How far back is “in the past”?
USC admissions does not take financial considerations into place when making admission decisions. Their website states, “If you are National Merit Finalist who has been admitted to USC and you designate USC as your first choice by the May 31 deadline, you will receive USC’s half-tuition Presidential Scholarship.”
USC’s National Merit Presidential Scholarship is listed as “number of awards varies.” They used to state how many NM students enrolled, but haven’t done that since 2020. In 2020, they had 310 NMF and 461 Presidential scholarships. That means 151 students who were not NMF received a half-tuition Presidental scholarship.
Some NMF receive the full tuition Trustee scholarship, but that isn’t awarded based on their NM status. In the National Merit Annual Report listed here, it shows 316 NMF attending USC in 2020. If these numbers are accurate, one might infer that six NMF received a Trustee scholarship that year.