excerpts from an email from the Dean of Admissions

[menloparkmom]

<p>The Dean of Admissions, Timothy Brunhold, gave me permission to post excerpts from an email he sent me yesterday that clarifies the different mailings that have gone out from USC in the past few weeks-</p>

<p>"To answer your question: Yes, alll freshman applicants who submitted a Common Application form AND a USC supplement by the December 1st deadline have been sent some kind of letter through postal mail. These letters fall into three broad categories:</p>

<p>(1) students who have been admitted and have been selected as a Trustee or Presidential Scholarship finalist (btw - Mork Scholars will be chosen from this same group after we complete our scholarship interviews);
(2) students who have been admitted, were not selected as a T/P finalist but who were awarded a dean's scholarship; or
(3) students who met the deadline but who have not yet been admitted (and thus who have not been selected as a Trustee or Presidential finalist or as a first-round dean's recipient).</p>

<p>The letters to group 3 were put into the mail stream on January 26th. The letters for groups 1 and 2 went out earlier than that.</p>

<p>So why haven't some December 1st filers received a letter? I have to surmise that something happened to their letter once it was turned over to the postal service.
Of course, anyone who is still concerned is welcome to contact his or her admission counselor (<a href="https://camel2.usc.edu/admceebsearch/ugappfindcounselor.aspx%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://camel2.usc.edu/admceebsearch/ugappfindcounselor.aspx&lt;/a&gt;), call us at (213) 740-1111 or send an e-mail through the web (USC</a> Undergraduate Admission - Contact Us). We're always happy to confirm the receipt of documents and let folks know where the stand (even if there's nothing to report). As CC users know, they can get status checks through USConnect as well."</p>

<p>To summarize, if you appled by Dec 1 and have not already received mail notifying you of your acceptance and a scholarship, you have not be selected to interview for a Trustee scholarship or Presidents Scholarship."</p>

<p>He did add this-
"I can't stress enough that the letter received by folks in group 3 is routine. There is no hidden meaning behind it and the receipt of that letter should not be interpreted as anything other than us closing the loop for our scholarship applicants. We have admitted fewer than 20% of those who will eventually be admitted. We haven't yet made ANY decisions besides these. No one else has been admitted and no one has yet been denied. I completely understand that folks want to know the outcome of our deliberations, but we just don't have any news to tell them at this point. We still have a good six week's worth of deliberation and discussion and plan to use every minute of it to ensure that every applicant has been given full and serious consideration before making our decisions. No other decision letters will be mailed until the last week of March.
s it still possible to receive a merit scholarship if a student is in group 3? Yes! Again, thousands of people in group 3 will eventually be admitted. Anyone in that group of admitted students who is a National Merit Scholar and selects USC as his or her first choice will receive a Presidential Scholarship. There's another round of deans scholarships that will be awarded in late March/early April. In fact, all of the other merit scholarships (basically anything not already mentioned) will be awarded at that time as well.</p>

<p>We routinely send letters to students if something is missing. I know that everyone asks about midyear reports. Students shouldn't wait to receive a letter from us asking for those. We want to see them from everyone. Many HS counselors send those routinely, even if students don't request them to do so.</p>

<p>I know a few weeks ago there was a whole thread debating how many apps we received this year. As of this morning, we had received just over 45,000. We plan to admit roughly the same number as we did last year. And yes, obviously our move to the Common Application has resulted in a big increase."</p>

<p>that translates into an admit rate of 17%.</p>

<p>Applicants, TAKE HEART and remember to send in your mid term reports! There are thousands MORE acceptance letters coming in LATE MARCH.</p>

[BigTexDad]

<p>Thanks for posting this menloparkmom!</p>

[Snowdog]

<p>I'm kind of shocked that he says they are going to admit the same number of applicants as last year.</p>

[alamemom]

<p>Exciting numbers! Remember that USC has overenrolled by 200 to 300 for the last several years, so maybe they are feeling confident in reaching their target even if yield drops a bit. They also have the option of moving up Spring admits and/or adjusting transfer admit numbers up or down - the SGR process in transfer admission means that many transfer applicants hear in June or July, after the freshman commitment deadline has passed and tentative numbers are in.</p>

[menloparkmom]

<p>bumping up so it does not get missed</p>

[texaspg]

<p>mpm - good feedback from the Dean. Any chance the Dean will give you a total number for NMF applicants?</p>

[menloparkmom]

<p>he did but I'm not going to divulge it, sorry, except to say its not as high as some thought it would be. </p>

<p>nuff said.
I thought your DS withdrew his app to USC?
yet your still here posting..........
but maybe you miss us, lol?</p>

[texaspg]

<p>MPM - I like USC! </p>

<p>I do advise other parents locally and it helps to know what is happening at USC to advise them correctly (lots of nieces, nephews, friends children in the pipeline over the next few years and one of mine in 2016). I have been encouraging my kid to withdraw from some other schools too and Northwestern was cut last night. It is important not to hold up a seat from someone else who may really want to attend and usually the high schools have a quota of admits. </p>

<p>So you don't think my guess of 5000 was in the ballpark! :p</p>

[menloparkmom]

<p>not even close..................</p>

<p>re: your DS- is it now between CT and which ever schools he is waiting to hear from? Has he visited CT? he should during their accepted students days.</p>

[texaspg]

<p>Nice to know NMFs are not beating out each other since the admit rate will be down to 18%. We still have a bunch of applicants from our school that we are hoping will make it. </p>

<p>There are three schools in the running now (an unexpected Likely came in recently which kind of dissolved serious concerns about application/essays based on the you will know in March letter) + whatever else will still need to be announced. We did visit most of the schools including USC and CT. </p>

<p>Btw - Cushing is an awesome awesome football player!</p>