<p>Does demonstrated interest play a role in USC admissions? I can't find a common data set for USC, so I haven't been able to look this up myself.</p>
<p>Madden,
Go to the USC website. In the undergraduate admissions section is an entire freshmen profile. There are test score ranges and a page full of figures. Even the number of National Merit Scholars is listed.</p>
<p>Demonstrated interest is not considered by the USC adcom, maddenmd.</p>
<p>Thanks to both of you. Good luck to all of you preparing your applications and getting ready for interviews.</p>
<p>I think I have read and have reason to believe that if you are invited for a USC merit scholarship, it is in your interest to say and act as if USC is at the top of your list. May not affect admission at USC, but any highly selective situation (ivies, USC large $ merit etc, ) they don’t like to offer a limited opportunity and be turned down. In any of these situations if you are interested at all I think you preserve your options best if you accentuate your interest as much as possible without being deceitful.</p>
<p>raddad, only admitted students are invited to interview for top merit scholarships, so they are already in, as it were, no matter how much interest in the university they may show at the interview. </p>
<p>As for the logic behind who may get the scholarships, many believe USC offers these large scholarships to woo excellent students who will likely have ivies and other top schools to choose from when all is said and done. Therefore, a student does not have to overstate their interest in USC, but need only say they are considering it strongly, and the scholarship they are interviewing for will have a big impact on their decision. I agree, it would be unwise to say something about never attending no matter how much money the school offers. lol. </p>
<p>Usually, schools that are unmoved by demonstrated interest are those who want to attract students slightly above the level they have admitted in the past. They are therefore aware they are competing for the top students out there. The schools that care about applicant’s interest (and track their contacts w/school, visits, etc) are those more likely to have trouble with yield and would prefer students who did not use them as back-up schools.</p>
<p>“Usually, schools that are unmoved by demonstrated interest are those who want to attract students slightly above the level they have admitted in the past.”
in addition, schools that receive 8-10Xs more applications than the # of openings available dont care about demonstrated interest. Stanford is a perfect example.</p>
<p>menloparkmom,
SC did not have ten times the number of applicants, but they had 37, 210 applicants for the freshmen class and 9,611 applicants to transfer. Added together 46, 821 students sent in applications. That is a substantial number.</p>
<p>I was referring to U’s such as HYPS, which also have no problem attracting many times the number of applicants than they can possibly accept.</p>
<p>We are from a small rural public school system so no significant school system counseling for my son about how to get into top schools. Do have a lawyer friend whose kids attend a very expensive private school in a major city which has counselors guding kids toward the ivies. The message at these schools is you need to show interest, visit and talk to admissions counselors to show interest that is documented in their records or they are likely to pass you by for someone with similar stats who has shown interest. Friend’s daughter followed advice and was accepted to Princeton. Not a hard and fast rule, but makes sense. </p>
<p>My son interviewed for Presidential scholarship through the Thornton School of Music at USC. If they want you in the program after the audition they then look at the traditional academics I think to determine who will be interviewed for academic sholarships. Son had very high ACT and gradepoint and strong EC’s and leadership. We are from the midwest, he had/has a long-tme girlfriend back home, hadn’t reconciled in his head if being a singer/songwriter was a valid school path to take although very excited by the idea, and was pretty open about his thoughts during the interview. Ended up being bumped down to Dean’s scholarship which is ~10K/year vs ~20K. He attends USC and has had and is having great experiences. Only one in his program I thnk that passed out of a required aural skill course which is not something he had previously studied, now has academic scholarship of $2500/year for last 2 years and can’t imagine being anything other than a musician and loves his program. Regularly is asked to perform for prospective students by the Dean, and several other things that would indicate he is toward the top of his program. The scholarships available in his program once you are in are not large. Only real big money is awarded through the incoming academic scholarships, little once you are there and performing. Grateful for the additional academic scholarship but the $5000 for the last two years total vs the $40K cost over 4 years of the bump down from President to Dean’s is pretty big. He would like to stay for four full years but has enough credits to graduate in 3.5 and I am telling him we can’t afford/justify the additional semester. He thinks he should have just said during the interview that he was really excited to come to USC because that would have improved his odds of getting the better scholarship. He is a very personable kind kid who is respectful and an exceptionally good thinker. Maybe he came off as a tool, but unfortunately for him I suspect he’s right and saying he really wanted to come would have served him better since 90% or so of those interviewed receive the scholarship they interviewed for. He would have avoided student loans with the Presidential scholarship and now will have ~20-25k in loans when he graduates. Not the end of the world and he is grateful for his program and would come to USC again no matter what. </p>
<p>I want to be clear that he and we are very positive about USC and his program. Having said that, if there is a student who is coming to interview for one of the larger merit scholarships, I would recommend as positive a perspective on their consideration of USC that they can describe without being deceitful.</p>
<p>Congratulations to raddad on his son’s many accomplishments at USC so far, and I am certain there will be many more accomplishments and successes for him in the future.</p>
<p>This question (“Is demonstrated interest considered in admissions or scholarships?”) has been asked many times, and as a result of my observations over the last few years, my perspective/opinion aligns with madbean’s: Demonstrated interest is not considered in admissions.</p>
<p>For scholarship candidates I again agree with madbean. Demonstrating that you have knowledge about USC and it’s programs, and describing a particular opportunity, program or course of study that draws you specifically to USC will be a great help. I feel strongly that stating at the time of your merit scholarship interview that you WILL attend USC no matter what would be a mistake. The scholarships are, as madbean mentioned, a recruiting tool to entice Ivy-level admits to choose USC. If you have already committed to USC there is no longer a reason to continue efforts to recruit you and they will “spend” that scholarship money on a candidate who has not yet decided where they will attend.</p>
<p>My own personal anecdote: Daughter interviewed for the Presidential and was asked if she had decided where she would attend. After mentioning two programs specific to USC that drew her interest, she stated that she would wait until all the admissions, scholarship offers and financial aid information had been received from all her schools and then make the best decision for herself both academically and financially. She was awarded the scholarship.</p>
<p>More on merit scholarships: a brief mention was made of an estimate of the % of candidates are awarded the scholarship for which they interviewed. We have some un-scientific but helpful and interesting survey results on that from the last two years:</p>
<p>For 2010, the results were that 70% of applicants were awarded the scholarship for which they interviewed, 18% were “bumped up” to a larger scholarship, and 12% were “bumped down.” All candidates received a scholarship of at least a Dean’s.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/1077625-trustee-pres-survey-results-what-actually-get-scholarship.html?highlight=scholarship+survey+results[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/1077625-trustee-pres-survey-results-what-actually-get-scholarship.html?highlight=scholarship+survey+results</a></p>
<p>For 2011, I feel the results are a bit more valid. We asked candidates to commit to revealing their results before they interviewed on the assumption that the previous year’s result reflected the natural tendency to post good news and not post bad news. The results were:
59.2% received the scholarship for which they interviewed, 22.4% were bumped up Presidential –> Trustee, and 18.4% were bumped down. All candidates received a scholarship of at least $4,000/year.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/1097370-trustee-presidential-scholarship-interview-results-2011-a-6.html?highlight=scholarship+interview+results[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/1097370-trustee-presidential-scholarship-interview-results-2011-a-6.html?highlight=scholarship+interview+results</a></p>
<p>raddad, ouch to your wonderful s’s $$ results. I hear ya and feel ya. However, I agree with everything alamemom has thoughtfully posted above, as this has been my observation over several years as well: that a student talking up their strong interest in USC has not been the winning dealmaker that we can see. However, I have noticed (anecdotal evidence all) that some students who show strong leadership, commitment and vision for their future careers/majors do seem to land or even “up” their scholarship level. OTOH, perhaps it is the thoughtful students who honestly talk about maybe switching majors, or want to explore their options once at college may do themselves some harm since the scholarships are meant to bring strong candidates to every department/school and spread them out relatively evenly. They do award some merit awards to undecided students, but schools like SCA or Thornton or Viterbi are aware they only get so many enticements to offer.</p>
<p>Of course, we really can never know what goes on in those interviews or in the minds of the interviewers. But from a logical point of view, and also from what I’ve seen with my own kids, perhaps a student who looks like a “catch” for a particular major (great research, or prizes, or extraordinary drive above and beyond regular HS honors) and who is committed to his field but has not already committed to attending USC will be in demand.</p>
<p>menloparkmom, I also agree with your point about HYPS level schools and their attitude toward kids showing interest. The head of admissions for Stanford looked amused when asked if his school kept track of visits from applicants, etc. He smiled (at the room of hopeful, deluded families?) and said, no. They were quite sure that almost every applicant to their school was interested in attending. I’d say that sums it up for the tippy top schools. However, some schools below the super-selective tier do declare in their public information that they care about student interest, so it’s always good to check.</p>
<p>Great advice for anyone lucky enough to get a scholarship interview at USC, or any other school for that matter. Madbean and alamemom: you are both so knowledgeable and articulate about USC (and other subjects). Thanks for being so generous with your knowledge and advice. If my son is in that lucky cohort I will be sure he reads these over prior to any scholarship interviews.</p>