<p>I just unexpectedly received a $4000 (for four years) Trojan Scholar award and I was just wondering how many people receive this amount of financial aid, if it's a nice offer for an middle-class (on the upper side, but not exactly affluent) student. Also, I'm wondering how you receive this award...i.e. what qualifications is it based on?</p>
<p>I was also awarded a 2,600 dollar Stafford loan separately, just fyi.</p>
<p>Any amount of money is good. What was your EFC?</p>
<p>it was around $50,000, so yeah, pretty surprising.</p>
<p>
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$50,000, so yeah, pretty surprising.
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AH damn you rich people. You don't need any more money... ;_; I need that money grrr.</p>
<p>Yeah, I got a "Trojan" scholarship last year. To be honest, it's probably pity money and something so that USC can raise their financial generosity factor. I'm considered middle-upper class.</p>
<p>But I figure, it's better than nothing, and it'll at least help pay for books and stuff.</p>
<p>I did read somewhere that it is renewable if you keep your GPA up. Don't bother asking the admissions couselors what it's for. My counselor didn't know what is was.</p>
<p>Now I really feel bad that I didn't meet the scholarship deadline and didn't apply for financial aid.</p>
<p>in the future, try and refrain from making a post like that, no matter how innocent you may think it is...just a little basic social skills there. you don't know anything about me or my family, so broadly categorizing me as "you rich people" is inappropriate. </p>
<p>just so you know that i'm not going on an arbitrary rant, here's a little about me:</p>
<p>my father worked incredibly hard so that he could receive a green card to immigrate to the united states. i flew over there when i was six years old and ended up in florida, where he had already been alone for a year, building a foundation for our family. there, we lived in old apartments and my dad was forced to complete his RESIDENCY in medicine all over again even though he was a highly credible physician outside of the united states. as a result, we were forced to move from florida, to maine, to rhode island, and then finally to california. when we came to cali, i was just entering jr. high. this was the FIRST time in my life that my family had a house of their own. since my father was forced to do his residency over again, he had aged more than necessary before he could call a house his own. now, as a result of his good work in the medical field, he has placed our family in a comfortable financial position. and even now, after all the hardships he has conquered, he has a mountain of loans to pay off. </p>
<p>i post this to help you realize that even among the remarkably diverse demographics (and i'm actually excluding race as a factor) in the united states, there are many different ways in which these people have reached their particular status. think of this before you inaccurately group "us rich people" together.</p>
<p>finally, about you needing my financial aid, if you read what i typed about my father, you would understand how he deserves to have that little burden lifted off of him, no matter how small it is.</p>
<p>^^ Well said, Zelda. Just curious, what country did you emigrate from?</p>
<p>Zelda55- I was kidding and I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. Believe me, My father came to America to earn his degree and we went through all that crap too. We still don't have a house to call our own and our household is divided all over the place (my bro in NY, me in OK, my parents back in Korea) My mom has a masters degree and she was forced to work as a seamstress for 10 years, and my father (before his PH.D) as a janitor at his seminary... He worked at Texas Instruments in Korea before that and also went to the 2nd most prestigious university in Korea. (and Koreans are ofcourse very competitive) Although my father got the degree he wanted so much, being a pastor doesn't bring much of an income still. I know how it feels because I've been through it and still is going through it. (I came when i was around 9 years old) It sucks. I just know people who's dad's make 300K, didn't apply for financial aid and still expected to get financial aid. I mistankenly thought you were one of them as well (because I thought 28K EFC was a lot and you were pretty much double that amount) My father makes 38K and has to support 2 kids going to very expensive colleges... Even with financial aid, it's hard.</p>
<p>don't worry, i wasn't offended. i was just trying to make a point to expand your view of the economical classes in this country. i'm sorry about your situation...sometimes adapting financially in the U.S. can be even more difficult than socially. regardless, i was just trying to make the point that not everyone who is in the "wealthy" bracket deserves to be treated as someone who simply happened to find a treasure chest. that is one catch-22 for middle class people...they're not poor enough to get full-ride scholarships unless they are academically exceptional, but they're also not rich enough to very comfortably pay off expensive college tuition. it seems that both of our parents will have to make the same sacrifice (although you are admittedly in a more unfortunate situation). despite having already paid for my brother's tuition at stanford (and now uc davis med school), my dad told me that he owes me as much as he spent for my brother. for this reason, i'm pleased about the scholarship i received, although there are many peope who are more deserving than myself.</p>
<p>btw, dragon, we came over from the southern tip of india.</p>
<p>Zelda55- Yeah you are right about how everybody in the 'wealthy' bracket isn't the same. Though i am glad your family is finally financially stable to pay off your college tuition. (USC tuition per year costs more than how much my father makes a year.. scary!) Are you definately going to USC then or are you deciding?</p>
<p>well, i'm definitely going because i'm fortunate enough to be part of a family with sufficient income to deal with USC's tuition. actually, i sent in my enrollment form yesterday, and i got this scholarship today...almost eerie, but i was pleasantly surprised. btw, if your father is in that type of situation, well did you get in anywhere else comparable to USC (without the same cost)?</p>
<p>btw, with that kind of income, you should have gotten much more than i did in grants because it is need-based...?</p>
<p>Zelda55- Nah, not really. I applied to NYU and Cornell which I did not make. Even if I did get into NYU it would've been pretty bad (30,000 PLUS loans) and my bro goes to cornell already and they are pretty expensive.</p>
<p>I got an awesome grant package but my EFC is 3K ish (Fafsa gave me 1.5K actually;; ) and the gap I must fill is 8K. That is huge for me... I didn't get pell grants and even if i did get it, university grant would go down, according to USC office people. Sigh. i wish i got some scholarships but I didn't make it in time for any of the scholarship deadlines (I only looked at collegeboard's deadline of Jan 10th)</p>
<p>yeah, it's tough when you don't have people reminding you or informing you of all your responsibilites during that time. i missed a WHOLE bunch of scholarship opportunities myself, and just lucked out by somehow getting this one. it's hard to remember about scholarships when you're under the stress of getting the application fine tuned itself, along with keeping up grades etc...that's pretty strange that you didn't get more than that, but luckily you can keep applying for scholarships each year even while you're enrolled at usc.</p>
<p>Did you apply for this scholarship or did they just send it to you because you were an awesome student, etc?</p>
<p>yeah.. next year I'm definately going to apply for 100000 scholarships and hopefully get some of it...</p>
<p>My college application process pretty much sucked... like everybody elses out there (stressing out and keeping up grades.. yeah) I live with my friend and since she's becoming a chef, she applied to a professional school during SUmmer and got it over with (so she was no help in the first place) Everybody else I know applied to mostly instate (University of Oklahoma, etc) and they weren't that interested int he whole college application process... It was pretty much "fend for yourself." Aren't you glad it's done and over with?</p>
<p>i definitely am glad to be done with the application process, but from here on out, there's going to be a whole bunch of stressful situations like that. </p>
<p>about the scholarship, i didn't apply for it, but i'm certainly not an outstanding student or anything. it might just have been a random offer so that USC can raise their financial aid numbers to show prospective students next year.</p>
<p>"southern tip of india."</p>
<p>are you tamil? tamil ppl rock! sorry...i get too excited when i see tamil people...so few of us around here...if you ARE tamil...if you aren't, i still love you and think you're extremely well spoken...</p>
<p>yes, wow, that's pretty weird to see someone who's also tamil on here. i came here when i was 6. i understand tamil well because my parents speak it all the time in the house, but i have to think before i put together sentences myself...sometimes i can't even say what i want to, but that's part of not taking any cultural awareness classes in this country.</p>
<p>Zelda, What's your major? I wonder if that makes a difference?</p>