<p>Nope. Still waiting. Does anybody know when we can accept our loans so they can be credited to our bill?</p>
<p>^ I think you can do that at any time. I’ve already accepted the Staffords but I don’t want to go to Parent Plus until I know the final amount we will need.</p>
<p>So I just checked my eBill and I received some grant credit towards my balance. Maybe appeals went through already? </p>
<p>Also, I just signed my Master Promissory Note for federal loans, they’re not disbursed until two weeks before classes right?</p>
<p>Well is that a different amount from what your grant was before you appealed? </p>
<p>IIRC the loans are not credited until much closer to the bill due date in August.</p>
<p>I am desperate - does anyone know when the financial aid appeals (Concerning Estimated Family Contribution) will be completely processed this year? I have gotten off the line with USC financial aid several times already with no clear answer. </p>
<p>This is my second year appealing my fin aid at USC, and I am positive my first appeal was processed by now this time last year (with a successful addition to my fin aid package). This time around, however, things are more urgent, meaning that I am about to put in my transfer deposit at another school due to this financial aid problem.</p>
<p>Based on panicked conversations with financial aid counselors, I shouldn’t expect a great increase in financial aid this year. I have to say, USC has really put me through the loop for the past year and a half regarding financial aid, and I am really perplexed this time. (Imagine my shock and despair when I opened my financial aid package this July to find that USC has decreased my University Grant by OVER 20k for the 2013-2014 year, thus making it impossible for me to return to the school for my sophomore year unless my appeal is successful.)</p>
<p>A word of advice for incoming/prospective USC students, especially those who don’t come from wealthy families - BEWARE of USC’s “institutional method.” Even if your FAFSA says your EFC is less than 10k, you may be expected to pay double or even TRIPLE that at USC. My roommate has to transfer this year for this same reason (her EFC is 0). I’m not trying to sway people away from USC because I am bitter or angry; I simply don’t want students to deal with this same dramatic reduction in financial aid as the years go by at USC. Because let me tell you…attempting to transfer/file financial aid at a new school ONE MONTH before school starts again is NOT easy…
I would be SO grateful if anyone has an answer to my original question!</p>
<p>^ I called this afternoon and was told that the appeal is in process and to expect notification “within a week or so.” We also had a massive grant decrease this year. The current EFC is 75% of AGI and we have no assets other than home equity on a primary residence which still carries a mortgage. This new procedure to consider ongoing student appeals at the tail end of everything while more fair perhaps (to do them all at once) is incredibly stressful.</p>
<p>Thanks, Snowdog. They told me the same thing last week. This wait has definitely been wracking my nerves too. I really need to transfer to my possible new college within the next few DAYS if this appeal doesn’t come through - if it EVER comes through. :(</p>
<p>On the other hand, I find it interesting that you and others seem to be going through very similar problems as me. I wonder if this - dramatic reductions in financial aid without regard to FAFSA EFC - is a new phenomenon at USC, or quite common.</p>
<p>I received about a 20% decrease in loans but that was because I accidentally added a 1 in front of my self-reported EFC on the CSS profile but I got most of it back after my appeal. I sent my appeal the day I received my aid though, so maybe it explains why I received such a fast decision?</p>
<p>I sent the appeal and supporting documentation the same day as next year’s aid was posted - which was the third week of June. So frustrating being that tomorrow is August 1.</p>
<p>^ To update my comment above, revised financial aid was posted this morning. Some of the university grants were restored although they are less than last year, as $5500 was converted to a Perkins loan. </p>
<p>EFC is now 65% of take-home pay and my ex (NCP) is unemployed. The revised version is better than the disaster we started with however and I will stop there, as this thread is supposed to be all rainbows and butterflies circling the USC financial aid department. Mynemezzo, I hope you can work out your situation.</p>
<p>I just want to say that this thread is more helpful if posters are honest, rather than only posting “rainbows and butterflys”! </p>
<p>Neither the FAFSA EFC or USC’s own financial aid calculator are remotely accurate in predicting actual USC financial aid. You can, and should, plan on the family contribution being substantially more. In my daughter’s case, for both her freshman year and this coming sophomore year, USC expects us to come up with more than 10 times our FAFSA EFC and more than 4 times USC’s own EFC using the financial aid calculator on USC’s financial aid website. It was a shock last year! Less so, this year.</p>
<p>I am a single self-employed working Mom, a renter, with no home equity or savings and with a son in elementary school. We are managing through additional loans and much sacrifice. We have taken this route because USC is the best possible school for what my daughter wants to do with her life and because eventually there will be money to pay off her loans from her grandparents upon their deaths (the money is not held in a trust for her and will not be left to her directly. However, any inheritance will first go towards paying off her loans). Without the knowledge that the loans will eventually be repaid from inheritances, we would have insisted that she attend a more affordable school. </p>
<p>Each family’s circumstance is different, but it is important to have a realistic understanding of how much financial aid you will receive. Despite its protestations to the contrary, USC does NOT meet 100% of demonstrated financial aid and family’s need to plan accordingly.</p>
<p>Snowdog, I am glad to hear of at least some improvement in your financial aid package. I hope it works out for you in the end! Unfortunately, my news is even less great: I received an email about my appeal this morning informing me that absolutely nothing will be added to my award. </p>
<p>Ah, well. The truth is, I simply cannot afford the 50k they are charging to my account, and I personally do not believe this school (or any other, for that matter) is worth going so much into debt for. And I do not believe everything people have been saying about the “Institutional Method of Financial Aid” as opposed to the Federal method, either. Not all private schools - not even most of them, as people have been claiming - follow the former method, at least in my region of the country.</p>
<p>Thankfully, I have been frantically applying to other schools since the beginning of July, and am ready to transfer to a wonderful school that expects me to pay less than my original FAFSA EFC. And yes, it is a private school (with a MUCH smaller endowment). </p>
<p>Though I am currently in the process of withdrawing from USC, and though my previous comments indicate obvious anger and dissatisfaction with the financial aid it offers, I do not mean to bash the school in any way. I was not entirely happy or challenged at the university to begin with, so this was more the last straw for me than anything else. I met a lot of wonderful, ambitious people at USC whom I will truly miss. My personal experiences at USC should not sway these other students’ opinions.</p>
<p>I, like palmspringsmom, simply want other middle-to-lower-class students and families to be careful. College is an investment, and you must thoroughly investigate what your family can afford. In my case, it wasn’t so much what I couldn’t afford upfront as it was the lack of consistency in my year-to-year financial aid package, and my unwillingness to go 150k+ into debt for a more prestigious degree.</p>
<p>I am sorry for those struggling with the financial aid process. Each family situation is unique. In our case, this year’s financial aid package is virtually identical to last year’s. Did something change in the way USC is looking at data? I notice in both cases above the mom’s are single parents, is USC now asking for data on both parents and calculating need with that data in mind–even if there is no help coming from the other parent?</p>
<p>Mom2M - I’m not entirely sure if that is the reasoning behind the decrease in financial aid for these other posters. It very well could be, since a noncustodial parent could technically be viewed as an “extra resource,” so to speak. However, I also come from a single parent home, but I truly only have one parent (my mother passed away last year). This leads me to believe that some other data is being calculated differently by USC.</p>
<p>Mynemezzo my condolences on the loss of your mother. I am sure this has been a difficult time for you, and wish you the best.</p>
<p>Thank you, Mom2M. It certainly has been difficult, and I had hoped that USC would have taken this information into account, but it hasn’t made much of a difference in my financial aid. Ah well, you have to do what you have to do!</p>
<p>Best of luck to you Mynemezzo. You have a good outlook and deserve a lot of respect for your successful efforts to set up a situation elsewhere that will work better for you financially and in other ways as well. Thanks for your perspective on this process.</p>
<p>This will be my last post on this FAQ thread, and the reason is this morning’s comment by Snowdog.</p>
<p>When I started this thread, it was meant as a place where applicants to USC could ask me questions about the financial aid process at USC. I have asked, respectfully, for posters with complaints or discussions about the “fairness” of financial aid to start their own threads so that this thread could remain a useful source of information about the financial aid process in a question and answer format. In addition, by starting their own threads their discussions would receive a wider audience than here on the FAQ thread. </p>
<p>Thank you, Snowdog (with honorable mention to ArtsandLetters), for ignoring my requests to keep this thread in a question-and-answer format and for re-purposing this thread. I have been hoping for a year now to have someone take over answering the questions here, and clearly you feel you are up to the task. I am sure future financial aid applicants will benefit greatly from your expertise about financial aid and I leave them in your capable hands.</p>
<p>Please address future questions and private messages about financial aid to Snowdog.</p>
<p>Best of luck to one and all.</p>
<p>Maybe it is time to take a break. While there has certainly been some awesome info posted, answers lately have been more defensive. I totally get the the rainbow and butterflies comment. There are as many people frustrated and disappointed as there are happy about USC financial aid, scholarships and the like. On this forum it seems like all dreams come true - everyone gets a Presidential/Trustee scholarship or gets 100% aid. Mynemezzo’s situation is sad and disappointing for him, but it is reality and his responsible nature in handling it and learning he could land on his feet this late in the process is inspiring. Good to see that someone can overcome it, it is better than acting like it never happens with rainbows and butterflies. I say keep it real.</p>
<p>No one wanted you to leave in a huff alamemom. However there has been a double standard on this thread: those who post that they are thrilled with their large awards are not berated and told to start their own threads, they and USC are praised for their awesomeness. </p>
<p>I think it is a better service to potential applicants to show a more balanced picture and that there is a role for keeping it real within an FAQ thread. As the thread originator, you may feel irritated at the direction public discourse may take, which is of course your right.</p>