Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 17:42     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
Seems like they're giving decisions to merit winners first. DS's friend (with a 1600 SAT) just got in.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 16:26     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
Reddit says they are releasing decisions in waves today.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 16:01     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
Another thread with trolls making things up. Don’t believe everything you read here people.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 15:50     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
Is it still coming today? Looks like they removed the Insta post
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 14:14     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
Anonymous wrote:EA decisions for USC will be released this Friday, January 16th. They expect to admit around 3,800 students and are planning to admit a further 5k students for fall start from the RD pool.

USC defers all EA applicants who are not admitted. Deferred applicants only need to submit the deferral form in their portal and mid year grades. USC does not accept letters of continued interest or additional letters of rec.

Scholarship decisions for admitted students will go out Jan 30th. Portfolio majors that are only eligible for Regular Decision will get scholarship information in late March with their admissions decision if admitted.

Any admitted National Merit Finalist who lists USC as their first choice, regardless of whether they apply EA or RD, will receive $20k per year scholarship.

Source: counselor email


My child applied to USC EA - National Merit Semifinalist currently and listed USC as first choice. SAT 1580. You think his application will be read?
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 13:41     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
Do you all have sources for this assertion that they don’t read the EA apps?

If other large universities are able to process EA apps, I don’t understand why USC would not also be able to.

Lots of schools defer everyone - Georgetown comes to mind - so they do the same then? Not read most apps?
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 13:10     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
Anonymous wrote:EA decisions for USC will be released this Friday, January 16th. They expect to admit around 3,800 students and are planning to admit a further 5k students for fall start from the RD pool.

USC defers all EA applicants who are not admitted. Deferred applicants only need to submit the deferral form in their portal and mid year grades. USC does not accept letters of continued interest or additional letters of rec.

Scholarship decisions for admitted students will go out Jan 30th. Portfolio majors that are only eligible for Regular Decision will get scholarship information in late March with their admissions decision if admitted.

Any admitted National Merit Finalist who lists USC as their first choice, regardless of whether they apply EA or RD, will receive $20k per year scholarship.

Source: counselor email


Interesting. Sounds like it's vast majority deferred, and no declines. I wonder if they even read the applications that don't have merit-worthy stats?
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 13:09     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
EA decisions for USC will be released this Friday, January 16th. They expect to admit around 3,800 students and are planning to admit a further 5k students for fall start from the RD pool.

USC defers all EA applicants who are not admitted. Deferred applicants only need to submit the deferral form in their portal and mid year grades. USC does not accept letters of continued interest or additional letters of rec.

Scholarship decisions for admitted students will go out Jan 30th. Portfolio majors that are only eligible for Regular Decision will get scholarship information in late March with their admissions decision if admitted.

Any admitted National Merit Finalist who lists USC as their first choice, regardless of whether they apply EA or RD, will receive $20k per year scholarship.

Source: counselor email
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 12:17     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
Anonymous wrote:I wish they actually reviewed all the applications early like EA is supposed to do. Instead, EA is used primarily for recruited athletes and legacy (which the interim head has reinstated).

They also make you manually enter grades on the common app rather than just send a transcript so they can pre-screen applications for EA by computer. They'll only have time to review appications with stats that qualify for top merit aid. Those are the only ones that get read for potential EA acceptance, along with athlete recruits and legacies.

The rest just get marked as "deferrals" and moved unread to RD.

So unless your student has 3.9+ unweighted GPA plus 1500+ SAT/34+ ACT, they will get moved to deferral unread and be part of the RD round.



Exactly.

They use EA essentially only for athlete recruits + they use AI to pull out the students with top numbers and only bring only them to committee for discussion. So the EA admits end up being a hodge podge of lower stats/recruited athletes and extremely high stats/merit students.

The rest are not read or reviewed at all and moved without any attention paid to RD round. So it's not really a true deferral since they aren't reviewed in EA round. That's why there is no rejections. Nothing that isn't a recruited athlete with full coach support, or tippy top stats, is even vetted.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 11:59     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
Anonymous wrote:Will there be rejections and or WL decisions or all deferrals?


Acceptances and deferrals only. No rejections. Just like UT Austin.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 11:55     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
Anonymous wrote:EA decisions for USC will be released this Friday, January 16th. They expect to admit around 3,800 students and are planning to admit a further 5k students for fall start from the RD pool.



Did you receive notification it will be released tomorrow?
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 11:43     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
83,000 applications last year! I wonder how many this year.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 11:41     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
I wish they actually reviewed all the applications early like EA is supposed to do. Instead, EA is used primarily for recruited athletes and legacy (which the interim head has reinstated).

They also make you manually enter grades on the common app rather than just send a transcript so they can pre-screen applications for EA by computer. They'll only have time to review appications with stats that qualify for top merit aid. Those are the only ones that get read for potential EA acceptance, along with athlete recruits and legacies.

The rest just get marked as "deferrals" and moved unread to RD.

So unless your student has 3.9+ unweighted GPA plus 1500+ SAT/34+ ACT, they will get moved to deferral unread and be part of the RD round.

Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 10:38     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
Will there be rejections and or WL decisions or all deferrals?
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 09:53     Subject: USC EA decisions out tomorrow, 1/16
EA decisions for USC will be released this Friday, January 16th. They expect to admit around 3,800 students and are planning to admit a further 5k students for fall start from the RD pool.