The Waiting Game. The countdown to mailing decisions that are final on and I’m sure all our first-year applicants are wondering… what’s taking so long?! It takes a great deal of manpower and hours to read 47,000 applications and we wish to give every application a review that is fair order to create the amazing, well-rounded, diverse, and successful Class of 2017. Let me pull right back the curtain a bit and demonstrate why it takes us months that are many finish this process… Since USC utilizes a holistic approach to the admission procedure, our company is committed to reading and re-reading every piece for the application. You understand those answer that is short you reacted to? We read those. That task summary you completed? Yup, we read every activity, organization, and experience you listed on there. I want to get to know you- your interests, your perspective, and most of all, hear your voice come through when I read an application. This method takes time and thought you are as a student and a person as we try to understand how your academic performance, test scores, writing, involvements, and recommendations come together to paint a fuller picture of who. The admission office may seem like it runs like a well-oiled device on the outside—and it is—but it only operates as smoothly as it does through the application of multiple checks and balances through the procedure. We contact students when we have been missing a bit of the application form and when we need additional information such as for instance mid-year grades. We consult with the departments that are academic USC and consider their views on candidates and listen to their recommendations. Most of all, we rely on a single another to simply help us see applicants in a different way or pick up on something we didn’t initially see. It is an incredibly collaborative process and it requires time. At the conclusion of the day, this might be a hard process for our office, aswell. You will find many applicants that are qualified we don’t have room for every year. It’s never easy making these tough decisions, but I find convenience comprehending that our applicants may have many college that is amazing next year regardless. I think I talk on behalf of our office that is entire when say we are pretty excited to finally be able to shout out towards the globe, here is the amazing USC Class of 2017! And in just a couple brief weeks, we—and many of you—will be able to do just that. Grades, Guidance, and Goliath: Confessions of a Director Dad The post below is from our very own Director of Admission, Kirk Brennan. He shares with us the struggles to be a parent of a college that is prospective in addition to having a leadership role in advanced schooling. Understandably, juggling these two roles is very delicate. Thank you, Kirk, for sharing your understanding of what our moms and dads proceed through in this time that is stressful!   This Monday that is coming will the eighteenth anniversary associated with the day my wife (who you may remember) delivered our very first child. This particular year — the one in which that child is applying to college — feels like my first day on the job though i have worked in admission for 22 years. Exactly what a strange way to see my task: through the eyes, and through the home of a prospective student. I had many observations that are disillusioning year. I saw that tours of completely different schools seem the same, that college marketing materials look alike and even say the extremely same things, and how a number that is small of businesses vendors seem to drive this process for a lot of schools. I saw that a deal that is great of student’s impression of my university is not controllable, and We was specially disheartened whenever my own student, after feeling proud to get a mass-mailer from a college, quit reading some of them only days later, and even felt anger as she sifted through them. At USC as well as in the admission profession in general, we work hard to be helpful, but some full days I’m unsure how much we’re helping ( and I also welcome your suggestions at admdir@usc.edu). Exactly What strikes me more than any such thing could be the psychological roller coaster of the senior year. I was saddened to view mundane events of life magnified to become critical pieces of a puzzle that result in college; a grade regarding the quiz that is tiniest prompts a crisis, or an option to flake out one afternoon sometimes appears as a possible deal breaker for college admission, therefore career, then lifetime happiness. Then there is the list; so colleges that are many consider, will she love these schools, did she miss a much better fit, and that can she even get in at all? Then filling out the applications, especially the anxiety behind responding to the smallest amount of questions that are important the application (we discussed ‘What’s my counselor’s task title?’). The relief that is temporary of them was soon replaced by confusion over the lack of communication as colleges read. Now the decisions are developing the grand finale with this trip — one day she gets in and seems great excitement for her future, another she’s rejected and seems useless, as if judged harshly by strangers. Learning and growing may be difficult, and numerous turns in life will be unpredictable, but undoubtedly I cannot be the sole one ready with this ride to end. From the ground i’ve watched this roller coaster several times, and such rides tend to result in the in an identical way — with our children enrolling in a college they love. Yet we riders nevertheless scream, also feel real terror going down the mountain as if the safety bars will not help; normal responses, if utterly irrational. I still love rollercoasters (Goliath is my personal favorite), and I think I will enjoy this ride. I have grown closer to my daughter, and now we have all grown closer as a family. I’ve seen my younger daughter console her older sister. We all cherish the time that continues to be in this phase of our family life, we will share together while we avoid the question of how many more meals. There are many hugs, tears, pats on the rear, and scoops of ice cream to soothe the pain, yet great hope for the long term. I look forward to this ride finishing, but I imagine when it ends, just like Goliath, I will be excited to get back in line to ride again today. I sure hope so, anyway: my youngest is counting about it.