- Owning a home will not be counted in the calculation used to determine a student’s financial need.
In addition, the new policy will not take home ownership into account when calculating a student’s financial need. This rule change is intended to address the surging housing prices in southern California, which can warp the optics of a family’s financial situation when a large portion of their money is tied up in their house.
Does anyone know is the 5500 admits anticipated this Friday includes Spring admits? How many students are usually admitted for Spring term?
I don’t know if the 5500 will include spring admits, but my friend’s 2022 son was a spring admit - apparently 20% of his class (approx 800 students) were spring admits
Random questions I have for March 24th for decision day:
Does USC admit by major or by just qualifications in general?
How large is the USC waitlist percentage wise and are people usually taken off of the waitlist?
Is their an established time for when decisions will be released on Friday?
Thanks so much for the help!
The freshman mandatory Cardinal meal plan is $7300. Unless you are in non-USC housing, you have to pay that amount, there is no choice. Sophomores on campus have to do the apartment plan, which is much less thankfully.
Thanks. However, USC lists dining/meals as the same whether a student is on a freshman meal plan or living off campus.
My child was at home freshman year because the school was closed. Sophomore year, she lived in the Village (dorms) on an apartment plan + supplemental funds from us. We didn’t pay anything close to $7K. She now lives off campus and we are paying even less.
We bought our Viterbi student an iPad and Apple pen but have not had to pay for any other academic supplies. We have not spent any $$ on books.
I understand everyone is different. I’m just sharing our personal experience.
| On/Off Campus | With Parents or Relatives | |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition (12-18 units for two semesters) | $66,640 | $66,640 |
| Fees | $1,597 | $1,597 |
| Housing | $11,910 | $2,594 |
| Dining/meals | $7,290 | $3,636 |
| Books and supplies | $1,200 | $1,200 |
| Personal and miscellaneous | $1,820 | $1,820 |
| Transportation | $464 | $1,868 |
| Total | $90,921 | $79,355 |
My son is a sophomore and most get admitted by school (Marshall, Viterbi, Dornsife, etc.). Applicants did get to pick a first and second-choice school on the Common App. I think someone else here had said that some get selected to USC undeclared, but it is probably a small number. USC does not have a waitlist. You are either accepted for fall semester or spring. My son got his acceptance in the afternoon in 2021. Good luck!
The majority of freshmen lived on campus for the past two years, so you’re on the hook for the meal plan. Next year as a junior living off campus should make it much cheaper unless they eat at Cava or one of the restaurants in the Village every day. Books are a lot less than $1200 especially if you rent them or buy the online version.
USC admits by school and major next Friday, usually around 4pm. There is no waitlist but they will be admitting for both fall and spring. They plan on spring class being 600-800 and admit according, based on enrollment projections. Sometime people are pulled from spring to fall, but generally not many unless way less enroll than expected which happened once in last 15 years or so. People think of spring admission as sorta like the waitlist…
Freshman year they are required to have a meal plan. Sophomore year, If they are living in university owned apartments (The Village, Cardinal Gardens, Century, etc), they are only required to have the apartment plan.
I was deferred early action. Just checked my portal because the regular decision are coming up and I did not do the Early Action Deferral Reply Form. I did it just now and got a confirmation email but I doubt that changes anything. My mid-year transcripts were sent by my school regardless. I think I know the answer but will I get a regular decision update? I can’t believe there wasn’t any reminder for this anywhere but I guess it’s on me for not reading past the first paragraph of the letter.
Mine certainly didn’t save money on food after freshman year - one was in a group that loved going to BH and Santa Monica for nice dinners quite often. I think what they didn’t spend on a meal plan they just spent elsewhere. But each student can look to save money (or spend more money) in different ways.
@j44ckson Totally agree with you - I can’t believe there weren’t more reminders - I didn’t see any on insta or twitter - that makes no sense cause they remind people of everything. Which makes me wonder if everyone deferred will still be considered, at least this first year, or it’s just a final answer already. We won’t know till decisions come out or if someone wants to call and ask. If I were you I would, you have nothing to lose. You aren’t alone on this, we had another poster that just realized this too. So chances are you are out of the running, but I would confirm that with them.
True, especially since literally every applicant who wasn’t accepted was deferred, lol. I checked with some of my friends, and the majority of them also did not know about this. At this point, I’d rather just wait three days to find out, and if it’s the bad outcome, I’ll just say I was rejected 
I’m the first person/sibling in my family to apply to college, and the importance of checking portals wasn’t stressed enough to me. I’ve had multiple similar problems that I thankfully resolved in time. It baffles me how I can spend weeks writing responses to supplemental questions and activity lists, just for it to be jeopardized by not submitting a PDF; in this case, literally not clicking a button.
Do you have a guidance counselor who can help?
Are you a first generation student?
It is a common reaction to get news like being deferred or rejected then not read beyond the first sentence or two. Unless they had big yellow letters or sent out reminders, it does seem a little cruel to be knocked out on this technicality.
Yes, I will be a first-generation college student.
I do have a school counselor, but I’m really just looking for a yes/no answer at this point.
I read through the previous thread here about this topic three days ago, and it seems like nobody is certain that it means the application is closed. Obviously, it logically makes sense that it would be the case, in addition to the form being listed in the portal as a “required application element” that “must be completed by each applicant for any subsequent admission to be valid” (from the portal).
Despite that, it makes no sense how discretely placed this form was in the letter – not even in the first section of text. And to your point, @CADREAMIN, it is very common to close the letter after that. If this is all just poor design because it’s the first year they are using EA, that is very unfortunate. I take a little comfort in the fact that others are similarly surprised by this, though. I’m just going to log into that portal on Friday and pray 
.
I understand. My kids are not FG but they messed up at their ED school where they were deferred, they were supposed to send an update letter by Feb 1 and that was in the deferral letter which they also did not focus on. They sent one but it was closer to March 1 even though they are both still very interested.
I really think you should talk to your school counselor at this point. As a FG student with no one guiding you, you are in a very different position than many. Perhaps he or she can make a phone call tomorrow to admissions if they think it is worth while or provide other suggestions. There is no downside to talking to the school counselor and asking them for advice since that is their entire job as
What does first generation have to do with anything? Everyone received notice of their standing and simply reading the response from the college explains what is required. First generation is obviously getting an extra look these days and now we have to explain the deferral letters? Come on. If you screwed up and missed the next steps, then send a note to the Admissions office and beg for forgiveness, but this first generation stuff is no excuse.
To echo what’s been said here, USC , unlike most major elite schools, doesn’t do a “Waitlist”. They do “Spring Admission”, or you simply don’t get into the school and have to try later as a Transfer.
