No interview

The professors applied to are currently facing changes in their financial circumstances

No interview. Having another email came along, which invited to transfer the phd application to MS application (no guarantee).

No interview. So kinda expected this.

Email saying that a decision letter is available at you.usc.edu

Their decision portal login took ~10-15 minutes to get into (thanks to three different captcha-pages, each captcha-page having three separate windows with fading image iterations). I understand that they rejected, but it's a miserable system they have to hop through the hoops to "view" the decision. Have gotten an offer from another school, but just wanted to share here in case someone from USC is watching. Who even is designing these systems? Pathetic.

I applied for the 2nd time to USC. I had contacted PIs beforehand, but never received any interview invite.