would’ve been rejected earlier on. like tho they say their acceptance rate will be less than 10%, i wonder how much higher it’d be given that atleast part of ea applicants are prob unqualified/would’ve been rejected in the first round, since usc only defers ea apps
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The overall acceptance rate is less than 10%. A total of 81,000 applied between RD and EA. They will accept a total of 7900 between RD and EA. This gives an overall acceptance rate of 9.75%
The RD rate would be way less, but also skewed as you say since they added all of the EA deferrals. They deferred 38,200 and added 40,400 in RD, for a total of 78,600 in the RD pool. As they will only accept about 5,500 from this pool, that acceptance rate is 7%.
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YIKES. That’s insane. I appreciate the math on it.
My thinking is that they would eliminate candidates that they were not interested in during the EA Phase and move anyone that could make the cut later to the RD pool.
My son was EA and deferred USC was his first choice he has 10 other acceptances with a ton of merit and one full ride . So what I wonder is who got in EA ? it was a small number. Also who applied RD knowing most are paying 90k a year since there is no merit given for RD applicants that are not need based . A crazy process IMO
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My daughter had to apply RD because her major is in the School of Cinematic Arts. They said that applicants that had to apply at this time would still be considered for merit. Also, they have very good Financial Aid, so not everyone is looking at 90k a year.
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USC didn’t reject anyone after EA. Everyone who was not accepted was deferred. Now, internally they likely had decisions for some of those students, but on paper, everyone was moved to RD.
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yeah, exactly. like atleast part of those ea applicants were probably already “rejected” (tho they only got deferred bc usc doesn’t do ea rejections). so i wonder how many of the ea applicants were actually unqualified or would’ve been rejected initially (if usc had ea rejections). bc yes usc now says their acceptance rate for rd will be less than 10%, but i wonder how skewed this acceptance rate is bc they included all the deferred applicants who would’ve been rejected initially. like how many of the total applicants are actually qualified? how much higher would the rd acceptance rate be if they had rejected all the unqualified ea applicants? like i feel the acceptance rate rn is skewed bc they include the deferred, unqualified applicants who would’ve been rejected initially (if they had rejections in ea)
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Assuming they accept 8k out of 80k acceptance rate is 10% or less. It doesn’t matter how many are accepted ea or regular. The number of total applicants and accepted students is static regardless of when they are accepted.
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yes, but i’m saying that their acceptance rate rn is about 7% for regular decision ALONE,since they deferred all of the ea applicants. however, if they’d rejected the unqualified ea applicants in the first round, there’d be less total applicants in the regular decision round, which would therefore increase the acceptance rate for RD round alone.
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Unfortunately, every new college application cycle tends to generate a more competitive environment in terms of gaining admission to most of America’s elite colleges and universities. That has especially been true regarding USC over the last decade.
The first year that I really paid attention to was 2013, as my older daughter was set to apply in 2014. Back then, USC was admitting around 20% of its total applicant pool. In 2014, USC ultimately admitted 9,358 of the 51,920 total applicants, resulting in an 18% admit rate. 3,098 of those 9,358 eventually enrolled, resulting in a yield rate of 33%. My younger daughter applied in 2017. In 2017, USC ultimately admitted 9,042 of the 56,675 applicants, resulting in a 16% admit rate. 3,358 of those 9,042 eventually enrolled, resulting in a yield rate of 37.1%.
By the time that my younger daughter graduated in 2021, the #s had changed dramatically. In 2021, USC admitted 8,884 of the 71,031 total applicants, for an admit rate of 12.5%. 3,668 of those 8,884 eventually enrolled, resulting in a 41.3% yield rate.
And now USC is already on record stating that they will be admitting only circa 7,900 of the circa 81K total applicants this year, for a projected admit rate of around 9.75%. So, in ten cycles, the USC admit rate has dropped from around 20% to less than 10%. Since their goal is to see a new freshman class of 3000-3250 actually enroll, they seem to be projecting a yield rate of 38-41% this cycle.
Clearly, my family had a tremendous advantage applying in application cycle environments when the admit rates were 16-18%. What a difference even 6-9 years has rendered. These new numbers at below 10% are truly daunting.
Best of luck to all of you awaiting the final decision via USC this cycle. Thankfully, the wait is nearly over. Just ten more days to go until USC posts the RD decisions to student portals on the afternoon of March 24th. Roughly 5,500 or so will be hearing the great news, joining the 2,400 or so already admitted EA. Far too many will be disappointed however. Those not hearing good news will ultimately equate to circa 73K out of the 81K who applied. Hopefully each of those not gaining admission to USC on March 24th will have solid options already in hand elsewhere.
And then ironically things will switch around for USC, as they will then try and do their best to court the 7,900 or so admitted this cycle. But history tells us that 4,650-4,900 or so of the circa 7,900 admitted will then ultimately elect to enroll elsewhere. Many will do so due to the pricing equation in terms of the total cost to attend.
It’s a cruel #s game all the way around… especially for those not admitted who are 100% confident that they would have and could have enrolled if simply admitted too.
Good luck and Fight On! 
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Not everyone was moved to RD. Only the students who specifically chose to be considered in RD and submitted the form.
For example, my son was deferred EA and did not choose to pursue RD (since he would have needed merit to afford USC), so he is not in the RD applicant pool.
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yeah so the acceptance rate will be higher considering the fact that many probably withdrew their apps for the rd round. i know many in the ea round who were deferred and withdrew their apps for rd. so the 7% rd acceptance rate is skewed. it’s actually higher than 7% if we consider the fact that many have withdrawn their apps, and the fact that atleast part of the total ea apps (that were added to the rd apps) were unqualified and would’ve been rejected initially.
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I understand that some withdrew apps as mentioned, but I doubt it was statistically significant as many like to leave the app there just to see what happens even if they can’t afford to attend. While closure is good, since they paid the app fee, I get just letting it ride to see what happens.
I wonder how many applied that were unqualified, not just those USC deemed unqualified. With test optional, it seems a lot more applicants are thinking it could be just luck dictating their acceptance, rather than understanding the true levels (in all kinds of aspects - scores/grades/passions/interests/ECs, etc) they need to get in any school, not just USC. I mean 81,000 apps - wow. So for some, I feel it’s an $80 lottery ticket they think they might as well try - can’t win if you don’t play!
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