USC 2010! Forum

[sibley]

DF 3/31 is a reject pile. I e-mailed admissions office to find out and their response all but 100% confirmed it.

give us a paste.

[fs_tills]

DF 3/31 is a reject pile. I e-mailed admissions office to find out and their response all but 100% confirmed it.

Care to elaborate?

[daisuki]

Yeah what makes you say that and how did that email differ from the previous ('grouped') explanation?

[unknownscholar]

Looks like I've missed today's events, but I wasn't in this pile.

[hellomoto]

Does USC ever make phone calls? I got a call at 6:30 p.m. PST from USC...but I wasn't able to answer because I was out. There was no message.

(Oh, and for what it's worth, I'm still complete 1/20. I have no idea why else I would get a call from them though.)

[jrsandler]

Yeah, I was in review yesterday, and DF TODAY 3/31. I am 161/3.85 I knew my LSAT sucked, but was hoping for a miracle, since I have a really rare work history post undergrad, and I went Ivy undergrad. My guess is I was rejected.

[Speluncean X]

Great, D/F today roo (w borderline #'s, 'decent' LSAT for USC)..
May not be going to LS at all, this is my 2nd app cycle, just can't seem to get into any good CA schools..
Pretty frustrating considering all the effort put in and being a non-trad with some decent softs.. I know I'm not alone in this thread at all, not feeling great about LS admissions right now

if you have borderline GPA, and an LSAT that isn't 166 or lower, you should have a good shot. if its 166 then yea... huge wall there. what do you mean 'decent' LSAT for USC? thats 167 or higher and apparently 166 and lower is a crap shoot for USC.

This may be sadly true. Here is perhaps another strategy to consider. If I were making USC admissions decisions with US News et al.'s rankings in mind, I would do everything I could to shore up my desired median LSAT and GPA numbers with candidates prior to the final rounds of admissions offers tenured. I would do this with the expectation of leaving some spots available at the end of the process (read: now) for intriguing candidates who may or may not aid in the rankings efforts (we must remind ourselves that law schools do have condiserations other than their numbers alone). I think that a law school of USC's caliber would be risking a lot were they to leave themselves at the 11th hour in a position where they were forced to rely upon the numbers of splitters to give their GPA/LSAT scores a push in the right direction. Further, it is the case that any splitter is going to both help and harm USC's numbers if the school hasn't properly padded their antecedent aggregate numbers with future miscellaneous candidates in mind. I suppose I am saying that relying upon late-in-the-process splitters for their numerical value is a risk I think USC could eschew with a bit of planning ahead (and perhaps they have). I would posit that many of us are in a battle for a few 'et cetera' spots the school has set aside and that numbers at this point may be less determinative. Just a thought. Good luck to all the 3/31 DF-ers and others (like me) who await signs of life from the "in review" board.

[daisuki]

^^ Those are some interesting points, though the whole numbers game is still frustrating, especially if you want to be a lawyer, I would probably have a much different outlook if I was looking at B-school... I wish I would have done a bit better in UG but things happen and I wasn't very mature either, my main goal was simply getting a BA with a 3.0 or better so I could get a decent job.
The job market practically commands you to go to a top school, especially for non-trads who have more to lose, so the scholarships at T30's etc, are less appealing if you know that maybe 30% of those students have jobs..

[Speluncean X]

^^ Those are some interesting points, though the whole numbers game is still frustrating, especially if you want to be a lawyer, I would probably have a much different outlook if I was looking at B-school... I wish I would have done a bit better in UG but things happen and I wasn't very mature either, my main goal was simply getting a BA with a 3.0 or better so I could get a decent job.
The job market practically commands you to go to a top school, especially for non-trads who have more to lose, so the scholarships at T30's etc, are less appealing if you know that maybe 30% of those students have jobs..

I hear you. I think that the new paradigm is that, given the market, you will need to crush it at any school to have any real sense of security about job prospects upon graduating (with $100K+ debt, I may add). Luckily for you, the whole non-traditional thing (though will its own bundle of challenges) typically conferrs to you a disciplinary and perspective advantage to recognize challenges and effectively address them.

[daisuki]

You'd think, though so far it has had little effect. We'll see..
I agree, it's more complicated when you get the impression you have to destroy it grade-wise from early on to have one of precious few shots at a job that might make the loans more acceptable.

[GermX]

Umm what e-mail is this guy talking about?

[Quine]

I'm going to guess it's a rejection batch, guys. I was W/L with a ... and I wrote the extra essay and everything. They were my first choice, but with these admissions practices I'm starting to wonder what USC will be ranked in 3 years. This has to be the most idiotic admissions strategy available. If my GPA was ... higher, and my LSAT ... points lower, I'd have been an auto admit with a probable scholarship offer. But with my current stats I'm a wait-list. That's absurd. I can't imagine them raising their medians this way. The only way this can still work for them is if they intend to pull a lot of people off of the W/L and are prepared to pay good money for those candidates. Otherwise, I see USC dropping and a school like WUSTL rising to take it's place (they know how to buy people). We can pretend they're being holistic, but the LSN profile shows some pretty clear walls.

[Speluncean X]

Umm what e-mail is this guy talking about?

I believe that the email in question is one in which the USC admissions people responded to the author's request for information in such a manner as to lead him to think they revealed that 3/31 df-ers are f'ed (so to speak). Copies of said email have yet to be provided for independent analysis.

[JOThompson]

I called the admissions office earlier and the lady was nice enough to tell me my decision. Rejection wasn't unexpected. Good luck to everyone else.

[xokel87]

IR 1/29. still no decision 165 but 3.92. not sure how i fit into this whole paradigm!

[thebadpancake]

I called the admissions office earlier and the lady was nice enough to tell me my decision. Rejection wasn't unexpected. Good luck to everyone else.

Well then, that settles it - 3/31 is a lovely batch of dings. I'm completely heartbroken.

[jonnodotsg]

.

[Speluncean X]

IR 1/29. still no decision 165 but 3.92. not sure how i fit into this whole paradigm!

Perhaps this is like that horrible "House on Haunted Hill" remake and there is some mysterious thread that connects us all together of which we are yet unaware (but that will be revealed in due time). If I remember that movie correctly, they were all recent descendents of people who had wronged the spirits of criminally insane inmates generations before. Something analagous could very easily apply in my family history.

Another approach would be for us to share and numerically code all of our biographical information, academic histories, softs, work history, USC statuses, etc. and then do mutivariant regression analysis to determine which factors correlate with which acceptance/rejection/waitlist outcomes. Should I dust off the old TI-86?

[fs_tills]

they were all recent descendents of people who had wronged the spirits of criminally insane inmates generations before. Something analagous could very easily apply in my family history.

Dude no way, me too.

[HaleyB88]

IR 1/29. still no decision 165 but 3.92. not sure how i fit into this whole paradigm!

I'm still IR 1/29 as well....I kind of thought I was the only one IR from Jan still!

[ViP]

Still complete. Doing my thing. You know.

[sibley]

Still complete. Doing my thing. You know.

today my thing is figuring out all the t.ls (tls) word replacements!

[Stupendous_Man]

I don't know if I'm just not finding this through my extensive searching, or everyone is holding out for some reason or another, but we didn't have a USC Class of 2013 thread. Now we do, and here it is: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5&t=113011

If you've made up your mind, head over there and let's not cruelly discuss schollies, housing, Law Days etc. in the midst of so many people still waiting out admissions.

To everyone still waiting, hold strong and good luck!

[Sauer Grapes]

Has anyone that tried to negotiate a scholarship (increase or otherwise) heard back yet?

[JOThompson]

I called the admissions office earlier and the lady was nice enough to tell me my decision. Rejection wasn't unexpected. Good luck to everyone else.

Wow. I'm surprised that they're changing their stance on how candidates can be informed of their decision. Maybe they recognize the lateness of the cycle and are just trying to be kind to those who might still be holding a candle out for USC despite offers from elsewhere.

At first, she was hesitant to reveal my decision. When I explained that I had another seat deposit due tomorrow, she was willing to help me out. She did tell me that the letters should arrive within 5-7 days via first class wail.