This thread has been created from posts made to the general admission thread so we don’t clutter it up this close to decisions.
USC has increased the cost of attendance to a total of $95,225 for the 2024-25 school year
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Does it come with a new BMW?
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We thought it’d hit 100k by senior year, but looks like for my class of 28 it’ll be there by sophmore year.
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They do love their 4-5% increases EVERY year.
I guess UCLA can count on an extra 100,000 apps next year to add to the 173,000 they got this year.
What is the tipping point of tuition?!
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Personally the prestige per dollar ratio for USC is 50k. Even that is a stretch. Whereas I would happily pay whatever Stanford or MIT charges, there is no way USC is going to be worthwhile at full price. $400k in the hole for UG is just nuts.
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I was thinking similarly. If they inflate the price and offer a larger discount (FA), will it entice people who think they are getting a deal?
My problem is at my bracket, I’m full pay. I don’t even make that much money. 94k/yr and that’s AFTER TAX money. Which means my pre tax income will need to increase by 150K to cover the cost. USC is essentially pricing out middle class who makes between 150-350k a year.
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Every top tier private university has priced out the middle class and upper middle class.
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This is exactly what I was thinking. There really has to be one, right? I mean it’s a good school and all in a bad neighborhood in a great state (imho), but come on. And they have a huge endowment. At some point it’s obscene. Even with the NMF scholarship.
USC is on a path to be a school just for the children of the super wealthy/famous/powerful (with a small sprinkling of very poor kids on scholarship). It is entirely possible that this is what USC wants.
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On the path…I think they are there already. We’re gonna have to start calling them the University of Spoiled Children again like in the old days.
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Also not sure I’d call 200K and above “middle class.” I agree $94K is ridiculous, but it’s only a little more ridiculous than most private universities.
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With a 9% admission rate and 43% yield, they’re not close to it yet …
A lot more than Harvard; a little more than Columbia and Yale. (note: H & C are 2023 numbers).
Mine was admitted and for the highly selective program she wanted! Yay!! But, we are middle class (but not the $ @cy7878 cites), and our financial package still put it far out of reach. (Although not too far off the NPC… NPC was lower by about $5500…oh I guess now NPC included the loan.)
Yeah, as someone on Reddit said, it’d be one thing to raise prices and have rich folks foot the bill for others, but then you have to be really generous with FA and use some of that massive endowment to actually provide opportunities for more kids.
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Students at USC work their butts off, not only to get accepted but also while studying at USC (D22 included). This moniker is not only inaccurate but incredibly insulting as well.
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It is not a comment on the students, but on the fact that there are not many families who can afford to send their kids to a school that costs $95,000 a year with a tuition increase of 5% every year. I’m a lawyer and my husband is a lawyer and we cannot afford to send our kid to USC paying full tuition. We make too much, though, for financial aid. The only way my S24 could go there, if he is lucky enough to get in, is because he is a NMF. Having tuition so high means that only the uber-wealthy or the very poor can attend, except for the select few who get merit-based scholarships, or if kids/parents take out loans. Just my 2 cents. I do not doubt that the kids work hard there.
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So, because of this, the students that go to USC are all somehow “spoiled”? I understand your concerns however calling USC the University of Spoiled Children is just perpetuating an unfair and erroneous stereotype.
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I’m surprised you are full pay. Does your child have a non-custodial parent whose income is being factored in? Are there other assets you have? My husband and I have a household income higher than that and we were getting some FA last year. I haven’t seen this year’s yet, so I’m bracing for impact.
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