<p>Right there with you, metaldad. Hopefully more invitations will come next week???</p>
<p>My son had heard on Friday that they were on the verge of mailing them out, so we were also expecting it to be early next week. We were very surprised to receive it today. I expected more people to show up here today than a few with invitations, so that may be a good sign that more will be going out!</p>
<p>Congrats to you and your son midwestgal81. I look forward to meeting you both!
Hope2help-We are from PA. I hope you hear from them soon.</p>
<p>Thanks momto7! I look forward to meeting both of you also…congrats to both of you as well!</p>
<p>Those who got McNairs already, CONGRATS!! what states are you from? =)</p>
<p>Our son is a freshman at USC and a McNair Scholar. Here is how the process works, unless they have changed it this year: </p>
<p>1) Letters are FedEx’d simultaneously to 41 McNair Scholar Candidates.</p>
<p>2) Additional students are invited if some of the McNair Scholar Candidates decline to participate in McNair Candidate Weekend. I am not entirely certain, but reasonably confident that at least two have to decline in order for additional students to be invited; that is, USC wants at least 40 students to participate in the weekend.</p>
<p>3) Often, additional invitations go out because a number of schools hold merit scholarship competitions on the same weekend as the McNair. I know, for example, that last year Clemson and Oxford/Emory University overlapped partially with the McNair, and it was physically impossible to attend more than two of the three. The son of Cathy Mee, a prolific CC contributor, was one such late addition approximately six years ago.</p>
<p>4) The target is for 20 McNair Scholars to enroll at USC. Therefore, more then 20 students are offered McNair Scholarships because USC knows that some will choose other schools such as the the Ivies. On or around 27 students were offered McNair Scholarships last year. </p>
<p>Our son was VERY skeptical about USC, and only applied because I kept nagging him to -– which, by the way, is very unlike me. However, I had become convinced that he should give the Honors College a look. For several months, I heard literally dozens of times, “Dad, I am NEVER going to the Honors College.” To which I would reply, “That’s fine. But, I just want you to go look at it.”</p>
<p>It wasn’t until our son participated in McNair Candidate Weekend, and actually visited USC and the Honors College, that he changed his mind. He was blown away by what the Honors College has to offer, including the facilities. After returning home, he announced that, “USC is where I am going to college, even if I don’t get the McNair.” For example, he kept hoping that he would be turned down for one of Vanderbilt’s full-boat merit scholarships because he did not want to have to consider any other school but USC. </p>
<p>Our son is not the first to feel that way. In 2006, “pprmom” had a daughter turn down a full-boat scholarship from Vanderbilt for the $11,000 a year McNair Finalist Scholarship that is offered to those who attend McNair Scholarship Weekend but who are not named McNair Scholars. The following is a link to “pprmom’s” comments, including, “The minute she set foot on the SC campus though, she knew that was where she wanted to go, and wouldn’t consider anywhere else from that point on”:</p>
<p>[S</a> called for McNair!! - Page 2 - College Confidential](<a href=“http://■■■■■■/x3gpKU]S”>http://■■■■■■/x3gpKU)</p>
<p>I would be happy to PM anyone who has questions.</p>
<p>MeadowbrookCourt~thanks so much for all of your information! I have seen several of your posts from this time last year! I will PM with questions shortly.</p>
<p>Congrats to those of you who have received invitations! You’re in for a great weekend. Mine was an incredibly positive experience that really opened my eyes to all of the opportunities that the University had to offer. I very much enjoyed every part of it. It’s a wonderful opportunity to meet faculty/staff with whom you may work, as well as make friends. It makes coming in from out of state far less overwhelming! I, like MeadowbrookCourt’s son, realized quite quickly that regardless of my status as a Scholar/Finalist, USC was where I wanted to be. I ended up as a Scholar, and I know I made the right choice. If you have any questions, please, don’t hesitate to ask.</p>
<p>As an aside, there are fewer differences between Scholars and Finalists now than there used to be. At present, it is essentially a matter of money received. There was, in the past, a distinction with regards to some of the event invitations, but that is largely not true any longer. For those of you who have not been invited, I would strongly suggest coming for Scholar’s Day later in the spring. It offers similar opportunities.</p>
<p>I am somewhat embarrassed to admit how disappointed I am that D did not make the cut for McNair. Guess that could be described as a “Helicopter crash”! D had done a much better job of preparing herself for the likelihood of not getting the invite.</p>
<p>^if what metaldad says comes true then there still may be a chance that tomorrow might come a letter!</p>
<p>plugging zipcodes into the fedex shipping estimator, if it was shipped on friday Priority Overnight, that means it should’ve gotten here saturday afternoon OR monday morning.</p>
<p><em>crossing fingers for monday morning</em></p>
<p>dont lose all hope of being called…as Meadowcourt pointed out, my S was CALLED last minute to attend after someone dropped out of the weekend.Invite letter came after the call.The travel plans were a scramble (they took care of it).Son was ultimately a Finalist not a Scholar but he also got a Lieber (for NMFinalist) and a departmental scholarship so wound up with much $$ (thank you USC!) Its nice to hear the Finalists now get invited to more of the events, it was awkward sometimes for S back 6 years ago when friends would go off to some things.
Once S visited, there was no question he was attending he evencancelled a visit to UMichigan for their highest scholarship weekend ( I forget the name of it).No jackets in February! Flowering trees! Congrats to all and have a great weekend</p>
<p>Heck, we’re low maintenance. . .we live 3-1/2 hours away. And I am not too proud to be on the back-up list.</p>
<p>Just wondering if anyone else has heard since Saturday?</p>
<p>So far nope. Now I’m wishing the “beginning of february” thing is true. lol Did anyone try asking on the USC fb? I would but my fb is hilariously fake. haha</p>
<p>Nothing here in Ohio. I’m thinking it just didn’t happen for our D :-(</p>
<p>I sent an email to the admissions counselor asking have all the mcnair finalist notifications been sent out… Will update you guys if I get a reply.</p>
<p>Sorry, time to face reality, all the McNairs were sent out last Friday via Fedex. If you did not receive it by last Saturday it is not in the cards.</p>
<p>@metaldad - is this information that you heard from the university? I think you are probably right. Somewhat bitter pill to swallow, but time to give up hope.</p>
<p>Yes, my wife called yesterday , all Mcnairs and Carolina scholars were sent out on Friday via Fedex, if at least 2 kids drop out they will be replaced with the next on the list. Just curious, the ones who did not receive but were hoping, what were your kid’s ACT/SAT scores and weighted GPA ?</p>