red1105

You should appeal berkeley to see if you can still accept. It's definitely worth a try seeing as you're stuck in a bit of a rut.

cptofthehouse

I certainly urge everyone affected to discuss the specific situation with USC financial aid officers and find out exactly what brought on the decrease.

From some of the posts, I can see what occurred. Though a parent may be supporting a grad student or other adult child of theirs, unless that child fits a category that is defined as one considered by financial aid, those costs are not going to be taken into account for the siblings financial aid. Just the way it works.

Also most schools expect the student to take a larger share of the costs each year. You are expected to earn more each year and take out more in loans. The Stafford limits even take that into account. It's something every college should make clear from the onset, and if USC did not do so, shame on them and they should start doing so. However, this has been the case and is the case with the majority of schools.

ebayispayingforcollege

With the economic downturn there is more need from incoming students than usual and just not enough money to pay for all of them so perhaps they were awarding the merit money to the most in desparate need or the ones they want the most to attend.

Offering admission to some who qualify and who can make sacrifices to pay in full helps USC give more aid to those who need it. USC prides itself in being need blind, but with this economy it and with the Madoff scam and other stuff going on perhaps they didn't get the donor money they were pledged hence they are experiancing a shortfall in financial aid. Hopefully I am wrong.

menloparkmom

I forwarded this thread to a prominent professor at USC, and he got back to me today. He is going to contact FA and find out what is going on.

"Thanks for passing this on -- I will see that the message gets through to
Financial Aid. The total FA pool has actually been increased by 8% this year, but this is the second time in the past week that someone has contacted me with concerns."
Stay tuned

furyshade

^^ that is really cool, at least now we know someone on the other side of the wall knows what is going on.

grey_syntactics

Thank you menloparkmom, please let us know of any response.

PBK Mom

My daughter just got off the phone with Financial Aid. She was told that USC had not adjusted the "Expected Student Contribution" for several years and that this year, because of the increased demand for financial aid, they made the decision to increase the Expected Student Contribution by $3000 "across the board."

Unfortunately I don't think they have communicated this to the student community, or we wouldn't have had to hear the news on the phone, unless we somehow missed an announcement.

She was told that also, as a senior, she is expected to contribute another $1000 to the cost, which combined with the $3000 increase explains her missing $4000 from her University Grant.

Unfortunately, of course, USC's cost goes up, so the gap will actually be wider, as our EFC didn't change... (And although the FAFSA doesn't account for this, Californians like our family are being hit with a roughly $2000-4000 tax increase with raised income taxes, car taxes, sales taxes, and a major decrease in the child tax credit...so we're being hit coming and going, falling further behind. I'm sure people in other states may be dealing with this as well.)

She was told that her merit scholarships, including the Smith Scholarship from the University, should post in July and that the small scholarships tend to be posted later.

Hope some of the above info is helpful.

Write

Thanks for the info.
My update: I have not heard back yet. Hoping that our 150% increase in EFC is a mistake. I can always hope, right?

binks09

I have to agree as well... When I was accepted to USC, I was thrilled, and was all ready to sign my papers to Marshall and become a Trojan, however, I am now a Bruin??

Why, well, my parents, last year, made enough money so that with the Fafsa and CSS, we only got loans, about 15k in loans!!!

So, I appealed, wrote a letter about how my dad is terminally ill (he really is), he has less than 3 years to live, he will be out of work within 3 months, and how he has already had mounting medical bills, upwards of 1200 dollars a month for medication that MAY, only MAY, allow him to live another 3-5 months (He has Lou Gehrigs if anyone is curious).

Anyways, I filled out all of the paperwork, had my dad's doctor, boss, everyone, write letters, pleading for money, along with turning in medical bills and such...

I was thinking, okay, I can probably get 5-10k in outside scholarships (got 7k so far, and waiting on a few more) and then I figuered if I got a 20k grant, I could go... I was, alright, I can do that, barely, but I can.... then, the slap in the face!!!

A 3,000 dollar grant. ***!!! I couldn't believe it, I had to make sure it wasn't 30k, nope, 3k.

I called and said what the ****, and they said that since my dad technically still "works", they can't help much now, but when he quits/retires, they will "possibly" be able to help.

This coming from one of the largest private funds in the nation?

I was not going to take a chance on a "possiblity". So just like the op, I too have bitter feelings about USC, however, have enjoyed how they continue to waste postage on big packets to try and sway me.

a.parent

This is the reply I received (and the previous poster's math about a $3K increase in student contribution unfortunately only accounts for 1/4 of our adjustment).

"Due to an increase in the number of financial aid applications for the 2009-2010 academic year and the increased demand for financial assistance, our office was tasked with the challenge of distributing our limited funds as equitably as possible across the student population. Because of our continued commitment to award financial aid funding as fairly as possible, our office made several policy changes that were applied consistently across all financial aid applicants. These universal policy adjustments may result in an increase in the expected family contribution for some families. Please keep in mind financial aid only covers 12-18 units. Any additional units will be expected to be covered out of pocket by the student."

I think the University has a responsibility to be transparent and identify what those "policy
adjustments" were. I will inquire further. And, of course, for us the kicker is that we will have to pay the extra tuition for 2 units because my son will not graduate on time otherwise (not all his transfer units were credited by USC).

I read that USC has the largest endowment of private colleges and, if so, can only wonder how so many other Universities are managing to make "no-loan" commitments.

Write

Oh, wow. I haven't received a reply, but I no longer have hope of a positive outcome.

Unless something unexpected happens, ds will be unable to return. (He would have been a junior.) He has had fantastic grades and has loved attending USC. I could sell everything I own, get another job, and I still would not be able to come up with that amount of money. I also have another ds in college elsewhere.

I feel badly for everyone affected.

This is seriously wrong.

brokenpiano

binks09: I was in a similar [but not as serious] situation. My dad was laid off in early April after having worked as a project manager/engineer at one company for the past 27 years. He would continue to receive a paycheck for the next three months and that would be it. I finally narrowed my college choices down to CMU, Cornell and USC, and at that point was pretty much decided on USC, with Cornell a close second. I got my financial aid and ended up only receiving $9,000 in grants and scholarships from the university, and then another $5,000 in loans and work study. I suspected it was so little because I have a trust fund, but I was still very shocked! So I appealed to the financial aid office and filled out all the forms; I was hoping USC would really come through because my mom doesn't work so our family relies on my father's income and my sister will be a freshman in high school this fall. After no updates online, I called and all they said was that since my father was still earning income, they could only reassess my financial situation after three months had passed since he was fired. So I ended up choosing Cornell.

Anyways, best of luck to everyone else! Hope it turns out alright!

mdcissp

I am so sorry to hear about these financial aid situations so close to the start of the school year. Has anyone heard about the presidential scholarship posting on the Oasis account?
I can only suggest that for those who truly need the extra financial aid, try to go down to the financial aid office in person if you are in proximity of USC. With the low airfares, it is even worth spending the few hundred dollars to try to explain your situation in person. I can't imagine students taking on significant loans with the terrible economy in the background.

I thought USC prides itself on having a lot of financial aid available for those who need it.

tocollege

^My Presidential Scholarship and University Scholarship have posted to my Oasis account. I received a similar financial aid package to last year - in fact, I feel USC went out of their way to be sure I could attend.

grey_syntactics

I'm going to be really p1ssed off if I can't attend USC. This has been my dream school for a long time.