<p>I was awarded a the University Scholarship for $3,750. Is this a merit scholarship? I’m not really sure since I don’t see it listed on USC’s website. I was only awarded an additional ~$2,000 in need-based aid.</p>
<p>Since COA - Grants/Scholarships = $60k, USC is out of the picture. I didn’t expect much from USC considering the NPC and what I have heard about their need-based aid, but I’m still a bit surprised. Other privates schools I am considering are around $33-40k after need-based grants are deducted from the COA. USC wasn’t my preference at this point, but I was still considering it. I guess this will just make me decision a bit easier.</p>
<p>blueskys2day, are you serious? No one “markets” USC’s financial aid on this forum. A few posters (including me–and I have a current USC student) have shared our own personal story about FA and always (every single time) point out how different the results are for families with different assets. We even say (every time) that the way FA offices calculate your awards are not the way you may wish. It’s up to them and then it’s up to you to simply tell your student no, the $$ doesn’t work. I’m always very surprised that posters get angry at everyone but themselves for having false expectations. But I’m a little bit more angry when anyone accuses the CC forum of spreading lies. I mean–this is an anonymous forum where anyone can post anything. Hello. If you are coming here to get verifiable facts on private FA for your family, you have got to take some responsibility. And I must have missed all those misleading, false promises posted here. Never saw them.</p>
<p>Aside from my rant, I do feel a lot of sympathy for excited students who cannot afford the outrageous full price of private universities. That’s why many of us who take the time to post our views strongly urge students to apply to financial safeties. I mean no one would ever say USC is a financial safety, and I do get the grumbling. But not the false accusations that it’s my fault that your kid is disappointed.</p>
Same for S here.
COA 65K - 3.75K gift ==> Net cost 61.3K 5.5 K in loans.
EFC was about 10K more than FAFSA or UVA or Rice (two other profile schools). Not really shocked since we did the NPC, but it seems higher than I remember. Not sure of that, but that is what I remembered. </p>
<p>USC was kinda of a lottery shot here, we would have needed full tuition to make it viable. </p>
<p>S award just came up. He was awarded a Leadership Scholarship for $10k per year renewable. Quite pleasantly surprised. According to scholarship information only 20 of these are awarded to incoming freshman. I am wondering what criterion is used to determine an award like this compared to Dean’s Scholarship</p>
<p>YES - try for them if you are full pay. That is the advice we got for a year from now when our oldest graduates from college and the amount we pay for that tuition will no longer be counted in the FA calculation (grad school doesn’t count - they only give credit for undergrad tuition). We are planning now in preparation.</p>
<p>For those getting smaller scholarships and grants (we did) – For the upcoming year we were given a suggested target for scholarships if she wants to look now. No more than $6500. Because that is approx the amount of student loans (subsidized and unsubsidized). USC will eliminate those first and replace them with the incoming outside scholarship money. Then work study money will be reduced next. Since my D loves her campus job, we’d like her to be able to keep that. After that, USC will reduce their need-based scholarships and grants.</p>
<p>…In blunt terms, the scholarships will reduce the parent contribution last. </p>
<p>SCA doesn’t have scholarships for incoming freshman, so we were told to start applying for them spring of freshman year. The department sends out a notice and a link to the portal in January or February. There seems to be a lot of choices, but given the size of the school, its still going to be quite a competition for the limited funds.</p>
<p>The FA officer was unbelievably open about helping us frame options even as they admitted tuition for us was going to be a squeeze. He visibly relaxed when we said we weren’t upset - just needing to figure out strategies. Like I said - the lobby was full, so we weren’t the only parents trying to figure it all out.</p>
<p>If she goes “full pay” then we will go full throttle on scholarships. For now - we decided that she could focus on classwork and searching for internships. </p>
<p>So yes - Go for it! Especially if you are full pay. Iit’s worth it as it doesn’t interfere with time needed for homework, etc. </p>
<p>If you go to Campus Preview Day (or even the parent programs at summer orientation) set up an appointment with FA. They’ll be there all day and I found it effective for developing a game plan.</p>
<p>@ArtsandLetters , thank you very much - very helpful. We’re going to the Explore USC day in a week so I’ll be sure to talk with the FA folks then.</p>
<p>So here is a question. S14 is leaning toward attending UCLA, We are impressed that he earned $10k Leadsership Scholarship from SC. If he declines, do they then offer the scholarship to another qualified student? The scholarship brochure indicates only 20 of these are offered. In general does SC (or any college in general) give out all their merit , grant money after final yield is completed or do they hold it in reserve for next year’s admits?</p>
<p>^ No, there is not another scholarship award wave after commitment deposits are tabulated. USC carefully considers their historical yield and estimates how many of each scholarship to offer to get as close to their targets as possible. Although the Leadership scholarships (CONGRATULATIONS!) are not listed separately on the freshman profile (they are part of the “other USC scholarships” line item), if you look at the Trustee, for example, you will see that (according to the scholarship brochure) 100 were targeted. Of those offered the scholarship, 117 accepted (according to the freshman profile). Our informal estimate around here is that about 50% of the top scholarship awardees enroll, so perhaps 200 Trustee scholarships were offered. (It appears for Presidential Scholarships and lower, the yield is close to the overall yield of ~30 to 33%.) A look at the freshman profiles for the last several years will reveal that scholarship targets have been exceeded every year.
Scholarship Brochure: <a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/docs/uscScholarships1415.pdf”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/docs/uscScholarships1415.pdf</a>
2013 Freshman Profile: <a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/docs/USCFreshmanProfile2013.pdf”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/docs/USCFreshmanProfile2013.pdf</a></p>
<p>P.S. Congratulations on your son’s wonderful options! He cannot go wrong.</p>
<p>We have found the Financial Aid information on this forum to be quite accurate. And the FA Office has been very clear and more than fair. We couldn’t be more pleased with the grants/scholarship/FA from USC.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to remember that each family is unique and will have a unique FA situation and outcome. I appreciate this forum, and the volunteers who take time to post information.</p>
<p>No need-based aid for D. But, 1/2 tution off for Presidential scholarship. We turned it down though and D will be attending Cornell. Good luck to all attending USC. USC is D’s first college acceptance so it has a sweet spot in our hearts. Fight on!</p>
<p>@2018dad - I think I saw your car all over the cc roads (many schools, threads) as I like to travel around too. My D will apply to Princeton next year along with USC, et al., I may have to ask you how life is driving in the Ivy lane. Best to you.</p>
<p>@2018dad: smart decision on Cornell! I still recall many posts from you back in January/Feb and can’t help to echo your point here. USC was My D’s dream school and was in the same boat but she had to turn down admission w/ Presidential. It’s hard to swallow the costs even with half tuition. She applied to USC as high school junior and decided to try again next year as senior. </p>
<p>@CADREAMIN @nvaparent
It was quite a difficult decision for us since my daughter is Regents scholar at UCLA and has the Presidential scholarship at USC. We are fortunate to let her attend Cornell with minimal student loan (just probably the Stafford unsubsidize loan) but sometimes I wonder if we are making the right decision and not wasting hard-earned money.</p>
<p>Best of luck to your kids next year! If there’s one thing that my daughter could do all over again is to apply early to any of her reach school. I still have a 3rd grader so I have to do this all over again in nine years. I’m sure the college admission process will be completely different by then.</p>
<p>I had a D and still have an S at USC. When they received outside scholarships, USC took away their grant money first. This happened with both kids. It was more like USC got scholarships as they took the exact amount of money out of the grants. Just wanted people to be aware. The only comfort is that the scholarships were guaranteed every year unlike the grants which neither of my kids received after freshman year.</p>
My D will apply to Princeton next year along with USC, et al., I may have to ask you how life is driving in the Ivy lane. Best to you.</p>