<p>Gosh, what a long application! By far the hardest of I've seen. </p>
<p>Some questions: How many people apply to the Honors College and how many get in? Is there a lot of emphasis on the application/short answers/essay, or is admissions more numbers based? How long/detailed should the short answers be?</p>
<p>A quick summary of my stats:
SAT: 1400/2140
GPA: 3.95 UW
Rank: NR/90, top 10%
Mexican-American
Good ECs
National Hispanic Scholar, Venture Scholar</p>
<p>Should I be OK, or do I need to make sure my application is really good? (i.e. how much should I put into the app?)</p>
<p>Take care with the application - I know some students who were "in" with lower stats than some that weren't "in "so I think (IMO) the application does speak for you in addition to your stats. You can find all of the stat info on the SC website and some of the numbers are staggering. The average GPA is higher than what is even possible at our High School with a perfect record, so it must be tough to compare. ...making your app even more important... and yes it was a bear.. LOL</p>
<p>Thanks for the response PA Mom.
How long were your S/D's short answer responses? One or two sentences, a paragraph, or a mini-essay? I'm trying to figure out how much to write...</p>
<p>My daughter turned in her Honors College application last week. Her short answers were around 200-250 words. If I am remembering correctly, when you copy them into the online form, it will tell you if they are too long. I think she had to cut two of them down a little bit.</p>
<p>Sorry I don't really remember how long her responses were. At the time she completed it South Carolina was #3 on her list and she was pretty certain she was going to choose a different school. She did not put any effort into the app as it was done to appease me ( for scholarship consideration primarily). LOL And she was not selected for Honor's - (her stats were not as good as yours though)That's one reason I am saying it is probably important to make the effort.
There is another lesson here - between November and February her choices changed and #3 became #1 ( she was accepted at all) due to various reasons, so it is important to keep your options open. She could not imagine herself at her original #1 now. Go figure.
Good luck and it's great that you are starting the app early!</p>
<p>I agree that the application is a challenging one. DD also applied for honors college but did not get accepted either. I do believe that there is some "stats" weighing but I do not know that for sure. While she didn't gain admittance to the Honors College, she did get one of the OOS Merit scholarships. I do not know how much her honors college ap played into receiving that scholarship but she was at the bottom of the SAT stats for receiving it. We actually let DD stay home from school for a full day to complete the application because it really took a LOT of time. Of course, it didn't help that we were away for a full week in November when she could have been working on it. Good luck to you. And...even if you don't get the honors ap done soon...DO get the application sent. DD heard about her acceptance November 15 and it was wonderful to get that first acceptance so early.</p>
<p>Mary
S is there right now as an Honors freshman,and a McNair finalist.You will be admitted to Honors on the fact that you are a Hispanic Scholar alone,as are NMF's.Plus your stats are excellent. What you are trying to do on your Honors app is compete for the OOS scholarships they award.S did the app in steps,but gave it his best.He didnt give short answers,more like short essays.Hes not a science kid, so for the research question he wrote about summer college courses he took and the work he did for them.Please emphasize your leadership and community ,volunteer type activities. They are of the belief that the Honors College kids are the future leaders at USC.Also they appreciate knowing what area of studies you are interested in and why..they value loyalty to the college of your major highly.Don't delay sending your regular admissions app until you finish this one.
If you want more info on the app, the Honors College, or to get in touch with my S send me a PM>
PS you dont say whether you are in state or OOS,Im working under the assumption you are OOS. They will LOVE the fact that you are Mexican-American!</p>
<p>Thank you all for the responses. I really appreciate your advice and feedback.</p>
<p>cathymee: Are National Hispanic Scholars actually guaranteed to get into the Honors College, or do they just have increased chances? And yes, I am OOS.</p>
<p>Mary
I just checked the admissions/financial aid website...National Hispanic scholar status gets you ...hold on now...AUTOMATIC eligibility for the Lieber Scholarship,which is $6,000 a year,no application neccessary.ANY scholarship at USC makes you eligible for instate tuition rates,which is why USC is such a great deal for OOS students. Lieber recipients are granted automatic inclusion into the Honors College.I would still advise you to fill out that Honors app since there are more scholarships that can be piled onto the Lieber (thats what happened to my S).
Hope I made your day with this excellent news!!!!!
Just do a search for "Lieber Scholarship" on the USC main page.</p>
<p>Just let me know if you want to get in touch with my S to leARN more about the Honors College itself or life in the Honors dorm (Maxcy..you can look that up too)</p>
<p>Out-of-state students who receive a MINIMUM $500 academic scholarship from the University also receive the out-of-state tuition waiver.</p>
<p>I'm not sure where it says National Merit or Commended are "automatics" to the Honors College.</p>
<p>In addition, they have created another scholarship program called "Capstone Scholars" for those who are top students, but not admitted into the Honors College. Nice award packets for those students also.</p>
<p>USC gives out a lot of Scholarship Money and my son, who was a NMF/Lieber/Instate Student, pockets the excess scholarship money.</p>
<p>He's been very happy in the Honors College program. They take good care of the kids.</p>
<p>cathymee: I thought I posted this a while back, but apparently it didn't go through. Anyway, thanks for the information. I was quite happy to hear that I qualify for the Leiber scholarship. Right now I'm really busy with school, basketball and all this college stuff, but at some point (maybe in the spring?), I will definitely take you up on your generous offer to get in touch with your son...</p>
<p>I still have not been able to find where it says that Leiber recipients will be automatically admitted to the Honors College. Perhaps, though, you heard it through the grapevine and it is maybe not something they put on their website?... If it is on the website, maybe someone could point it out... I just can't find it anywhere.</p>
<p>Mary
I was under the assumption that scholarship winners of the level of Lieber were automatic but if you cnt find the info on the site I could be wrong. Please dont delay in calling Heather or another member of admissions,or the Honors College itself to verify.The deadline for the Honors College app is Dec 1 and you wouldnt want to miss out.Dont forget, USC lets you "stack" scholarships so filling it out could give you more than "just" the Lieber</p>
<p>I'll definitely be sending in the Honors/scholarship application either way. Hopefully I'll have it finished this coming weekend and have it in by Nov. 18 (not too far after the Nov. 15 preferred deadline). My transcripts and recommendations should already be there...</p>
<p>Oh, and cathymee, when you say USC lets you "stack" scholarships, what exactly does that mean? For example, if you were to get both the Leiber and McNair scholarships, would you get $6,000 PLUS $10,000?</p>
<p>My son is really struggling with the application, especially the 5 accomplishment part. He really didn't become an outgoing person until his sophomore year in hs, so he really doesn't have a lot of stuff to put on there. </p>
<p>He ended up with 680 math, 740 CR, and 750 Writing. He also has scored 5's on the Calc AP, French AP, and US History AP (the only 3 he's taken), and he scored 800 on the French SAT II, 770 on the US History SAT II, and 740 on the Math SAT II.
He also is ranked 6th in a class of about 600 (through his Junior year), and he made straight A's his junior year with a really tough course load. I think his weghted GPA is 4.4 and his unweighted is 3.9 and some change.</p>
<p>He really wants to go to USC, and is only applying to one other school, just in case he doesn't get into the HC at USC. He also will not be able to go to USC unless he gets at least a Cooper scholarship, because we can't afford it.</p>
<p>Anyway, Ed Black told us in the summer that he would be almost guaranteed to get a good scholarship, so I hope that works out. I also hope they take into account that USC is his first choice.</p>
<p>Mary,thats exactly what stacking scholarships means.S has the Lieber plus a McNair plus a departmental scholarship,all stacked together. He is packaged to the maximum of the cost of education ,as defined in the financial aid pages of the website.
Namtrag...dont get too hung up on the number aspects of what the app is asking. If your S has 3 instead of 5 accomplishments,let him write in detail about those.Just be detail oriented and passionate about what he writes about. Pay particular attention to writing about leadership experiences in EC's,volunteering or paid employmeent.</p>