Anyone with answers from USC?

[faisal_petro]

I applied in USC for MS in Petroleum in Feb and got a confirmation email about them receiving my documents on March 3. It has been almost 6 weeks since then and i am getting impatient now. I am an international applicant so i will have worries about the I20 and all visa stuffs. This takes time. Any further delays will not help the cause . Do anyone have any solutions?

[saurav0505116]

Man, I have applied in the month of November, 2011 and could not get any notification from them. At last a few days back, my status was changed and it says that I will be receiving the decision by postal service. So its a reject. After about 5 months they are rejecting me. So wait. Its only 6 weeks for you. Hope you will get positive response from them . BTW I applied to PhD program of CS

[faisal_petro]

Hmm...how much u gt in gre?...i gt 1220..so pretty confident..!!

[addola]

It takes a little longer than the next month to get a decision from USC. I remember I got my admission to MS in Computer Science sometime in May/June, and I wasn't able to get the visa on time, so I asked them to defer the application to Spring semester. The deadline was set to June 15 back then (2006)

I recall that they didn't require any recommendation letters or Statement of purpose for the admission, so it's really the GPA & the GRE and of course, the money. They rarely fund MS students, so many may not accept the offers since it's expensive to study in USC and live in Los Angeles.

I don't know how it is with Petroleum Engineering though

[ericrusso]

Hey guys, this is for my roommate. He applied to USC for Master's (Mech/Aerospace Engineering) right at the deadline (Jan15?Dec15?). He refuses to call them and it's really pathetic seeing him desperately check the mail everyday. He claims that USC only sends out admissions decisions via postal mail, but he doesn't know about this website. I checked the Results and I see that there quite a few acceptances via email, so he is wrong about that. I REALLY feel bad for him. I experienced the same thing with MIT: they always wait until the end to notify the rejects. Anyways, I am just trying to put a sick horse out of its misery and any information you guys could throw my way will be greatly appreciated.

[We regret to inform you]

I was rejected almost immediately by USC. my application was completed around mid december and i was rejected before new years. I had called up the department over winter break to make sure they had received everything and they told me that they had received everything AND that i had been rejected. I was kind of stunned.

I honestly don't understand HOW they managed to reject me that fast. I have some pretty solid stats and previous grad school experience. And I figured they wouldn't even look at applications until the spring semester began. I even looked over my application several times to make sure I hadn't made any mistakes and I couldn't find any.

[ericrusso]

Thanks for the feedback. My roommate, unfortunately, does not have solid stats. I think his GRE scores were like 160 Verbal, 164 Math, and 5 Writing; decent, but his GPA is somewhere around 2.7-2.9, I think. He has no research experience, no extracurriculars (unless you count surfing or going home to his girlfriend every weekend as extracurriculars), and he really doesn't even do any homework. I don't know how he's even graduating. But anyways, he got rejected by UCI and UCLA (where we attend now), but he's holding on to USC hope. Anyways, I'll probably try and convince him to break down and call them.

[sanrockp]

so they didnt tell you that you were rejected? the only way you found out was you called them?

[addola]

On 4/23/2012 at 5:59 PM, ericrusso said:

Thanks for the feedback. My roommate, unfortunately, does not have solid stats. I think his GRE scores were like 160 Verbal, 164 Math, and 5 Writing; decent, but his GPA is somewhere around 2.7-2.9, I think. He has no research experience, no extracurriculars (unless you count surfing or going home to his girlfriend every weekend as extracurriculars), and he really doesn't even do any homework. I don't know how he's even graduating. But anyways, he got rejected by UCI and UCLA (where we attend now), but he's holding on to USC hope. Anyways, I'll probably try and convince him to break down and call them.

Since you live in LA, go to USC campus and ask. I got accepted with a lower GRE than your roommate to MS in Computer Science. My GPA was 3.27. Back then when I applied for MS few years ago, I got rejected by UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, and I got acceptance in USC, Washington University in St. Louis and Arizona State.

[sanrockp]

addola, what else is your profile? im going into the same thing, with pretty similiar gpa as you, but had a pretty good gpa, yet i have not heard anything for MS.

[addola]

addola, what else is your profile? im going into the same thing, with pretty similiar gpa as you, but had a pretty good gpa, yet i have not heard anything for MS.

They didn't ask for recommendation letters nor statement of purpose. They judge it based on GRE/GPA apparently.

I believe they have a much higher acceptance rate for MS than PhD.

Someone just posted (April 27th) on the "Search Result" that they got admitted for PhD in Industrial Engineering. Apprently, USC only inform people through regular postal mail.

I don't why people assume that late decisions mean rejection... usually "No News, is good news", some admissions take long IMHO.

[faisal_petro]

Addola...as u ve been in USC for a long time u must be having a good idea about MS in petroleum engineering. Can you please tell me the ground reality of the department i.e., job placements, ties with oil companies, etc. Your help will be motivating for me.