@CADREAMIN so I see others have posted the info that freshman will have to reapply for housing for Spring. One question I still have is: if you did not take housing in Fall if offered, will that give you lower priority for Spring than those who did accept housing for fall?
My daughter, incoming freshman, is dead set on getting to LA some way. She’s had it with studying at home and even if similarly locked down in housing in LA, she’d rather be there to start her college experience.
My rising junior also wants to go back. Her lease starts August 1. She needs to be back with her peers even if she’ll be fairly isolated with her roommates.
My heart breaks for the freshmen, my own son included albeit not at USC. To lose the end of senior year of high school and now the start of college is a lot to deal with.
A couple of questions: I haven’t been able to sign up for the parentsoftroy emails to parents. When I try, it says ID not found for my daughter’s ID. Anyone know how to deal with that or who to email about it?
Also, is there a difference between student ID and NetID?
Finally, my daughter, incoming SCA freshman, is still getting a ton of email to her email address she applied to USC with - SCA has lots of emails about webinars that are interviews with various people and opportunities and most/all are going there. Will those convert over to her USC email at some point, or does she need to do something to make that happen?
I wonder what percentage of Freshmen will attend on campus. It saves many many many thousands to stay home. We will send her if there is a reason to - but the thought of sitting alone in a dorm room doing online classes sounds horrible. If she had an off campus apartment I would feel differently. Then at least there is a community.
@CADREAMIN Yes… here’s hoping that “business as usual” is somewhat acheiveable and soon. I frankly think that those who go to L.A., whether on campus or not, will find a much greater sense of community. Isolation at home far away is not the answer… at least not as we see it.
@CAtransplant The NetID is the part before @usc.edu in your assigned email. It’s the username that signs you in to the MyUSC portal. Eventually, most emails will start going to the USC email, but you can also set it up to have every email automtically copy to a personal email or vice versa.
All Marshall classes will be online only this fall term (at least that is my interpretation of the email below from the Marshall Dean) …
@CAtransplant
Yes, the same thing happened to me when I tried to sign up for Parents of Troy. I emailed USC but have not heard back yet. I am guessing that maybe once our kids have started classes that we will be able to activate this.
@5OnTheHill maybe - first people told me it was that my D had to be enrolled in classes but that didn’t change it.
@CAtransplant
Now I’ve heard that maybe it becomes active once we’ve paid tuition. Whatever activates it, I think we are just too early. Many others chattering about this on FB so we are not doing it wrong!
@5OnTheHill I got an answer! I had written to the Orientation office since they were the ones who sent the packet which had the thing about signing up for that. I got a message back from them and they said:
“Thanks for reaching out. I’m sorry for the confusion and I have been in communication with that office to add a statement that it is after the third week of classes. That’s when all students are verified in all courses. That’s when changes can be made to their information and you can sign up for the Parents of Troy communication line.”
@CAtransplant
Nice work! Thank you for sharing!!
Does anybody know how significantly financial aid grants will be reducing if we stay home w/ parents?
It is hard to tell the impact that it could have to the final bottomline numbers. They will clearly be reducing the total estimated cost of attending if room/board expenditures are not at that same level due to remote learning. And with such, they will reduce the FA grants and overall FA offering accordingly.
My daughter’s current FA Summary lists the Estimated Cost of Attendance as $66,913, with Tuition as $59,260. But they also falsely assumed and defaulted to remote learning.
Last year, the Estimated Cost of Attendance was $10,546 higher, $77,459, with room estimates of $9,612 and board estimates of $6,300.
Since she is contractually committed to non-USC Housing, we have already submitted online through the FAST portal a Financial Aid Summary update to confirm that she will be there for both terms utilizing Non-USC Housing. Additionally, we uploaded a copy of that executed lease. Both of those steps are required to have them re-do the aid #s.
In reply, FA emailed her stating that all FA summaries were defaulted to remote learning but that her summary will be redone asap.
So those steps are necessary for all those utilizing non-USC housing.
For those utilizing USC Housing, they will automatically re-do the summary once USC Housing locks in.
Therefore, differentials in aid at this stage could be primarily due to the differentials in estimated total costs.
You are on it as always @WWWard!
That will be helpful to those applying for FA for sure!
Did your D get any hybrid classes or all online?
@CADREAMIN Thanks. Hopefully so.
All online. Oh well. How about your D?
So for freshman that receive FA-- they are reducing the amount of FA by the amount of housing? So that would require many kids to stay home-- is that what I am understanding? What is the % of kids that receive FA that is around the amount of housing? Was this financial that was reduced the amount for the semester or the year?
They are not necessarily reducing the amount of FA by the amount of housing. But if a student elects to not live in L.A. in either USC Housing or Non-USC Housing and simply stays home, wherever that may be, they are certainly going to reduce the projected total costs to account for that change. And then they will reduce the aid by some measure to account for the change in total costs. They are not requiring anyone to stay home or go to L.A., but the FA #s could certainly adjust based on what the student and their family decide to do. If you are going to claim that you are living in L.A. near campus, whether within USC Housing or Non-USC Housing, then they are also going to require proof of such. They are not going to provide aid as if you are living there without knowing it to be true. Each family receiving FA will have to decide what is best for them… both financially and generally, for the welfare of the student in question.
In my family’s case, we already committed to my daughter being there… so she will be. And FA will be adjusted accordingly. That will likely be the same for every student who already committed to Non-USC Housing. For those who were going to live within USC Housing, the option remains to cancel and stay home.
So if a freshman NOW (after the FA aid packages were adjusted and sent out) seeks off-campus housing, the school will adjust the FA? I can understand if it’s a sophomore or older that had housing obligations already lined up, but was just wondering about the case for freshmen with FA- esp since they are urging so much that freshmen stay home. Sorry if I sound dense about this- just curious about this. thanks
@WWWard Yes, online. She was surprised one of her production classes isn’t hybrid so may decide to push that out, just thinking it through for now. Regardless, she will be there in a couple weeks as will most every upperclassman I suppose. We have been down to her apartment a couple times to check in, clear fridge, clean up etc, and it is was good to see it pretty as always. One of my graduated Trojans was at USC a couple weeks ago and said it is so weird to see it so quiet on campus, even in the summer. The area around campus will be back to life soon - my goodness, my D is ready for that!