@200287791 Hey! I was wondering, did you ever email your admission counselor and show them that you were highly interested? I’m scared that since I didn’t do that 
Thank you in advance!
I did, but USC is not a school based on demonstrated interest. Do not worry!
They say they do not but there was a post where the head USC admissions officer said to let him know if USC was your first school
Even though you may see/hear they do no consider demonstrated interested, it is not that definitive. Interviews, visits, connections with your advisor, letting that advisor know your strong interest in attending (without being too much in their face, talking with staff in a deparment - it can all help. (Info for next year’s group.) It doesn’t mean you have to though, so no regrets if you didn’t, most get in without these little touches.
Is it a good idea to reach out to your admissions counselor at USC and tell them that the school is your absolute first choice? Is there any chance that could hurt your application?
For this batch of applicants, it’s done. For next year’s applicants, it can be a good idea.
^^^ I agree.
As I stated in a few posts much earlier in this thread… and as advice to future applicants… once the January merit announcements come out, for those not admitted then, and if USC remains your dream school, and if you are fully committed to attending USC if admitted in March, I suggest actually telling them so… one more time… via a brief but well-worded email to your assigned admissions counselor, copying your chosen school’s admissions email. Again, I would only do so once, and I would only say what is actually true. I would do so mid to late February.
But by now, it is really far too late. The decisions have all been made by now. In just eight days, all of this year’s applicants will know the results. If not admitted… and if you choose to appeal, you can make such declarations at that point too.
As I have also posted before…
I understand that it is difficult, but please just keep in mind that 58,640 of the 66,198 who applied last cycle were ultimately not admitted. I choose to say “not admitted” because in reality that is how USC sees it too. The simple reality is that they are not rejecting applicants. Instead, they are simply faced with the cruel reality of only having room for circa 3K new freshmen each year. With their projected yield rates and the goal of only seeing around 3K enroll, USC thus can only admit 7,000 to 7,500 or so in total. The massive # of new applicants each cycle makes their task extremely hard. They are only able to admit so many.
Unfortunately, disappointment does come along in life. It’s what you do next that matters most. Steven Spielberg desperately wanted to attend USC SCA… so much so that he tried three times to gain admission. He failed to gain admission all three times. But now there is a building bearing his name within the SCA complex, and he did very well despite lacking an SCA education. Bryan Singer also tried and was also not granted admission by either USC or SCA. He tried a second time and got into USC but again failed to get into SCA. He then succeeded as an internal transfer on his third try. Persistence can also pay off.
Many have faced the disappointment of not gaining admission to their dream schools. In my day, for me… it was Harvard… but Harvard saw it differently. Harvard also failed to admit Dr. Harold Varmus twice. He simply went on to win a Nobel Prize in Medicine. Harvard also failed to admit Warren Buffet. They surely would like a do-over on that one.
Every year around this time, it is important to remember that such failed efforts need not control our lives. And with the way that things have evolved… with the Common Application making it far too common for high school seniors to apply to 10+, 15+ or even 20+ schools, those disappointments are bound to add up.
But these letters from admissions offices potentially detailing the bad news are not true assessments of student aptitude or ability or the quality of an application. They are simply the natural evolution of a cruel #s game. USC could clearly admit tens of thousands of quality applicants this year. They are instead stuck with the arduous, unwelcome and nearly impossible task of only picking 7000-7500 or so out of a field of 56K or so. They will even have to reluctantly disappoint 90% of all legacy applicants.
As Warren Buffet says in the article linked below: “The truth is that everything that has happened in my life…that I thought was a crushing defeat at the time, has turned out for the better. A temporary defeat is not a permanent one. In the end it can be an opportunity.”
Here’s a link to an excellent article on the subject of those who went on to great success after facing such a similar set-back as aspirational high school seniors aiming for that dream school scenario…
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704211704575139891390595962
To all of you active on CC or just following along without posting… good wishes and the best of luck getting in on March 26th. If you do not get into USC, hopefully you will find your place at another great option. But clearly some will face disappointment. Some will not gain admission into their dream school. I wish it could be otherwise.
Best Wishes & Good Luck…
@WWWard @CADREAMIN do you guys or anyone else know any early indications for a rejection or acceptance? 8 days seems so far, especially since last year decisions were released on the 23rd
Also, on usc’s website, it says the veritax form would “expedite the financial aid process”. Is there any need to expedite the process usc wasn’t considering giving you FA?
“Financial aid application process”*
Historically do scholarship finalists find out about their award on the same day as regular decision?
@CADREAMIN WOW, 4 kids at USC…certainly makes it easier during football season. ? Yes, my daughter received the post card for SDA open house and she’s holding on to that hope…she put her heart and soul into the application with her video essay, etc. She had been in touch and had a phone conversation with an SDA admissions person. Not that it matters now, but is that good enough to show interest or should she have spoken to admissions outside of SDA? Thanks for your help!
hopefully they send packages later on
Other than the SDA Open House invitation that has been an early indicator in the past, I cannot speak to any other items that are definitive hints.
I had two daughters receive FA from USC over a span of the last six years, and this was the first time (for 2020-2021) that FA insisted on Veri-Tax, suggesting in their email to us that they are now doing it for all current FA recipients. I do not know if it was ever asked in prior cycles of initial freshmen applicants or not. If not… then it could be a possible indicator… as it costs USC extra money to use this outside service provider. Every other cost… like CSS profiles… is the responsibility of the applicants themselves. But some posts on this thread have suggested the use of Veri-Tax in prior years for initial FA applicants. If true… and if that was done also for those not admitted, then it too can be ignored as any sort of indicator.
But alas… you will all know soon enough. I understand the angst, having gone through it twice before, but there is really no escaping the pain and suffering of simply having to wait for the results. My suggestion… NetFlix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Showtime, Hulu, etc. There are a ton of quality shows to binge watch these days. Shift gears and focus on entertainment or other distractions to help pass the time…
Can anyone 100% confirm that they received a veritax form but were rejected?
And @WWWard thank you for the amazing information
Emerson extended their decision deadline by a month due to corona. Do you think schools like usc will do the same?
I really hate that they pushed back the date so much. They should have just done it on the 23rd as that would have been the normal release date anyways. It’s absolutely destructive as I have a really bad feeling that I’m going to get rejected (not getting the tax form request is really stressing me out regardless of what others assume about it’s association with acceptance). We now will have less time to make decisions… and it’s killing me.
@CADREAMIN We received the SDA Open House Invite as well, and @COmama24 and I have been in talks about it ever since! lol. Still hoping it means something. Also very crazy to think that if it does, and my daughter is accepted, she would be in a position of deciding on a school she has not yet visited! We had RSVP’d for the April 11th Open House, and that was to be our first visit. Theatre/MT majors don’t really get to visit all of their schools before application, since they have to apply to so many (15-25ish) Some are visited during auditions if they are on campus as opposed to at Chicago Unifieds (Our D auditioned for USC in Chicago), and some have to be saved for Spring Break. Well, we all know how that is going this year… Sigh…
@COmama24 For SDA, contact inside is the way to go which she did, outside (regular admissions) nah. The advisor that she communicates with provides input to admissions, it is amazing what they know about the students they end up admitting. She played that exactly right.
@biochemmajor11 you’re welcome
@CindyLeuWho Yes… it’s unfortunate. But, it’s also unfortunate that so many key employees related to admissions and I.T. are now likely compelled to work remotely. It clearly has led to projected delays. Thankfully… it looks like only a delay of a few days. It could have been much worse. These are strange days, and we are all facing unusual and unexpected complexities to our normal lives. USC is no exception. Good luck… hoping for good news for you.