From what I’ve heard, USC discriminates against mid-tier National Merit Finalists because they are guaranteed over 100k in scholarship money whereas the other regular decision applicants will not receive any merit aid. Is this true?
I’ve heard this happens at Baylor. Not sure about USC though. I could see them doing this to protect yield as well.
This rumor is out there every year. Maybe it happens, maybe it doesn’t. How would one ever know? All it can ever be is a conspiracy theory.
My guess is they are trying to get the best kids for each class regardless. USC isn’t exactly hurting for money with a 5.1B (as in Billions and Billions) endowment and the majority attending paying full boat.
According to the Admissions Director, USC accepts nearly 40% of all NMF applicants- which is a much higher acceptance rate than for any other cohort of applicants.The % of NMF’s who end up actually going to USC is less, for various reasons.
USC really DOES want tip top students, and they use the NM scholarship $$ available to actively court them.
ALL highly competitive colleges use yield calculations to figure out who to accept and who to reject.
I doubt it, especially for CA residents. High % of the NMFs are also accepted at UCLA and UCB and half scholarship at USC is still double the tuition at UCs. My daughter for example, went to UCB.
^^^^
My NM winning son went Caltech.
When USC gives you $20,000 off of a total $70,000 bill, it’s a no brainer.
Caltech and the UC‘s were all a lot more economical.
My husband and I could do the math.
@aunt bea I’m confused, this would mean Caltech is $20k more than USC? How is that more economical?
@ollie113 Caltech is more generous with financial aid than USC. USC gives merit aid, but Caltech doesn’t. So, it depends on the financial aid eligibility.
A lot also depends on the major. Majors like CS, Cinematic Arts, performance degrees in Dance and Music are going to have high rejection rates even for NMF. If you are NMF with a passion for a particular major to which you are not admitted, there is no reason for USC to admit you undeclared or to a second choice major as you are likely going elsewhere at that point anyway. My son is a good example. He is NMF with all the other stats generally appropriate for admission to USC, and his sister goes there. But he is applying for a BM in vocal performance to Thornton, a program which enrolls 8-10 freshman each year. The odds are quite long that he will be admitted to his major, and if denied to Thornton I would not be surprised if he were ultimately denied admission to USC.
@ollie113, USC would only give our son $20K as a NM winner (that’s the 1/2 tuition part).
They don’t pay the other ½ of tuition, nor anything related to housing and other fees, so the rest of the bill was on us.
USC’s total bill would have been about $72K - $20K =$50K to pay out of pocket for USC.
Caltech wasn’t as expensive with two kids in school at the same time, Caltech was about $20K less than the $50K.
I think inaccurate figures stated as “about” or showing a difference based on a personal situation but painting it as a generic solution is not helpful to anyone. 72K COA and a 20K 1/2 tuition NMF award never went together.
1/2 tuition NMF from USC is $26k.
COA at Caltech is $69K
COA at USC is $72K.
Not a big difference, both are expensive schools to attend. Campus and life very different at each obviously.
The financial aid someone gets varies per family based on their need and what each school determines that need to be. Merit awards like NMF are a consistent figure (1/2 tuition), but of course, some get more merit money than others as well.
As stated above it depends on the financial aid eligibility and Cal Tech does not give merit $. So someone that doesn’t qualify for financial aid, may do better with USC merit. It is not one size fits all.
@blueskies2day, I didn’t expect to recall the exact figures that were quoted to us 4 years ago^. As for inaccuracy, every household income is different, and so is the timeframe of when these packages $$$$$ were presented.
The point being that ½ tuition for NM @ USC still leaves significant costs such that other schools’ financial help, of any kind, made the other schools financials’ more economically attractive.
I have an interesting perspective: I’m a NMF but also a Spring Admit here at USC. Didn’t think that could happen, but it did. I had a 3.9 UW in high school with the most rigorous courseload offered, lots of awards and extracurriculars, and a 2290 SAT.
Sometimes I wonder if I was put to spring so they would hope I wouldn’t come. Anyways, I’m here now, so I guess it didn’t work if that was their goal. Just thought I’d share because a lot of people don’t know that my situation is a possibility.
Also for the people talking about COA, I have Presidential + 500/semester University scholarship and my COA is $42k/year after Freshman year. Not that different from 50k, but still 8k is a significant difference.
Thank you for posting that, its very interesting and helpful. I’m curious, are you glad you decided to attend USC?
@tahlianoel I know of many people who were in your same situation last spring. I don’t think there is any way to know for sure if OP’s concern is valid. However, it’s completely conceivable.
CA resident NMFs with good stats have many choices: USC with half tuition off if they get in, UCs which cost slightly less, top colleges which offer good financial aid if they get in and qualify, OOS Honors Colleges which offer at minimum free tuition plus something more or even full ride.
At our kid’s HS in Southern CA there are 5 or more kids every year who choose to attend USC to major in business or finance.
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I am glad I decided to come. I spent the fall semester studying abroad in Switzerland with other USC spring admits and it was a great experience. I got to travel around most of Europe, have a traditional “freshman” experience with a dorm and classes, etc. However, there was no financial aid offered (probably cost around 40k for the semester including everything), and so I was very very fortunate that this was not an issue for my family. I personally had a great experience my fall semester that looking back I would have preferred to being a fall admit (not in a defensive way, I just really loved Europe!)
I got to USC about 2 months ago, and I think while it was a bit harder to transition, it wasn’t extremely hard. If any of you were ever the new kid in high school the experience is similar to that (I moved cross country during high school, so I had experience with being new). The vast majority of people here are friendly and outgoing, so if you are too, the adjustment isn’t that bad. Granted, I am a very outgoing person and got into a social freshman dorm (IDK how but I managed to get into birnkrant through some divine act of mercy). I will say that I have made most of my friends going out to parties on the weekend – if you are not an outgoing person you might have a bit more trouble adjusting. Spring admits have to put in more effort to make friends – they aren’t just going to fall into your lap the first day.
USC was a perfect match for me – although I will say it’s not for everyone. If you are looking for an extremely social party atmosphere with top-notch academics, well, we do that better than almost anywhere. Work hard play hard culture is real here. I love it. I know others may not. Most people here would describe themselves as extroverted. Academics are rigorous but manageable. It takes me probably 2 hrs of studying for each credit hour in order to maintain straight A’s. I have met the most amazing people here. Everyone is so interesting and so intelligent – intelligence here is assumed, which really lets your other attributes shine through in others perception of you.
I don’t know if this matters, but as a spring admit this is what I have noticed about fellow spring admits. The spring admits are much more white/asian and wealthier than the rest of the student body. I understand this is controversial to say, and I’m not here to speculate or pass judgment on why that is the case, I’m just here to say that is definitely the case.
@Ynotgo Lots of places are more generous than USC. My D got much better financial aid from Harvard, Columbia and Chicago. USC’s EFC was almost double what these colleges expected.