Texas A&M announced their decisions some time ago. My daughter got in (but most probably will go elsewhere). I am confused with your claim that Texas A&M have rolling admissions. (But I agree that there are other options, for each major, period. It doesn’t have to be USC or community college).
both I guess? That’s the one I applied to but I didn’t get any offer from UT
@aschraff1 McCombs business school
At UT is one of the toughest programs to be admitted to. UT still could have still offered you admission and McCombs deny you to their school - you would just have needed to choose a different major or enroll undeclared. Looks like you were admitted to some great schools though! It’s so hard to look at your credentials that you posted and judge you by that. I’m of the opinion that every student on here seems promising and I’m sure has a terrific shot at USC. GOOD LUCK!!!
Out Of State Tuition… Pain… However, in our situation, OOS tuition at a UC school is much more expensive than tuition at the best private schools. One boy hopefully will graduate UCB - and we are paying full price, zero aid. Another boy is at Cornell, and they gave great need based aid and we hardly pay anything. Same for middle daughter - Tufts University gave great aid. But UCs do not give ANY aid to OOS, merit or otherwise… Very tough. Now the younger daughter - admitted to UCSD, UCSB, UCI, to the University of Colorado - Boulder, to Texas A&M, to University of Maryland College Park… But she would LOVE to go to USC. Me too: both me and her dad went to USC for grad school.
Just more proof I guess that the internet is often as wrong as it is right lol.
But yes… that is the key point: there are still many college options out there other than just community college should USC fail to admit someone.
The cruel reality is that last year, 88.6% of the 66,198 that applied to USC were in fact not admitted. Only 7,558 were admitted. No one knows what the exact #s will be this cycle until they are posted, but likely circa 50K will not be admitted by next Thursday. That is a staggering number of applicants who will face disappointment. But that disappointment need not define you.
Our family faced it. 19 rejections out of 32 overall, over two cycles. In 2014, my older daughter was rejected by 12 of the 17 schools she applied to. Based on her stats and the overall strength of her application, we predicted something more like 9 admissions and 8 rejections. We were very wrong. In 2017, my younger daughter’s list of schools varied, and she fared slightly better, going 8 and 7. Thankfully, they both were admitted to USC and enrolled there. But these things cannot really be predicted. In 2017, we were sure that Princeton would be among her rejections, but she got in there. But that unexpected admission did not stop 7 others (all ranked lower) from rejecting her.
The key is applying to a very good mix of reach, match and safety schools. These days, I believe that far too many applicants assume a match based on stats, etc., when in reality, any school that admits 30% or less really needs to be deemed a reach. There are no sure things anymore. You just never know what they are searching for in any given cycle. @CADREAMIN and I are simply trying to point out that there are other options should an applicant’s list not go as planned.
Hopefully everyone here on this thread has a good solid option by April 1st. But if not, there are other options still available to apply to. And as stated above and many times before on this thread, these college decisions are not an indictment or verdict regarding your worthiness as a person or as an applicant… and the college you eventually attend need not define you either. You are the master architect of your own future… and you can succeed at will no matter where you may be attending college in the fall or next spring. Plus… there are further options - like transfer. USC especially admits many via transfer.
Good luck to all on March 26th…
I’m getting more and more worried about being able to afford USC. My dad has all of my college savings in stocks but the stock market has gone down by 33%. Do you think USC will consider this when awarding aid? Or how did they handle what happened in 2008?
Your story and ours are similar.
We have one genius, who at age 14, in the fall of 2017, applied to 8 schools, got admitted to 2 (UCLA and UCB). He should graduate after spending two years at UCB, at age 17 (just turned). He is already admitted to 4 PhD programs, and chose to go to UCSD (for Math PhD), with full support as a Teaching Assistant (yes, probably most of his students will be older than him, even if they are undergraduate freshmen). He has 2 publications in peer reviewed journals, one patent submission, and several more publications on the way. Of course he had great stats back in 2017, at the point when he applied to all those undergraduate schools. ** So, why or why, all other schools (other than UCLA and UCB) didn’t admit this boy for his undergraduate degree? Were they right? were they wrong? Who knows what they were looking for…
His older brother (who ironically is now a college freshman, while his younger brother is a senior) applied to 16 schools. Also, SAT 1580, two subject SAT of 800, numerous APs, good EC etc. He applied to 16 schools, including many Ivys and in-state and out of state mix. He got admitted to three(!!!) only, plus one admitted him undeclaired with no possibility to study his major EVER (it was written in his acceptance letter). His major is Computer Science. Cornell did take him in (where he is taking sophomore and junior courses in his major, while being freshman). You know what University rejected him (among many other universities)? Our own state flagship, University of Virginia!
After dealing with all that, when it came to my younger daughter during this cycle, I convinced her to apply to truly many schools, both reach, match and safety, covering several geographic regions, and several similar majors. 24 in total. No, I am not sorry. She has now an opportunity to choose, and hopefully USC will be one of the available choices (and he will jump on it, because this is her #1 target!). But if this doesn’t happen - there are many many already existing choices for her.
Looking back, thinking about the past, and thinking about the future - I am sure that this style of college admission we have here in the great US of A - is not sustainable. Kids have to increase the number of applications just to be sure they have something to choose from, and that reduces the matriculation rate at colleges, and the colleges increase the advertising, and get more and more applications, and some of those are successful, and then there are again the cycle of decreasing yield rates. This cannot continue. If our kids are facing applications to 8-17-24 colleges just to make sure they like the place they study at, what our grandkids going to do?
@ElenaParent
For sure. I was gonna ask if they really wanted to pay OOS rates for UCs (let’s face it, some can just afford it) but poster said no matter where they went it was OOS as they currently reside in Hong Kong.
Good luck to your D - hope it’s USC!
Any idea how the moving of the regular decision date to the 26th will affect the date of scholarship decisions for those accepted in January?
@idkhuhwait ahh NYC is likely different. I feel for you applying from there. I am sure that makes it more difficult and with so many NYC apps they may really look for strong interest and perhaps alumni parents is the easiest way. That stinks. Good luck!!
@ElenaParent I hate that applying to that many schools has become the norm and think it affects the quality and personalization of the application especially the essays. That could then affect acceptances. My student applied to 6 schools total. He did have 2 back up target school applications ready to go in case he didn’t get accepted at his 2 EA schools. Once he was accepted at both EA’s, he did not apply to those back ups-even though the applications were 100% complete. So kept to 6. So far he has 1 denial (extremely difficult school), 3 acceptances and 2 applications out one being USC. When we met with his counselor at school he thought his list was too small especially given his difficult major, but that his applications were very well done and essays and EC’s stood out. He said it’s a gamble, but as long as you are ok with it we can follow his plan. He said he’s a risk taker and loves all 6 schools so we will see. It honestly blew me away that 6 applications was not a lot. He has a very rigorous schedule, high-level sports and very consuming EC’s. There is no way he could have tackled more applications well and kept his grades up. I do hope somehow this system sees changes. He is anxiously awaiting USC’s decision as the school fits his so well, but he will be happy at any of the other schools if he gets denied USC. Pretty glad his 6 school plan worked, but again shocked that 6 schools is considered low, although I do realize having no safety schools was risky.
**Also on UVA, that is really strange in-state. However I never let me kids look there because at their out of state school they consistently deny the best applicants and take the alumni kid. Not sometimes but every.single.time. No respect for UVA’s admissions dept. How they can receive tax payer money and do this is beyond me.
@polyglotkat Yes. FA offers can be appealed and amended. You can update them if financial circumstances change over time.
@ElenaParent So very true. The advent of the common application process led to all of these unexpected and unwarranted results. Hopefully future applicants learn to be pragmatic and give themselves solid options by balancing their approach when applying.
As for UVa… while they wait-listed one of my daughters, both were ultimately rejected.
@wwward, @2022soon, @ElenaParent What is with the negativity towards UVA on a USC thread? UVA like many other schools (UNC Chapel Hill, U of M, Davidson, UF etc) claims to take a “Wholistic” approach to admissions and looks at much more than just test scores and grades (although they are a factor). State schools acknowledge they have a higher bar for OOS and UVA is very up front about giving “some” weight to legacies although I know of several OOS and In-State legacies that were denied admission the last few years. Similar to Stanford, sometimes the “geniuses” or perfect scorers are passed over for a student that may bring something else to the table that we cannot see in the stats that we seem to use to justify admission or no-admission. The good news is there are lots of “Top Colleges” and schools equal to UVA or better out there and conducting admissions in a similarly mysterious manner…so please dont hang all the negativity on just one school (UVA).
Has anyone else gotten any kind of communication from USC after submitting their application?
@saladfingers88 I’ve literally heard nothing from them lol, hopefully that’s not a bad sign??
I have had several conversations with USC counselors and a really nice SCA professor though, but no communication from the actual university so far
@isabel72 I am not sure what you are referring to. How was I in any manner negative toward UVa?
In a prior post (#1349), I said… “UVa seems like a great university. All of our research into it was very positive, and it seemed far more similar to a private university via its nature, size and offerings than a traditional state university. Plus, I know two people who attended. Each of them loved their experience there. They too described it as far more like an elite private university vs what it technically is… an elite public university.”
Saying that UVa rejected my daughters is not a negative comment about the university itself.
^^^ My daughters faced 19 rejections in total, but we hold no animosity toward any of them. They each had their own parameters and priorities at the time. Each have the right to try and craft their freshmen classes as they choose to.
My son, with perfect scores and stats, rejected by UVA was IN STATE. Resident of Virginia. Graduated from Virginia high school. Great extracurriculars, leader on the crew team, Model United Nations, etc. The only “something else” that someone else could have brought, was to be a legacy.
I have no animosity towards UVA. In the end, it is their loss. The best students they reject, go on to attend Ivy League, and other great private and state schools, and their future alumni donations will go to those schools, not to UVA.
@WWWard thanks for clearing that up…just feel like many many schools are mysterious about their selection process and I am sure all of us have amazing kids and we are befuddled or wish to question how some schools make selections…just did not want a USC thread turn into a UVA bash…sorry if I came off accusatory…not my intention. Best of luck to your student!
@isabel72 You’re welcome. No worries. Thanks.
Indeed, enough of UVA.
Meanwhile, the US is now in the (unfortunate) third place for the number of people diagnosed with COVID-19. At this rate, I am very afraid we will become first, surpassing China.
Some schools are now moving the date for posting the deposit from May 1st to June 1st. Not sure if the decision date is moving too. Do you people think that USC may postpone the matriculation date? let me ask broader. Do you think all colleges will get together and postpone the decision date, to give kids dealing with all the anxiety, and unfortunately, may be even worse than just anxiety, - give them more time to decide what to do?