I’m heading to USC this fall as a Presidential scholar (and I’ll be in TO). One of the major reasons why I chose USC was because of its (advertised) support for its high-performing students. I read about the Trojan Scholars Society and AHF, which is supposed to offer mentoring, research opportunities, and advising for scholarships and fellowships. The new Honors dorm is also a nice perk, of course.
How has your (or your child’s) experience as a merit scholar been? Do you have any advice for me, and how I can take advantage of the opportunities that will be offered to me?
Parent of a freshman Trustee Scholarship here. Not claiming to be an expert but can offer my thoughts:
Like any school, USC will advertise the benefits of a scholarship or honors program but it is still up to the student to be proactive and take advantage of the opportunities.
For my son, the biggest benefit this year besides the $ was USC’s Global Leadership Program that was offered by the Marshall School of Business. GLP is a two credit class offered to scholarship students in their freshman year and involves learning from top executives. GLP ends in the spring with a trip to China over spring break. He loved getting to know the other scholarship students and he described the trip to China as “life altering.” I can’t speak to whether other schools at USC offer similar programs for their scholarship students.
Every student is assigned an advisor but I don’t know if my son took advantage this year of any “extra” mentoring that is available through AHF.
You brought up the Honors Housing and I do think that is a very real benefit. The scholarship students were mostly housed in Birnkrant in 2016-2017 and my son felt that it created a tremendous, close-knit community and he made many friends in the dorms this year. Obviously, the benefits of Honors Housing may mean even more in future years since USC Village looks like it will be so fantastic.
Honors students can go beyond 18 units per semester without additional cost through Exceptional Funding. The details regarding how that works can be found on USC’s website and I believe has been discussed in other threads on CC.
CADREAMIN is the resident USC expert on CC and I would strongly encourage you to find her posts since she has a wealth of information about everything relating to USC. Anyway, from everything that I can tell, it is a great time to be at USC and the honors students are in a particularly great position to take advantage. 56,000 students applied to USC this year and only a few hundred end up being Trustee or Presidential Scholars so be proud of your accomplishments and Fight On!
My D is Presidential. I agree that Birnkrant is a huge benefit. The friends she made there have been her best friends throughout college. Though not a specific benefit of the scholarship program, Thematic Option has been very beneficial to my D, giving her writing, publishing and speaking opportunities and faculty attention/mentorship that has been invaluable. Otherwise, no not much special is done for her as a Presidential.
My son is a junior Presidential NMF. His freshman year there wasn’t enough room in Birnkrant, so he did not receive the benefit of being a part of the scholars environment. He wasn’t even allowed to attend the team bonding event prior to move in. The only benefit he has received from being a scholar is the tuition reduction. Granted, he could have participated in other scholar activities, but that is something that the student has to be proactive about to take advantage of and he is simply not that type of person. Nevertheless, he found his people by joining the marching band and has had a wonderful experience at USC.
My daughter will be attending in the fall. We learned from her brother’s mistake and made sure to apply for housing as soon as the housing application was open so that she would definitely be able to live in McCarthy. Hopefully, the new dorm will allow all scholars that want to live and participate in the honors college to do so. My daughter is much more outgoing and I anticipate she will be able to make use of the scholars opportunities to a far greater extent than her brother did.
Our S attended 2006-2010. He lived in Great Outdoors floor and liked it fine. He didn’t live with the other Presidential kids. He was in engineering, as were many of the other merit kids. I believe he went to a reception.
We appreciated the reduced tuition. He didn’t opt to take more than 18 credits/term but a friend’s S did and got the funding to make it possible. (The friend’s S was driven and got 2 bachelor’s degrees and an MBA in 4 years and a few summers.) He was also able to work on campus in engineering with a prof and prepare their research for publications. I believe that may have been related to his being a presidential scholar, but am not sure.
There are two different programs to take additional credits each semester (over 18 units) at no charge, so students not on scholarships can (and do) take advantage of extra credits for free as well. This is how many double major and/or add minors in four years or less. For non scholarship students:
The Academic Achievement Award (AAA) provides a tuition benefit to students who are pursuing multiple undergraduate degree objectives, have at least sophomore standing, and have earned a cumulative USC GPA of at least 3.750. AAA allows Fall or Spring registration of up to 21 units at the standard full-time tuition rate.
Scholarship students can apply for what is called Exceptional Funding which allows for a max of 8 units funded within their 8 semesters (10 semesters for architecture)
Mork, Stamps & Trustee Scholars: maximum amount of 8 units may be funded
Presidential Scholars: Maximum amount of 8 half-tuition units may be funded
My son is a junior in Marshall/Leventhal, presidential scholar. He would advise thinking of these as freshmen year “perks.” He, too, loved the Global Scholars Program. He loved living in Birnkrant. And he was invited to attend special events/lectures on campus, for example, a speech by Bill Clinton. I’m not sure if he still receives such invitations. Most importantly, he instructs me to tell folks that he loves every minute of every day as a USC student.
I’m a Trustee scholar, and honestly, not paying tuition is pretty much the only benefit for me. I’ll probably use my Exceptional Funding at some point, but now I just keep renewing my AAA. I didn’t even know we had an AHF advisor, but I already have 4 advisors (major, two minors, and TO) so I think I’m good for now. I also didn’t live in BK, which I don’t mind because Webb definitely had its perks, and I went to a few of the TSS events, but they aren’t anything you couldn’t do otherwise (beach trips, resume workshops, etc.). As a scholar, you do get invited to the President’s Distinguished Lecture series, which is a pretty good perk if that’s something you’re interested in.
As for the new honors dorm, it’s going to be suite-style, which might take away some of the social aspects of it, but it does look pretty nice.
@LayraSparks Bending off topic a bit, but ya, my daughter is forgoing suite style living (and air conditioning) and even University Village for the social aspects of traditional dorm living. We have polled many (and I mean a lot) of seniors and they all confirmed her choice and say go for the social dorm setting - some having lived in suites and dorms themselves. Regardless, they all voted for dorm. I like comfort and keep asking if she is sure, but her goal is to meet as many people as possible. Hope Birkrant keeps the open door social aspect it is known for…I would think so, it maintained it when it became honors housing just a couple years ago. She can always walk over to Trader Joe’s and doesn’t have to live on top of it I suppose, and there’s always sophomore year for that. Fingers crossed.
My older S ('12) was a Trustee scholar and in his day the Honors dorm was the worst, hottest, oldest housing on campus (Marks, I think). But all you new Scholars are so darn lucky with the new Village. S1 chose air-conditioned Parkside Arts & H, had a great roommate (matched by USC housing) and made most of his friends through his major in SCA and TO and so many other activities. As for perks, he was invited to several things (seminars, even a special class taught by President Sample) but while they were nice, they didn’t fit his schedule or interests and I’m not sure he went to them. I’d say the best part for highly motivated students is TO, where the classes are really interesting/challenging, the profs are kind of spectacular, and you get to hang with a cool group of equally tiptop academic kids. And the TO advisors are also very very savvy about class scheduling and my S had a great relationship with his–wheeling and dealing a bit to get cleared into classes, etc. TO also has private writing sessions for students, so you will honestly feel that part of your education is equal (I say better) than attending a small LAC.
However–my younger S2 ('15) was not a big Scholarship recipient and chose not to apply to TO, and I’d say he had even more intellectual/honorary perks than S1, because he was really proactive. He took 2 majors in 2 different schools, and he also took advantage of many opportunities that are offered to everyone. For instance, USC sponsors a Undergrad writers symposium with a call for essay submissions in several categories each year. All it takes is submitting an essay you’ve written for any class, so it’s not writing a new essay. S2 thought, why not? He entered a paper he wrote in one of his Freshman GEs and… won 1st place, given to the best analytical essay written that year at USC. He was stunned. And it came with a very nice monetary award. And after that he won awards for several other essays and research he did at USC. It’s a nice ending, but what it really means is many many students get so busy with schoolwork, studying, and ECs that maybe a good number would just delete that email announcing another opportunity or contest. Some students like that extra challenge. So it’s really up to each kid to discover what they want out of USC.
Each of my S’s got very nice paying research jobs in their specific fields/majors from Freshman year onward. I think they were lucky, but then USC makes many such opportunities available. For any non-Scholarshipers reading this thread–read your USC email freshman year!! Lots of career fairs and competitions and clubs send notices. You will love USC.
hehe, no not at all @scotlandcalling. Marks was the dorm “infamous” for being the hottest, perhaps because of window placement/air circulation? It is hot in L.A. in August and September, but the rest of the year is mostly pleasant. They may have redone Marks by now (my son was a freshman in 2008) but it was at the time reputed to have the oldest bathrooms and darkest halls. Perhaps those were just the rumors.
I’m delighted that I’m being chided for saying something negative about USC. Helps my cred.
“Well it’s good to know most freshman will be miserable since the majority live in dorms like Marks.”
Bit off topic again, but that’s not necessarily true. New/North, for example, was so popular when I was applying that too many people applied and a bunch of them were placed in Parkside. I lived in Webb and a lot of the people from there ended up moving to dorms like Pardee, and I considered moving to BK myself. I’m honestly surprised that they’ve chosen to go for suite-style over the past few years, as it’s so difficult to get to know people there, and living in a dorm is just part of the college experience. Yes, they would need A/C in them, but otherwise it isn’t so bad (well, communal bathrooms can get tiring).
I lived in apartments my first two years and I’m living in Parkside A&H next year (was an RA this year and will be next year as well) and it’s honestly so difficult to get people to leave their apartments and socialize, whereas the people in BK last year, for example, still hang out all the time. I’m actually even considering trying to RA in a traditional dorm my senior year because it’s just a rewarding experience to have. But that’s just my two cents.
Traditional dorm folks can use the money saved and buy one of those cool Dyson fans! My D applied early, I am sure she could have gotten in University Village or any of the suites with that great A/C, but she agrees with you @layraSparks - as I mentioned above, her #1 priority is to meet a lot of people (hoping school work is up there as well), so to the sweaty dorms it is. Older brother told sister to pick a dorm 110%. He said you won’t have air but will have the time of your life. Good trade.
For goodness sake, they are going to USC, they can handle a little “roughing it.”
S enjoyed his non-A/C pardee dorm in 2006, Great Outdoors floor. He especially liked that there was a washer and dryer in their floor, outside his dorm room, very convenient. He never had a suite. He runs hot but never complained. We bought him a fan and his room mate bought one as well. They were fine.
D lived in Webb in a suite. She didn’t get to know as many folks.
