My daughter is a newly admitted USC student for fall 2020. Can anyone tell me when we will be notified about her financial aid?
@alucas If the FA file is complete, likely today thru Wednesday.
Hard to believe Questbridge applicants got such poor aid! I feel for them. Our aid package was consistent with other private schools – with USC expecting us to pay just under our FAFSA EFC after grants, work study and loans (still unaffordable, but at least consistent). The only other private school that offered relatively better aid was Emory, which offered a little more and it was all grant aid – no loans.
eta: Tuition is over $59K?!? Wow.
So, my family’s EFC is around $25k… and the tuition bill is 40k a year and I can only take out 5k in loans… there is no realm where I can afford that… what do I do
SO sorry to hear that, @TheBoldedFranklin, for you and all your QB USC group. But if your aid is worse than other QB admits with higher EFC’s, that suggests there may be some error at play. It is definitely worth it to follow up with FA to ask how they arrived at theirs numbers as @WWWard suggests. Keep us posted!
Will do for sure! I am not sure if she was a QB admit or not, but she did ask about QB (the person that had more aid).
We’re all freaking out in the group chat.
Honestly, not sure why USC is even a Questbridge partner…20K undergraduates, only matches 5 kids through the national college match. This is absurd!
For those merit scholarship winners admitted to the USC Viterbi College of Engineering, the Viterbi Fellows were notified today by direct email. Non-winners are not notified, so I thought this might be useful information. Daughter in MechE was awarded Trustee and Fellow and is currently floating near the ceiling. Mother is a UCLA alum, so it’s going to be an interesting family dynamic.
Congratulations @RoboticsDad that’s an impressive package! Definitely a house divided. 
@Roboticsdad yes, my older brother attends UCLA and my family is UCLA fans (dad grad of UCLA law school as well) so this entire admissions cycle they’ve been praying against me 
I don’t mind. It’s kind of fun.
Hi @HKimPOSSIBLE. From what I’ve gleaned, in the links below, it is true that USC matches very few QB scholars, as noted in interviews with USC QB scholars at https://admissionblog.usc.edu/uscs-questbridge-scholar-community/:
Edgar Bustos: “[QB] matches are kind of seen as mythical people” given the low match to non-match ratio.
Vanni Le: “I think in my four years at USC, I’ve probably only met two QuestBridge Match students.”
UCS’s QB strategy seems to be to admit far more through the merit scholarship round and RD process.
In another USC blogpost, the Assistant Senior Director of Admissions, Maria Rodriguez states: “At USC we have the largest chapter of QuestBridge Scholars which means that you will always have resources and a support system available to you.”
See https://admissionblog.usc.edu/im-not-a-questbridge-match-what-does-this-mean/
And according to Le, non-Match matriculants “are not going to be treated differently for not matching with USC.”
I think the critique/request for review entails not so much that there are so few QB Matches, but there appears to be a disparity of treatment in the FA awards of Matches vs. non-Matches, contrary to the statements made in USC blogposts and websites quoted above.
In this link, you will find that the sample Match FA at USC includes $0 for Parent Contribution and $0 for student loan. https://www.questbridge.org/college-partners/university-of-southern-california/financial_aid
I would use all this information to gently inquire about the disparity in FA offers for Match vs. Non-Match QB admits, and whether that is intentional or an oversight?
There was also an email for a QB liason at USC that you might also email/copy in addition to FA. I could not find any email for Maria Rodriguez from the USC blogpost, but emailing the official FA contact should be fine.
Again, I’m sorry that you and your QB cohort have to ride a roller-coaster of emotions from admission to the disappointment over the FA award. But give USC a chance to see if they can make it right.
Thank you @WWWard. Problem is I don’t know if my FA is complete. When I click on the link for FAST on the portal the application status has a hazard symbol but my FAFSA and CSS files see to be in order with my daughter’s SSN and the correct USC school code listed. Any thoughts?
@RoboticsDad Congrats - your dinner table will have to have a red side and a blue side over the holidays. She will love Viterbi! If I could share the crazy success stories of my son and his friends I would - they are out there making things happen - some with their own well funded companies a couple years post graduation, it really was spectacular for him and his core group of friends. Enjoy and good luck!
Hi!
I was recently accepted into USC as a journalism major. I’ve been dreaming of going to USC since I was 11, but things are looking pretty bleak right now. We just received a package for $0 aid.
I was wondering if anyone knows about the aid situation for kids with retired parents? My dad is planning to retire this October at which point my family’s taxable income will become zero. Once this happens, they’re unsure if they can give me any money for school but at most it will be a few thousand a year, so I’m hopeful I could get some aid. Even right now they can only give me $6-8,000 while my dad does have a job. Does anyone have any experience with this type of situation? Will they give us more aid once he retires/will we count as a part of the under 80k a year group?
Thanks!
@alucas When you log in to FAST, find the link that says Required Info and Forms at the bottom. Once you click on that, check both tabs… Required Documents and Received Documents. If anything is required & missing, it will tell you.
@jaramaka It’s hard to say… as it’s not all about income. They take into consideration all assets… stocks, home equity, etc… too.
@WWWard oh ok, I didn’t see that link. Nothing is listed as required so I will just wait. Thank you
Warmest congratulations to your D, @RoboticsDad! My D19 is a very happy Viterbi-CS Trustee Scholar/Viterbi Fellow for Class of 2023 in case you have any questions. IIRC, there may also be an invitation to be a paid research assistant to Viterbi faculty down the line for additional $. My D19 has not yet been able to take advantage of that given the heavy workload in CS.
If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at this recent news item about gender parity at Viterbi. That is quite impressive–a claim few colleges or universities can make!
https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2019/10/usc-viterbi-achieves-gender-parity-in-its-entering-class/.
@jaramaka
It is not just based on income. If they own a home or have other assets, that is considered money in the bank basically. Idea, generally speaking, is they could sell their home to pay for your college compared to other people that don’t even have a home to sell. His upcoming retirement has no relevance for this year as aid is looking at income in previous two years (so 2018-2019 for this year). So his retirement income being counted is years off. Likely, if he is retiring, and this is just a guess, they have savings and assets that label you, like many others, full pay. Doesn’t mean you can afford it, but they are saying you could afford it if you really wanted to - you have things that can be used to pay for an education…lots and lots of people fall into this category, and every year there are tons of folks surprised by their aid package (or lack of). You are not alone in your disappointment, that’s for sure.
Just emailed to all current USC students…
March 30, 2020
Dear Trojan Community,
We continue to be inspired by the resiliency of our students, faculty, and staff during this disruptive time. In particular, we recognize the pressures all students are experiencing, and we want to do everything we can to alleviate distress.
After discussions with students, faculty leaders, and deans, we are modifying our policy on undergraduate pass/no pass grades for this semester to give students the flexibility to decide what is best for them given the varying environments and individual challenges each student is facing. We know this has been an area of great concern.
Under the new terms, undergraduate students will have the freedom to opt for a letter grade, a Pass or a No Record up to a week after official class grades are posted. The deadline is May 27 to select these options. All other communicated dates no longer apply. The No Record option will work like a withdrawal except that there will be no transcript notation that the student took the course. Every student’s transcript will note that the semester was disrupted due to COVID-19.
In addition, we are announcing that any future applicants to our undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools will not be disadvantaged by course work taken under Pass/No Pass grading options offered at any school during the COVID-19 pandemic. We understand students are working under unprecedented conditions, and we appreciate what they are going through. We are committed to evaluating all pass grades for course work without prejudice and are making this historic accommodation because we believe right now students should be able to focus on learning.
Our deans, faculty leaders, and admissions officers all agreed these are the right steps to take, and we will continue to be as supportive as we can during this time. We will be posting an FAQ on the COVID-19 website before the end of the week on these policy modifications. Please check the site for updated information.
We also know there are a lot of concerns and questions remaining about grading options at the graduate level. The provost is working with the deans on this, and we will issue FAQs in the coming days.
Stay safe and well.
Carol L. Folt
President
Charles F. Zukoski
Provost
@WWWard @CADREAMIN Any insight on how effective/quick the financial aid process has been for past students?