USC Class of 2025 — Regular Decision

[lkg4answers]

@nanosec

My daughter was just awarded a $2,500 National Merit Scholarship. She has to accept it by 4/7. If she is admitted to USC and decides to attend, does accepting that affect her ability to receive USC NMF $? I remember reading you could accept one type of NMF scholarship but maybe that Corp or school sponsored. I may also be getting it confused with the Benacquisto Scholarship rules. TIA!

Congratulations to your daughter!

I do not work for the university so always confirm with them before making a financial decision.

In our experience, it was very difficult to find people at USC that know the nuances of the USC National Merit college sponsored scholarship vs the $2500 NMSC Scholars scholarship.

The half-tuition scholarship is for national merit finalists. As far as the additional college sponsored scholarship, the way an admissions officer explained it to me is that if NMSC awards a student $2500, making them a National Merit Scholar then you are done. You can decline the $2500 but USC will not give the student any additional scholarship on top of their tuition scholarship. If a student is not awarded scholar status from NMSC then USC will award a college sponsored scholarship to designate the student as a scholar.