Would anyone be willing to share if they got one of these scholarships and, if so, what their stats are?
My son (33 ACT + 4.68 GPA recalculated to SC standards) got the McKissick (in-state tuition + $2,000) award. While I’m happy that he got this, I’d love to know how close he was to the Cooper (in-state tuition + $4,000). The web site says that last year the average ACT and GPA for the Cooper was 33 / 4.71 and for the McKissick was 31 / 4.51.
Thanks!
@SwimMom87 My kid got Cooper with 33 ACT and similar GPA; not sure about USC GPA but he has around 4.25 weighted GPA in his high school which counts some Honors and all AP classes as 5. But he was a NMF (Lieber scholarship also as a result) so I don’t know if that had any effect. He also had good ECs, so I would contact USC Financial Office and ask them if they could give you Cooper instead. I think your son must have been on the borderline.
@websensation Thanks. Mine was not a NMF. He also chose not to apply to the Honors College. I don’t know if that could have been a factor as well. I appreciate your willingness to share. I am planning to call but their website clearly states that they don’t negotiate scholarships.
Just remember every year they are relative to the application pool, so you can only use the “last year averages” as rough estimates. USC’s are not “if you have ACT 34 you automatically get X”. Not sure what other things are considered on these merit scholarships - they must have a way to balance GPA and scores, but it’s not obvious.
Thanks. In case anyone is interested, I called and they said that the scholarships are based on only ACT/SAT and GPA. No other factors considered. I did make a bit of a mistake on his GPA recalculation. He actually has a 4.56 by USC standards. They add a point to honors, AP, and dual credit classes (so an A in any of these is worth a 5, a B is worth a 4), and they do not distinguish between grades with a plus or minus – so a B+ is the same as a B or B-.
They did reiterate that that they do not renegotiate scholarships.