USC Class of 2022

Colleges & Universities University of Southern California
5041

Sometimes, financial aid can be a bigger surprise for students than getting in. There is so much to it that a student is likely to not understand or not have the entire picture to do so. USC works with a lot of personal info through the FAFSA and CSS Profile. It is not just income for that year and your expenses, if it was just that it would be a party for so many people. This is speaking generally but…if you have equity in a home, you an be expected to refinance that to put the money into your kid’s education, that is considered money you have. If you have retirement accounts, they are seen as things that can be liquidated to pay for your kids college.

The numbers are working off in income from a tax year ago, it is not looking at what you have next year, it will be re-evaluate every year. If you have two in college this year, but one falls off next year, that will affect future aid. Like they said on the phone to someone, if you have a 6 figure income regardless of your house payment or expenses, you are unlikely to get aid except for loans, which is a surprise to many - taking loans is considered aid!

The problem is the marketing of meets full need - it is easily misunderstood. Kids think they should apply because all this free money will rain on them. Every high schooler worked hard to get in USC, and college has great value and nothing in life is free, so realistically, when you think about it, you should be expected to pay for it. Your need is very different from how USC sees need. Every year there are of course good surprises too, but many are stunned to find out they aren’t even close unless the family is willing to borrow a lot of money. It is also not being aware of how much you have to others that have basically nothing, those are the ones getting the big aid or grants that aren’t loans. The middle class often has to liquidate assets, borrow, or find another place to go to school.

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@toughcookieee Explore USC is only for scholarship recipients and was conducted over the months of february and march so no they are not offering it anymore. however, there are some other events that USC will be hosting until the end of the year. you can check them out through your youSC portal. just log in and click on the admitted student programs button and it will take you to the website where you can register for all the events that are still available!

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@pcjor16 It is likely not a miscommunication, it is what it is.

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@gurodriguesl and @toughcookieee

Explore USC is the new admitted students day whether scholarship or not.

Explore USC is an on-campus program offered each spring to newly-admitted students. Through Explore USC, you will meet current USC students, faculty, and staff to ask any questions you might have about the USC Dornsife experience. You will also be able to meet other newly-admitted students and start making connections with peers who may become your classmates in the fall.

Explore USC is a day-long program offered on Tuesdays & Thursdays throughout April. For more information, or to make reservations, please visit you.usc.edu.

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@periwinkle1923 To be honest, I’m not sure what they focus more on, but I’m in a similar situation. My older brother is still in college, and my dad makes $130k per year. My mom stays at home, so there isn’t any more income there. I would say, based on my numbers, you probably have a good chance of getting aid!

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@gurodriguesl Thanks so much! I checked the programs and it seems that Explore USC is still available in the month of April!

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@Twinmomhell congrats! a house divided is better than the alternative… i.e. both at UCLA… lol :slight_smile:

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@LifewithLia Again, thank you so much for all the help! :slight_smile: Best of luck to you

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To all disappointed with your FA updates…

As for your FA packages, there is an appeal process regarding your financial aid offering as well. But first, you may want to email or contact the Office of Financial Aid directly to see if this is their best and final offer… or to see if it is only preliminary due to something from you possibly being missing, etc. If there are extenuating circumstances or if they misunderstood something, now is the time to correct their records regarding you and to see if they may be able to change anything, offer more aid, etc.

Good Luck

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If you do not receive a scholarship (not including the ones from January) , do they explicitly tell you? Can’t tell if my portal’s been updated

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@blue290 Anything characterized as a grant or gift aid is just free money… or them charging you less, in an effort to balance out perceived need vs the cost of attending.

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My USC FAST just says if I haven’t already done so apply for aid with the FAFSA. I did the FAFSA and CSS Profile months ago. Does this mean they didn’t recieve it??

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D has two good college offers, one on each coast, so FA - cost will likely be the decider. I fear letting her becoming too attached to any school till we determine if it is financially workable.

D got USC Presidential award and now another $7500 per year college award for her major. These amounts would really matter only if we were anticipating being full pay. Expecting to pay full sticker price and getting a half off scholarship would really matter. With EFC 18000, we are a long ways from full pay.

Clearing out parents retirement accounts or stacking more debt onto apartment are no go’s for us. If these nice sounding scholarships are just subtracted off the top of FA, the nice sounding names make no real financial difference.

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My FA portal still hasn’t updated. Ugh.

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Got the Fin Aid estimate in the portal and our family will have to consider everything after the other decisions come out this week. However, I must say that I am utterly shocked at the fact that the sticker price is significantly more than what I thought was already an extremely high amount to pay per year for even as strong a school as USC.

I went into this thinking the annual cost would be $72,000 (which is the highest tuition of about a dozen schools that S applied to) which is what was presented last summer during our USC tour, yet the amount is listed on the portal as closer to $76,000 when including the added “mandatory fees” which was explained to me to be the access to the student health center. $72,000 does not cover that? Adding to that, the $75,000 cost only factors in the lowest dining plan (I believe it is Cardinal) whereas on our tour, most students and other guides said the middle plan was the one most students select, plus most students buy “extra dollars” to be able to eat at some of the non dining hall restaurants on campus. I think that would be another $500. The quoted figure of $76,000 includes the lowest housing cost option, so the McCarthy Honors dorm would be at least another $1,000.

On top of the dining and housing extras, the $76,000 quoted fee only accounts for $500 for transportation. It would cost at least a couple thousand to fly across the country to move our S into the dorm in August, then at least another $500 for him to fly back for Thanksgiving and/or Xmas. Are we not going to fly out for a USC football game in the fall? There’s another couple thousand unaccounted for. So instead of the $72,000 that I originally factored in, it seems it’s closer to $80,000 a year to attend USC. Then there’s the estimated 4% increase in tuition per year. By the end of four years, maybe it will be closer to $90,000?

Don’t mean to sound whiny, but am I the only one who feels a little misled? Of course it is not a must to live in McCarthy in the village and a student can get by on the lowest dining plan… but the overall cost has really skyrocketed in terms of what I was expecting. The only reason it is still under consideration is that S did get a merit scholarship but not sure that is going to be enough to justify $80,000 per year.

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@edszebra Log-in to your MyUSC, then Click on or go to: https://my.usc.edu/service/financial-aid/

Then click on FAST, then 2018-2019, & see if anything is missing… or click on Required Info and Forms to confirm.

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https://financialaid.usc.edu/undergraduates/prospective/how-much-wil-my-education-cost.html Shows the cost for the upcoming school year on their website.

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Many of these reactions (and 1000s more seeing theirs but not even posting on CC) to expected family contribution #s finally seen in black and white and the reality that is setting in as family’s discuss these #s also helps to account for the projected 37% yield rate. 63% or 5,198 of the 8,250 that just got in this cycle will likely end up enrolling elsewhere. The inability to afford the remaining cost of attendance or the unwillingness on the part of some to pay it or go into debt to pay it will be a key factor in many of those decisions… unfortunately.

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Hi guys! I am a spring admit, so my cost of attendance is half of what it normally is. My financial aid package is great for one semester, and so I was actually ready to commit. However, I realized that the gift aid may be for the whole year rather than one semester. So does anybody knows that for my financial aid is what they give me for each year or for each semester?

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@sejere62, all merit awards that USC is aware of will be subtracted from the FA grant aid you may be awarded. It can be a big shock, because as you rightly note, those merit awards offer no extra monetary value if your student would get FA grants in the same amount anyway. The bottom line is USC (and every other university FA office) determines the Family Contribution based on their own formulas.

I always cringe a little when I read a post by a great student who has been admitted (hooray) but talks about USC claiming to be “generous.” My pet peeve, sure, but no university on the planet claims to be generous. FA is not a gift, and generosity has nothing to do with it, I’m afraid. FA is based on helping families with (determined) financial need to afford college. USC reports they meets 100% of “need,” which is better than many.

I also hate that colleges use the word “need” in a FA context in the first place. It’s so misleading, because this supposed “need” is an amount the university determines the family needs. Many many families find the amount shocking, especially if they didn’t expect to cash out real estate or other investments or if they are closer to retirement and have other students coming along who will also be attending college shortly. The glimmer of good news, however, is that USC recalculates a family’s need and FA grants every year. So the year the younger sibling is going to college, USC will drastically increase the first student’s award/need. Many universities, will do the same for the second sib, so perhaps that might ease the panic out there. Perhaps not. College is still very expensive.

As mentioned, after USC determines a family’s “need,” they consider all methods of help as fulfilling their 100% commitment. So Fed student loans, Pell grants, USC grants (free money), and work study opportunities are added together to make up the total package. The good news is USC doesn’t ask the student to take out loans above the Fed limits (so about $24K for 4 years) but if the family cannot afford their Family contribution, they might be tempted to take out family loans. Each family must seriously consider if this is worth it–I am debt averse so I shudder at this, but other families may know they are coming into inheritances or other income down the line. Each family is different.

Lastly, if you find that USC isn’t affordable at the current FA award, you can call their FA office and speak to a rep. There may be extenuating circumstances that can be explained. Appealing your award is a good way to make those circumstances clear. Examples could be a parent losing a job, serious family health issues that have come about in recent months, etc. It’s not such a bad idea to double check they had all their facts straight (all forms received and accounted for) since they have been processing thousands of files, night and day.

Good luck out there. Our family found USC FA was doable at first and got much much better when our need increased. The downside, is some families are shocked when their FA is slashed when they have a windfall year or an older sib leaves college.