@jj1999 see my above post
@Marcie123 , we are in the same situation – portal has not changed, nothing in FA, and no email from USC. Will they send an email even if we didn’t apply for FA and they are not granting any merit scholarship?
Housing - You don’t have to list 5 different buildings, you can list different arrangements in the same building.
they wont send an email. you’ll have to wait until financial information is uploaded to the portal, sorry.
Or you can call next week, but be prepared for a long wait to talk to someone.
My D picked 5 different configurations in McCarthy. I’ve sent an email to USC Housing asking them to confirm that NMF Presidential recipients will have the option to live there, will let everyone know what I hear.
If I just submitted my noncustodial CSS profile 2 days ago how long should I expect to wait?
Thanks @kcheves
I think we may have to prioritize cost a bit, but a few of the McCarthy options are just as cheap (or cheaper) than the other options.
Thumbs Up! to the housing department human beings, who emailed (Tom) and called us back (Annabelle) within the hour yesterday to answer question we had.
Thumbs Down! to the housing departments online registration system, that “unlogged us in” at 9:00; failed many dozens of times to let us back in; then kicked us out 4 times before we finished at 9:50.
FYI. USC housing just confirmed by email that McCarthy housing is available for NMF Presidential recipients. Instructions were to list a McCarthy room type as her top building preference in the application, and chose McCarthy Honors College as her choice for Residential College.
@kcheves yes NMF scholars are considered the same as Presidential scholars. If you put USC as your top choice through NMF, you will receive the half-tuition scholarship and will have the option of staying in McCarthy.
Edit: haha oops, I posted this at the same time you posted your update
edited-I found my answer
DD determined AC is a must to have and close by the shiny village. So McCarty and Cale/Irani are the two choices she put in with different room styles to make the 5 top choices.
I called the Financial Aid office since my FAST still didn’t update and it turns out for some reason they didn’t have my Social Security number. Once I gave it to them they saw my FASFA and Profile but needed some more information. I filled them out just now and the woman on the phone said I should get my FAST ASAP. Thank God I called!!
Sleepy Eye: Not sure what you are trying to say here beside to just criticize the institution. All private schools are going to be more expensive than public ones - by definition. All who applied knew this when they applied. SC is not attempting to be another Stanford. They only worry about themselves and are focused on improving their specific disciplines where they are strong. I can tell you that Stanford is working to improve their student experience to be much more in line with what USC is offering.
In my opinion, an attack or criticism on the integrity of the administration is unfounded and wrong. In fact, the market is telling you that the leadership of the University has been excellent for a very long time - at least since Hubbard in the mid 70’s. Very schools have grown the endowment and the school experience as much and as fast as USC has done since that time. You can argue that maybe only Notre Dame and some of the lower Ivies are in that group.
@Maestro2020, not defending the poster on his overzealous criticism about USC but I will say that $76,000 tuition, room, board and fees that USC posted in my portal yesterday is mind boggling, given it covers the lowest dining option, cheapest available housing, and includes only $500 for transportation (not realistic four OOS students). For those interested, Stanford tuition, room, board, and health fees for 2018/19 is $67,117. Which would you choose?
I have a letter showing up in informed delivery from the USC office of admissions that was sent out on the 26th. Does anyone have any idea what it could be?
^ could be notification of a merit award.
Last year, 358 more enrolled than what USC was expecting or hoping for… leading to a yield rate increase from 34 to 37%. It seems like they may be aiming towards reducing that yield rate via the price hike… lol.
Even if the yield rate stays at 37%, 63% or 5198 of the 8250 admitted will likely enroll elsewhere. Clearly, cost will be a huge factor in that decision for many.
But to USC’s credit, these days, nearly two-thirds of all undergraduates receive some sort of financial aid… including need-based grants, merit scholarships, federal work-study and loans. That equates to 11,500 in total out of 18K. 21 percent of all undergrads or around 3800 received a USC merit-based scholarship last year. And an even higher percentage received pell grants last year. USC currently has more than 4,000 low-income undergraduate students out of the 18,000 undergraduate students enrolled. (Low income as defined by Pell Grant eligibility). That level of generosity has to get paid for somehow. Good thing so many wealthy families are willing to be full-pay and send their kids there. They help to off-set those on FA.
If your FA package seems erroneous, check with the Office of Financial Aid before you abandon hope. If you know that you are going to be full-pay no matter what… then clearly you have a major decision to make and some price comparisons to conclude before reaching that decision. But with 64K applying and more committing to USC than what they are even aiming for, I do not see USC changing course.
But I agree that the $76K per year total is insane. There is simply no doubt about that.
@menloparkmom There are no merit awards showing up on my portal though. Could this letter still be a chance for merit even if nothing is online?
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