The countdown to Decisions is now less than 100 hours away. Only 3 more days… March 24th… likely around 4-5pm pacific time. Good luck to all of this year’s applicants… Fight On! 
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Hi! Is there any truth to the theory that siblings of current Trojan students are routinely rejected and shuffled to the TTP? We have heard this quite a bit.
As a music applicant, my kid is in a group that wasn’t eligible for EA, and we’re assuming he’ll still be considered for some kind of scholarship.
I know it’s a different thing, but sort of related, I’ve heard USC is generous with FA for those of us with more modest incomes. Does anyone know about that?
With a projected USC admit rate of only 9.75% this cycle, and with the recent trend that even 90% of all legacy applicants and circa 4K applicants with 4.0 unweighted GPAs and test scores in the 99th percentile among those not gaining admission, it is accurate to say that having a SCion or legacy connection will not aid an applicant much anymore.
There are just far too many applicants in total. This cycle, circa 81K applicants are competing for just around 7900 spots in terms of the amount they have stated that they will be admitting. Around 2400 were admitted EA, so that leaves just around 5500 or so to be admitted additionally this Friday. Overall, I suspect that this cycle will also see around 90% of all legacy applicants not gain admission. Many of those will be offered the Trojan Transfer Plan (TTP) however.
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It just really depends. They can be quite generous. It will just depend on how they evaluate that family’s ability to pay. USC’s FA offerings were such that both of my daughters were able to attend, including one overlap year.
But, FA decisions (and regardless of the college making them) can be a shock to many families.
And USC will be no exception as many will be astonished by the eventual FA offering. It accounts in large measure for the yield rate at USC only being circa 40% in recent years. 4900 or so of the eventual 7900 admitted to USC this cycle by March will end up enrolling elsewhere. And financial considerations will be the primary factor for many of those eventual decisions to pass on USC.
Most schools will expect families to convert assets or equity into available cash for college expenses. They evaluate both parents, whether still married or not, in terms of all known or disclosed personal and business assets versus all known or disclosed personal and business liabilities. If there is perceived net worth there… whether liquid or not… and whether individually owned (in terms of divorced parents) or jointly owned by a married couple, they do expect you to pay utilizing some if not all of it, even if you have to borrow against non-liquid assets.
It simply comes down to what they know about your family situation in total and how they then calculate your “ability to pay”. And that of course often does not correlate well with the family’s perception of their own ability to pay. And this calculus can vary widely given the parameters being used.
For example, some schools do not think that a student should have to go in debt with loans, some say that a family should not have to pay tuition for their student if the combined income is below a certain threshold, etc. But even such declarations are not iron clad if schools are also evaluating perceived net worth and available assets that could be used in some manner… whether liquidated for cash or borrowed against.
And even if a family’s ability to pay is calculated to be very low, schools like USC will expect the student at least to have a work study job and utilize student loans to contribute toward the cost of attending.
Before an admitted applicant panics after receiving an unexpected FA offering, maybe ask yourself as a family some key questions… Does the college or university truly understand your financial situation fully? Have you actually listed every known or projected liability? Have you made them aware of every recurring monthly or yearly expense? Is there a medical condition that they need to be made aware of… or an obstacle with your family business, if applicable, etc? Is your income situation somehow untenable moving forward, possibly reducing your projected income?
Any extra potential relief from the cost of attending for a family will come via an analysis of income, assets, liabilities and the like. So, just make sure that they fully understand your family’s financial condition now and projected moving forward before you abandon all hope.
Good luck on that front to all of those admitted EA or by this Friday to USC who are still trying to work out the numbers via merit (hopefully) and FA…
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Regarding a different private school, not USC, I have an appointment with their FA officer tomorrow to try to understand how they’ve come up with our “need”. It’s absurd! They suggest that we pay $66K a year, when we have a total family income under 100. We own our house. I wonder if they expect us to sell our home? I will be interested to hear what they have to say.
ETA: Work study and small loans would not be unexpected, of course! OTOH, we got an offer from another school that suggested, as part of our aid package, that we parents take a $120,000 private loan. 
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Yes, many schools will see your home as something you can sell or refinance to pay for college. And loans is the norm in financial aid offerings. Private schools are expensive and many are surprised at the level (income and assets) one has to be at to qualify for aid.
That may be the explanation, then. I didn’t even think of it as an option. I’ll find out soon. And I hope find out about USC as well!
Many private schools count the house as a “source of income” as well. But there’s a lot that goes into it. As @wwward said, it’s good to be sure they understand your overall situation. A popular misconception is thinking they will consider what someone owes on their house (or debt in general) as making them being better qualified for aid, but on the flip side don’t want them looking at the equity or other assets they have. Ya, it can’t work that way. USC looks at everything. And as how it has always been, the middle gets squeezed as they make/have too much to get aid, but not enough to afford admission. That’s why there is so much student loan debt out there!
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I’m not sure we can really get them to know us: a family who own an 800-square-foot 100-year-old house, who just make our budget some months, and whose total income is under 100K. To look at us and say, they can pay 66K, seems nuts.
To be clear, obviously USC hasn’t done this. Like everyone, we haven’t heard anything. I was just thinking about what might happen, and it got me onto the tangent of why this other school thinks we can afford that.
Hello all. When are decisions coming out does anyone know the date. Is it the 1st of April or 24th of March.
Im an RD applicant
The latter.
Oh really the 24th?
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One potential suggestion that may apply to you and others… when evaluating the potential equity in a home, which is the biggest potential asset for many families, I suggest using the actual current mortgage balance, if applicable, as the known liability. And when it comes to the perceived value, I would use the home value appraisal available via the county property appraiser’s office online versus some theoretical asset evaluation via a real estate company online. The tax assessment appraisal is often much less but remains legally defensible, as it is the local government’s appraisal versus some potential and only theoretical real estate sale. There is no point in providing an overvalued equity assessment, especially when schools may then expect you to borrow against it. Also, many forget, it seems, to list things like property taxes and homeowner’s insurance and the like when listing all known monthly or yearly liabilities. Again… schools can only evaluate you if they know the full picture. So, make sure that they know about every liability or financial commitment too… including all insurance policies and healthcare premiums, etc. Good luck…
This is excellent advice, thank you so much. I think we had a grasp of some of this at the time we filled out the CSS. My H was very sick during the time when it was due, and I was out of my element trying to answer all the questions alone. I’m hopeful for good news on Friday!
I met with financial aid office for another private school after having the same issue. In addition to the FAFSA estimated family contribution, the schools do their own internal formulation (using CSS info–we are a divorced family and my income alone was used for FAFSA and the estimated contribution was half of my annual income). The school’s estimate was bonkers, like multiple times the FAFSA calculation b/c it takes my ex’s income into account as well as their spouse’s and their savings, investments, etc. I was also told that they do look at home equity b/c even if we don’t borrow against the house now, eventually we will sell it and have money to pay for school. Which makes no sense to me b/c if we are expected to pay full price, by the time we sell our house in many years, school will have been paid for long ago. And it makes no sense to expect someone to sell their house to finance college, especially in LA, where our mortgages are already sky high but if we sold, any rental price would be at least double the already high mortgage we pay.
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They don’t expect anyone to sell their house, but it is a choice they have. And to be fair to everyone, they have to look at all of the assets and income that the student’s family has to use or not use. That is why the CSS is important to USC and other schools, it gives a much broader/clear picture. There are many people that liquidate or borrow against their home to put their kids through college - it’s a personal choice. But there are also a lot less expensive schools to choose from, particularly over the private schools.
Every year there are those that are so happy to get in, only to find out a week to two later that they can’t afford to attend because they don’t get FA or not enough - it is best to have that conversation with your student well ahead of that so it’s not a shocker.
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@BeverlyWest I am by no means a rich guy at all, but for the most part, all middle class Americans are in this boat now. We don’t have to apply to private schools. We are choosing to do so, and that may be stupidity on our part. In the past, only the rich, or at least the upper middle class, even bothered applying to expensive private schools. Also, 25-years ago, these schools weren’t as ridiculously expensive as they are now – even when factoring in inflation. When federal student loans got backed by the government, all these privates, and the public schools as well, drastically increased their tuition prices. Eventually, there will probably be a breaking point, where parents like us just go with a good, affordable option. Like the old saying goes: “Nothing cures high prices, like high prices.”
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I thought USC no longer used home equity as part of their asset calculation? That was announced starting with college graduating class of 2024. Or have they gone back to using it?
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