<p>Hooray! A job-lead for lamedaughter :D</p>
<p>(Our Trojan Family story: a college confidential Trojan-parent forwarded lamedaughter’s resume to a Trojan-alum friend and within 24 hours lamedaughter had the world’s most fabulous internship - unending thanks to that anonymous college confidential Trojan-parent 
)</p>
<p>Yes!!!</p>
<p>Does anybody have any advice for a 9th grader looking at USC?</p>
<p>Yes, don’t focus on colleges right now. You will change your mind 100 times. Enjoy your time in high school right now. We will be here for you in 2 years!</p>
<p>I will differ with stalkermama! If you have ideas of what colleges you might be interested in, 9th grade is about the time to start collecting info. Read up on financial aid so you can have that discussion with your parents! They might not be aware of issues in regards to financing college and financial aid. Yes you may change your mind 100 times but you may not!. Learn about USC. If you have an idea of what you want to major in, see if USC is a good fit.</p>
<p>I would make a few suggestions: Look at the admitted student profiles. See what made each student stand out. See what general requirements are needed for admission to schools that you want to attend. Find your passion(s) academically and ecs. Be yourself and find your own interests. Have a wonderful time in high school. You’ll do fine.</p>
<p>Yup. and if you are a parent…be careful about the “if you can get in, we’ll find a way” statement. and if you’re the student…be wary if you hear the “if you can get in, we’ll find a way” statement. Many well meaning parents blurt that out…thinking that S or D “probably” won’t get in to the $55k a year school. But guess what. It happens. So while you shouldn’t obsess about college as a 9th grader…you can think about some of the preliminaries. Also…if you’re fixated on one school…get that out of your mind NOW. There are hundreds of great schools.</p>
<p>I’m not focused with only one college. So far, I’ve seen colleges I thought were great, then something I saw made me back away. I’ll keep my options open. Thanks for all the tips!</p>
<p>This weekend we have been finalizing our travel plans for graduation this May. I truly cannot believe how fast the last four years have gone. Four years ago I made my very first post right here on this thread, so this is the perfect place for today’s post.</p>
<p>Four years ago our family went through much of what you are going through right now - the wait for the letters, the mystery of the Trustee/Presidential invitations, the excitement of Explore, the worry about scholarship decisions, the confusion of housing decisions, the doubt about Thematic Option applications…</p>
<p>USC had been a school applied to as part of a well-thought out application list - it wasn’t her first, her second or even her third choice as applications were submitted. But over the months as she gathered more information about USC, attended Explore, and looked carefully at her own goals, USC kept popping up in her conversation as a good “fit.”</p>
<p>I just looked at the date and time of that first post of mine - April 30th at 11:01 pm. Lamedaughter had waited until, literally, the 11th hour to make her college decision. She was humbled to have received admissions to wonderful schools, all with generous offers of scholarships, but choosing just one and letting go of the others was proving to be a very painful decision. For a full week she had been telling people she had chosen UC Berkeley, as if “trying it on for size” by saying it out loud, but she hadn’t submitted her confirmation deposit. Finally on the evening of April 30th, I told her it was time to submit her deposit. Though it was officially due on the 1st of May, her pragmatic lame-mother was concerned about server overloads, power outages and dozens of other last-minute disasters that could leave her without a college option and wanted it done a day in advance.</p>
<p>She sat down at her computer and I saw that she had UC Berkeley’s SIR site up. I handed her the credit card and told her once again how proud we were of all she had accomplished and all that was before her. I was across the room smiling to myself as I saw her sit there for 15 minutes, her hand hovering over the mouse… Finally, at 11pm, she clicked and typed and clicked again and jumped up announcing, “I’m going for a run.” As she ran out the door she called back over her shoulder, “I picked USC.”</p>
<p>Her dad and I looked at each other in complete surprise! He and I had talked about how much WE liked USC and thought it was the best choice, but we had resolved not to say a word to lamedaughter - we wanted her college choice to be HER college choice.</p>
<p>My first post on this very thread was made moments after she ran out the door with her surprise announcement. I suddenly felt a part of the Trojan Family and wanted to jump in in some way - a post on the USC forum seemed a perfect way to do that!</p>
<p>Since that day, USC has exceeded every expectation and taken lamedaughter around the world. I know those of you who have already attended Explore have been told about all the research opportunities for undergraduates - it is TRUE. Lamedaughter submitted a research proposal her first semester, and that first summer was on a plane headed overseas for a two-month project fully funded by USC - including airfare. Internships thanks to the Trojan Family have been offered to her and gratefully accepted. Study abroad was an amazing experience. Thematic Option provided an education as good as any university in the world and cross-registration in the various schools of USC was as easy as walking into the department office and asking. From music lessons on the instruments of her choice from world-class musicians to minoring in Cinema/TV at the world’s best film school, at USC she found the opportunities to be limitless.</p>
<p>I hope each of you finds a school that is as good a fit for you as USC turned out to be for my daughter. </p>
<p>Best of luck to one and all,</p>
<p>Fight On.</p>
<p>Standing ovation for lamedaughter and alamemom! I can’t believe it’s been 4 years. For some reason, I don’t remember all those details about her last minute decision. Wow. </p>
<p>My sons have experienced the same type of extraordinary opportunities as lamedaughter in their separate Schools/majors. It’s hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t observed this school recently how many choices for serious work, enrichment and involvement are available. Professors often reach out to students to offer them funded research (madson1 had amazing summer positions which resulted in getting published). And madson2 was approached in his first semester at USC by a prof in another department–not even his major–to offer him a creative position in one of their productions because he’d once told her of his interest in that field. Until my sons attended USC, I had no idea that departments sent emails dozens of times per week to students in major offering leads to internships, employment, and other exceptional programs. All this is on top of the wonderful courses, panel discussions with industry guests, film screenings, concerts, Visions & Voices events, etc.</p>
<p>We can’t believe madson1 will be graduating in 2 months. The time is just flying too fast. Among his highlights, he also decided to try Thematic Option and thought it was amazing. He was sent by USC (fully paid, including flight) to Europe to collaborate on a creative project that went on to win an international prize. He loved his semester abroad, as well. And he’s sampled classes from the School of Architecture, Marshall, and Viterbi among others.</p>
<p>Lastly, he’s made friends of a lifetime and it’s hard to think he’ll soon be an alum. Luckily, our family gets to hang in with madson2 another 3 years. So like alamemom, I would love to hear from other parents and I welcome all the new Trojans who will be joining us in the coming months.</p>
<p>Congratulations to alamemom and madbean. We are at the front end of the USC journey. Son2 is finishing freshman year and given how well things have gone it’s impossible to imagine a better fit for him.</p>
<p>To tofugirl: the best advice I can give a freshman in high school is same for trying to get into any school - Work Hard, Do Your Best and Have Fun. Do those in that order and you shouldn’t have too many problems in 3 years.</p>
<p>To alamemom and madbean…Congratulations!!! You made it through along with your kids.</p>
<p>I can’t believe that I am adding to this thread: My baby is also graduating from USC on May 11th. She has grown and grown up. Honestly when she started everything was so up in the air…what would she study/would she study? And the young woman, like her sister before her, has emerged as a different person.</p>
<p>The know it all high school senior who “knew” she wouldn’t get in, who “knew” that she knew it all…has become a self assured, bright young woman who maybe acknowledges that she didn’t know it all. But she has learned so much.</p>
<p>And yes, when we travel, we wear our USC sweatshirts proudly.</p>
<p>To all the parents: Yeah team!!!</p>
<p>Wow! So lucky and happy to find this thread which is a treasure trove of information! My D is going to USC for grad school this fall. She’s quite young, and will be the same age as most juniors/seniors. I’m kinda scared to death. I live in a very rural area. She is at undergrad in a small city now. Nothing has prepared her for LA. How did/do you all deal with that? What about the ones who have gone to off campus housing? How involved we’re you in their choice and ultimate decision? I’m fairly sure she won’t get on campus housing or apartments.</p>
<p>Jager:</p>
<p>You have excellent questions. But I think that you should start your own specific thread. This is a LOOONG thread and readers may not get to your question and/or not be able to answer it once they get to it.</p>
<p>Since we live here…well, we’re used to it.</p>
<p>Fight on!</p>
<p>congrats, Alamemom and madbean!</p>
<p>Thanks! And congrats to ellebud, too. I’m so impressed with your wonderful D2! Feels like we’ve been the Three Class of 2012 parent Musketeers of CC.</p>
<p>Thank you so much. WE have been quite a trio. I am looking forward to see where this journey of life takes all of us…kids and parents’</p>
<p>Alememom: Thank you for your post. My son sent in his acceptance and we now are waiting to hear if his twin sister gets in. They wanted to go to the same school if possible but I convinced my son he had to do what was best for him. So far his sister was accepted at UCI so they would not be to far apart.
I’m rambling. I wanted to say thank you for your post as it assures me we have made the right choice. He will be in Viterbi.</p>
<p>Brought forward for those who wish to read some comments from USC parents…</p>
<p>Are there any seats left in the waiting room?</p>
<p>We attended the final session of Explore with our daughter and are now waiting, like so many of the rest of you.</p>
<p>I have enjoyed reading about all of your experiences. Thanks so much for sharing!</p>
<p>It is good to know that we are not alone… :)</p>