Chances for Merit Money and honors...?

<p>Hello, I'm applying to USC by the 10/15 deadline.</p>

<p>Male
Not reporting race
Catholic High School</p>

<p>GPA: UW around a 3.8, probably a low 3.8ish. W 4.17ish
Grade Trend: Might hurt me a little bit. Frosh yr was pretty good, soph year was pretty good/really good, I showed an upward trend for the most part. 1st semester Jr year was pretty good too, but 2nd semester I kind of burned out and ended up with 3 Bs. I have a total of 5 Bs on my transcript (not horrible I know), and 4/5 were in math or sci classes, which is definitely not my forte. Not freaking out about Bs, I was pretty chill when I got my report card, but it kinda sucks to end Jr. yr on kind of a crappy note, with half my classes getting Bs in them.
Anyways.
Class Rank: My school is kind unclear they say they don’t rank, but they tell in a counselor rec the approximate rank. I should be in at least the top 5-10% so I’m guessing they’ll put down something like that. Or they might not put anything in the letter. I’m not sure.</p>

<p>SAT: 700 M 690 CR 720 W --- 2110 total (single sitting, not superscore)
ACT: 29
5/6* APs by graduation. *School is unclear, we might be credit for taking my physics class last year because right now it is an AP class..and its basically the same thing, but I doubt the college board will let them do that. Will haven taken 7-8 test though by graduation, however only 2 were Junior year.
SAT IIs: Should be decent (have not taken yet), expecting 700+ in Math 1/2(not sure which on to take), anything less than 750 on USH will be a huge disappointment for me. For the third one, I'll probably pick some English one or self study World History</p>

<p>Teacher and Counselor Recs: Teacher one should be pretty good, my grade in the teacher's class that I'm asking to write me a rec rarely dipped below a 97% (AP class) and I think he liked me as a person/student. Not sure about counselor one, we get to write a "brag" sheet, so it should be at least ok.</p>

<p>Essays: Looks like MDA Camp for the main one and my EC essay is going to be wacky (haven't written it yet)</p>

<p>ECs: Pretty solid, though nothing spectacular like some people on CC.</p>

<p>-Eagle Scout, plus one year of being Senior Patrol Leader
-Student Govt Representative (lowest position in student govt, lol)
-Work Experience: 1 secretary job at my Church, another is a yard work type job. I may quit the handyman job/yard work job soon though, but I've had that job since summer before freshman year, so it should still look pretty good.
-Student Ambassador and Freshman Mentor (more intensive than you think haha)
-NHS
-Minor role in school paper
-Mock Trial
-Model UN
-Catholic Schools for Peace and Justice
-AP US History Co-Student of the Year
-Investment Club</p>

<p>probably leaving a couple minor things out</p>

<p>Service:
-Have not tallied up my hours, but it should be about 300+ service hours when I apply (tutor at school and local library, soup kitchens, various things, etc...)
-Eucharistic Minister at my church, at my school and I go to the nursing home and distribute Communion.
-MDA Camp Counselor. This is where a bulk of my service hours came from. Very demanding, but very rewarding and I plan on doing it again next year. I also participate in a program that helps disabled kids play sports during the summer and school year. Might write an essay about this. Something to the gist of the first day and a half or so of camp, I absolutely hated it, but it kind of grew on me and I really want to go back.</p>

<p>Think this is about it, sorry it was kind of long and there might be a few typos, do you need any more info?</p>

<p>I have a pretty good shot at a scholarship that will reduce tuition to in-state rates, right?
What about the honors college?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>You’ll get in-state rates for sure. Good chance for honors college.</p>

<p>There’s a separate application for Honors and it’s one of the more difficult Honors apps out there.</p>

<p>Your GPA/SAT should get you a name scholarship…either McKissick (2K a year), Cooper (4 K a year) or Alumni Scholars (5K a year) PLUS tuition reduced to instate levels. You also would qualify for consideration for the McNair since your core SAT is 1390.</p>

<p>[Academic</a> Scholarships](<a href=“Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships | University of South Carolina”>Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships | University of South Carolina)</p>

<p>Thanks guys! On the brouchere USC sent me, I figured I should at least get the McKissick and I might be able to eek out the Cooper, the Alumni would be even better. </p>

<p>Is it true that if you get into the honors college, that you are automatically into the International Business program? I think I read that on here. That would be really nice, because I heard that they try to cap it at 50 kids a year. I’m very interested in business and would like to major in Intl Bus.</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>