<p>You can call to ask each day. Just to check - did you also request an extension from USC of the commitment deadline?</p>
<p>USC posted some great FAQs about financial aid on the admissions blog!</p>
<p>[Your</a> (Financial Aid) Questions: Answered! · Undergraduate Admission Blog](<a href=“http://admissionblog.usc.edu/2013/04/11/3007/]Your”>http://admissionblog.usc.edu/2013/04/11/3007/)</p>
<p>One note in the FAQ is that financial aid packages will be posted approximately 10 days after ALL financial aid applications and documents have been received.</p>
<p>Hopefully USC will continue with the FAQs - information straight from the source is ALWAYS better than anonymous posters on the internet 
!</p>
<p>Hi all! I’ve been reading this thread off and on since the end of March when my daughter found out she was accepted to USC. We’ve been through the wringer with trying to send all the information needed for financial aid, and we’ve complied to the best of our ability from the start. But now it’s May 9th and her application is still in review. Or maybe I should say finally in review, because it seems they’ve finally stopped asking for more documents. Our Received Documents list is up to 19 now. The other day I told Aubrey’s dad I felt like sending another superfluous document just to make it an even 20. I’d have been glad to send every page of my Income Tax return right at the start but it exceeds the 4 mb file size limit. That’s been one of our major hurdles – getting everything within the file size limit without “optimizing” the PDFs to the point of being unreadable. </p>
<p>I really wish I’d seen the advice about getting to know one of the aid reps because both I and Aubrey’s dad have called the financial aid office about 5 times (more for me I’m sure) and it feels like we talk to a different person every time and have to tell them the same things over and over. In the midst of all of this, Aubrey was put in the hospital April 17 and diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Her dad was even calling USC financial aid from the hospital that day! They wanted his 2012 income tax return done, and he explained that his accountant had filed an extension for him. He called to try to get the accountant to do his taxes April 18 just for USC, but she was traveling for 3 weeks. So he had to then find someone else to do his taxes, which took another several days. </p>
<p>This has been a Class A nightmare. A month of hard work and stressing out and I’m logging onto Aubrey’s USC account day and night just to make sure they aren’t asking for another document that will delay the process even more. Talking to one of the financial aid reps on April 30 I pretty much lost it. And I’m even just about in tears now thinking about how much we’ve been through already and still waiting. It feels like we’ve all worked really hard for this and I’m afraid it may all be for naught. I think Aubrey has given up hope for USC and resigned herself to attending a local college. USC did allow the “hardship” with the registration fee, so technically Aubrey is a USC admitted student with an i.d. and an email, but the longer this drags on the more hopeless it seems. </p>
<p>I guess maybe this has just been a vent. I never dreamed that the paperwork of proving who we are and what we are would become the biggest obstacle in Aubrey’s quest for a quality college education.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your daughter’s acceptance and YOUR tenacity!</p>
<p>This is something I wish high schools would address in their counseling sessions with sophomores and juniors: that the taxes for your base year (the year preceding college entry, so for this year’s applicants, 2012) really, really, really MUST be done by March for timely financial aid packages. Many people routinely file for extensions (for a variety of good reasons) and often don’t find out until crunch time that they have to have the taxes done to get commitments from schools about financial aid.</p>
<p>It sounds like even with all the stress, you and your daughter have the bases covered: you have your extension of the commitment deposit and/or waiver, she has her alternate plan secured (the local college) and you have all 19 documents submitted. Hopefully the news when the package finally arrives will be that it is sufficient for her to attend.</p>
<p>For others who encounter the “tax document too big to submit” problem: FAX it. USC states that they prefer online submission, but then they should make it easier. In the meantime, FAX it. The FAX number is on the first page of this thread for anyone who needs. it.</p>
<p>Let us know what your news is, good or bad - Best of luck to you and Aubrey, and I hope Aubrey’s health has improved.</p>
<p>alamemom</p>
<p>Is this normal? I have to pay 57k total with financial aid with the 5k coming in loans. Absolutely no grants. Is it because I got in after appealing?</p>
<p>Darthpwner, I provided the following answer on your thread:
</p>
<p>Thank you alamemom :)</p>
<p>Hi guys, I know none of you are experts on the crazy algorithms USC uses to determine aid eligibility, but I really think that there might have been a huge mistake in my forms which affected my EFC and I just wanna know your opinions.</p>
<p>My EFC is $54,000. My parents combined gross income last year was $52,000, and my father is retired and receiving social security. I also have a sister who is attending a four-year university already. I was really taken back by this, and the idea of paying $55k for USC put it in the realm of absurdity. The only thing I could think of is my parents don’t have a mortgage since my dad built his own house, but it’s only worth 135k.</p>
<p>There was one mistake that I made (and I thought I corrected) in one of the forms submitted to USC in which I accidentally stated that my father had a $100,000 source of one-time income. Is it possible that they forgot to correct this, or am I just delusional? I plan to appeal anyway, but this literally means the difference between me attending USC or going back to community college so I’m pretty stressed out about it.</p>
<p>As with the previous poster, with the information you have provided, no, that is not a typical financial aid package. What prompted you to enter that your father had a one-time $100,000 income event? Was there additional income?</p>
<p>Have you:
-Filed the CSS/Profile
-Submitted Tax return copies
-Received an email saying your package was ready to view</p>
<p>As a starting point, what was your FAFSA EFC?</p>
<p>It was a question regarding IRA disbursements. He’s retired and receives a distribution of 5000/year, but I misinterpreted the question and put my estimate of his entire IRA (100,000), which made it look like he was receiving that money all at once this year. I emailed the financial aid office about it, but for all I know that could’ve slipped through during the evaluation.</p>
<p>I filed all forms and submitted tax return copies months ago before the deadline.</p>
<p>My FAFSA EFC is $4345</p>
<p>I would email, FAX and call the financial aid office. If you printed out a copy of the CSS/Profile or are able to print it out, do so. With heavy marks, cross out the $100,000 entry and write in “$5,000 IRA distribution.” Make a cover sheet with your name, birthdate and USC ID and in big letters write, “CSS/PROFILE CORRECTION.” FAX the cover sheet and any pages with corrections. FAX number: (213) 821-3717</p>
<p>Scan and email the correction to <a href=“mailto:fao@usc.edu”>fao@usc.edu</a>. Call on Monday and ask to talk to a financial aid officer - not a student - and explain the situation.</p>
<p>Also go to USConnect as soon as possible and submit the appeal saying that there was an error on your CSS/Profile.</p>
<p>Good luck, and let me know how it turns out.</p>
<p>FAX number: (213) 821-3717. Be sure to write your name and USC ID on each page of your fax.</p>
<p>Phone: (213) 740-4444, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. PST (M-F)</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your help. I really thought something was up and you just gave me hope that this might be something I can work with. Hopefully I can still be a trojan after all.</p>
<p>what’s a good time of day to call USC financial aid I already called twice today and could not get a hold of anyone, just been put on a hold for a long time each time. If I go down there in person, do I need to make an appointment?</p>
<p>By the way, right now I am unable fill out the form for financial aid regarding the Tax Information for 2012 because my parents are having an issue with the taxes right now, which is why I need to contact them or even go down there in person. Anyone have ideas on what is the best approach to this?</p>
<p>Good news! After contacting USC and talking to my family I’ve found out that the 105,000 represents a rollover of my father’s IRA into a new IRA account. USC actually contacted me about this earlier but I wrongly stated that no rollover occurred. It turns out they treated the 105k as a one-time source of income for my father. Hopefully this new info will help my package a lot. Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Great news Keignat! Fingers crossed for you!</p>
<p>Just another question for the hell of it-this new info will probably alter my aid quite a bit. Will the fact that it was awarded after an appeal make it less than I would have gotten in my initial offer if my info was all correct? I hope that makes sense.</p>
<p>No, the fact you successfully appealed will not alter your aid - it will be the same as it would be had you been accepted by April 1st (now that your numbers have been corrected, of course!).</p>
<p>Be sure to update us with your result when it is available!!!</p>
<p>Hi jacefromLA,</p>
<p>With transfer decisions arriving, it is a busy time in the USC financial aid offices - you may have to wait on hold for a period of time. I imagine if you went to the office you would have to wait as least as long to see someone as you would to speak to them on the phone, so that may not offer an advantage. I have always had good luck with emails, FAXes and with USConnect document submission. Contact info here: <a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/contact.html[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/contact.html</a></p>
<p>In my experience, USC grants are not awarded until and unless the taxes have been filed and copies provided to USC. The best approach would be to urge your parents to solve their tax issue, file their taxes and provide the information to USC.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Hi alamemom,
I emailed them Friday and responded this morning saying I really just needed to submit the tax information. And I was also able to talk to someone this morning on the phone and they pretty much said the same thing. Basically not much can be done until the tax information is submitted.</p>