USC Spring Admits 2019

We are still waiting for our yellow box in TX - can’t wait for the mail today!!!

I called admissions and the broken links are now fixed. Signed my daughter up for the 4/8 session. Anyone else going?

Also, they said we would get more information on housing in the fall. The person I talked to wasn’t sure about clubs.

Glad to see more people joining the thread. I have some questions related to the study abroad options.

  1. Are the four universities in Europe accredited in the US?
  2. Will the expenses paid to attend those schools qualify as 'eligible college expenses' for tax purposes?

These affect whether we can use money in 529 plans to pay for the costs and also whether we can claim AOC tax credit.

My daughter wasn’t a spring admit but has a friend who was, so I’ll answer some based on what I know.

As for clubs - at the beginning of each semester, there is a big involvement fair on campus where all the clubs are out there and the students can find out about them and how to join. I have not heard of any restrictions on joining clubs right away. From what I’ve seen, people make a lot of their friends in the clubs they join.

Greek Life - This year was a transitional year to deferred (spring) rush at USC. Freshman can no longer rush until they have a USC GPA, so for fall admits, that means spring rush as a freshman. For spring admits, they would not be eligible for formal sorority rush until spring of sophomore year (by Spring, I mean January). There is going to be an informal rush in the fall that would be available to sophomores, spring admits and transfers, but with informal, it’s not like a lot of spots are necessarily open in all sororities. For Fraternities, I’m not sure how it will work for the fall since their rush isn’t as structured. But the gist is you have to have a USC GPA (or be a transfer).

Housing - what I saw for housing for spring admits was that it is based on space available. It seems they try to put spring admits together where there are openings together. I have seen Spring admits live in Gateway and stay the whole year (they go to Santa Monica CC in the fall usually), but the disadvantage there is you do not get the USC Sophomore housing guarantee if you are not in campus housing. That said, some people find it cheaper to look for off campus housing anyway. But if you take advantage of the sophomore guarantee, you are most likely to be in housing that is predominantly sophomores, so more opportunities to meet people. This year housing for spring admits was a big problem due to the extremely large class due to the jump in yield. That was the driving factor in the lower number of acceptances this year.

Great info @TreeAlum! My sophomore rushed this past fall and joined but I certainly didn’t know all that about the Greek system.

@CADREAMIN I must be inspired to answer questions because I am visiting USC right now haha. Nice view of campus out of my USC Hotel window.

Thank you all for your helpful and informative comments. @TreeAlum for Admitted students day April 27, 2019, do you think Hotel USC is the best place to stay? Might we meet other Spring admits if we stay there?

@solarique I’m a bit embarrassed/ashamed to admit that I was like the poster boy of how not to act about receiving a spring admit decision. I was a transfer spring admit, so things were a little different for me. Anyway, I basically started with my counselor. He said that he knew pretty much nothing about how I could be bumped up to fall and suggested I contact my admissions counselor. He responded unfavorably and suggested I drop the subject. It actually came off as quite rude, so I guess they’re really not fans of whiners like me, haha. I then got a bit, well, crazy. I mailed a letter to the former USC prez’s house in San Marino. Months later, I get a response from the dean of Dornsife on his behalf stating that I should talk with my academic counselor, lol. So I was basically back where I started. There’s really nothing to be done about such things. The good news is that freshmen spring admits seem to be more likely to get bumped up. It’s probably not a significant chance, but it’s still there. Don’t be annoying like me.

@maddyb123 We stayed at the USC Hotel for admitted students day last year and there were definitely a lot of students in the hotel! I feel like you meet more people at orientation. You would be more likely to meet people if you plan to meet up via the facebook group or something. Btw, we loved admitted students day. Things could be different for spring admits but overall, when USC throws an event, they really know how to throw an event!

My D will, we are going to attend the one in April 15. She is admitted to East Asian Area Studies.

Thank you so much for your good words about spring admits. My D is supper happy, we never thought she is in any way less qualified than the Full admits.

Thank you @TreeAlum. I checked the FB page there are only 4 people mostly admins. Might it grow as the news settles in and people decide to indeed committ to being a Spring admit? I think the students will benefit from interacting and talking about their plans. Friendship will be important.

DS received scholarship email yesterday and is officially a Presidential Scholar. This is from being a NMF and naming USC as first choice, not from interviews in Feb. Posting for future Spring admits reference.

Getting more and more excited…

Congrats!!! So excited for you all.

Thanks! Will nudge DS to join FB group. He’s not the social media person and has been concerned with privacy etc, a bit uncharacteristic of his generation :-).

My D was a spring admit transfer student at USC many years ago. She just attended orientation in January, just before she began classes. It worked out great for her.

Hello again @HImom !
So nice to see you here. Wasn’t your D in SCA?

D originally was admitted as a sociology transfer, then her 1st week on campus switched to undeclared and then applied to SCA after meeting their requirements and submitted a competitive application. She was accepted to SCA and got her degree in SCA.

She completed 3 semesters at our local CC before starting USC. All but 1 course transferred and was accepted by USC toward her degree. The USC staff were very helpful to her in choosing course which would work toward her usc degree.

@HImom thank you!