How Good Is USC's Financial Aid REALLY?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
1

SC claims to give out financial aid to 2/3 of its students, but how much does the average student on FA REALLY receive?
CollegeBoard’s College Search says the average FA package at USC is $48,812, but many USC CCers say otherwise. What’s the deal?
Not to mention that SC is becoming the university with the most expensive tuition in the nation…
Here’s my financial situation, and I do want to get some advice on what I should do, but I ultimately want to get a conversation going about other’s experiences with USC’s FA and how it should be tackled.

Here’s my financial lowdown:
I looked at my parent’s 2015 tax return, and we made about $110k this year. 2015 was the first time my father held a full-time job after being laid off when I finished sixth grade (I am now a high school junior). However, just about a month ago, my father got laid off again, meaning that if my dad doesn’t find a job, my family’s income will be dipping by a lot very quickly.
I live in one of the poorest, if not the poorest, counties in Florida, and a majority of my family is VERY poor and not well educated (except for both of my parents who have overcome very difficult situations and both hold professional degrees).

Here’s my profile/academic lowdown:
Sex: Female
Race: White
State: FL
GPA: 3.95/4.45
Rank: 5/330
ACT: (retaking in June)
C 30
R 30
E 35
S 28
M 27

SAT: (taking in June)

High School: Public, Magnet (“A” School, best/only “A” school in county, top 200 public high schools in US)

APs (my school does not offer many): World History (5)

Junior Courses: APUSH, AP Lang, APES, Honors Chem, Honors Pre-Cal, Journalism 2, Web Design

Senior Courses (potential): AP Cal AB, AP Gov, AP Macro, AP Art History (online), AP Lit, Journalism 3, Television Production, ACE*
*My school is “special” because it offers “career academies” that all students must stay on for four years. I am in the Multimedia academy, so that’s why you see Web Design/Television Production. ACE, which stands for “Advanced Career Eduction,” allows students to have one or more periods dedicated to jobs/internships/in-school jobs related to their career academy. With Multimedia, considering my area does not have a ton of opportunities, I would just be dong a period for yearbook.

Extra-Curriculars/Summer: attended the Washington Journalism and Media Conference at George Mason University summer 2015, active in my church youth group, yearbook staff writer (10th), yearbook editor-in-chief (11th, 12th), NHS member (10th, 11th), NHS President (12th), Spanish Honors Society member (10th – my school does not let you be in SHS if you are not in Spanish III or higher, but my school does not offer anything past Spanish III, so I couldn’t do it after 10th grade), applied for a local leadership program (waiting to hear back), doing a local teen outreach/volunteer program this summer through next school year, co-founder/VP of my school’s Environmental Club (11th, 12th), founder of my school’s Creative Writing Club (10th – got busy with yearbook), possibly going to a University of Florida Journalism camp this summer

Community Service: ~60 hours, but getting more this summer

Intended Major: Communications/Media Studies/Journalism @ Annenberg

Awards: (nothing major, just school stuff) Academic Achievement (highest grade) in Photoshop (freshman Multimedia)/English II Honors/Spanish III Honors, Top 10 (10th, 11th)

Certifications: Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro, and Flash; Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel (though my Multimedia Academy/my school is very technology-focused)

Work Experience: worked part time at PacSun lol

I could go on and on about my personality too, but this is neither the time nor place.

You could read all of this, or you could just skim over it and come to answer this one over-arching question: what would my financial aid look like? If you’re a current Trojan, do you have financial aid, and how much do you get? How does USC deem “need” and/or deem who “qualifies” for merit scholarships?

Yes, this is kind of a “chance me” post, too. Truthfully, though, I believe I have done well for what my small area has offered me, and I am proud of that. I don’t think I necessarily need validation that I am a “good” or “bad” candidate. USC has been my dream school since I was 12 and wanted to be a filmmaker. I think I have a fair shot of getting in (once I improve my ACT scores), but there is no way I can go without really good financial aid because of my family’s rocky financial situation.

Discuss financial aid. Go.
(sorry this is so long)

2

No one knows what YOUR financial aid will look like because it is based on a number of factors. No two students have the same factors unless they are twins attending the same university.

Assume a starting point of $70k per year.
You are not a resident of California so you can’t tap into those California grants that cover private and public institutions. You need to rely on USC’s endowments and federal loans and federal grants that are based on your income/need. It doesn’t look like merit is going to happen since they tend to cater to high scoring SAT National merit winners.

We couldn’t afford their fees since they were only providing half tuition. The big costs are housing, food and other fees.

My advice: find a school that you can afford.

3

You and your parents would probably end up taking out a lot of loans to attend USC. Prep very hard for your ACT rand put some other schools on your list including some financial safeties like in-state schools.

4

We don’t know enough about your income or equity in your home, etc., but I can tell you, don’t be one of the many many people that think USC hands out buckets of money to anyone that can claim low income (which btw $110K is not low, but I see you said it will go down). Otherwise, everyone would be applying. 48K average? idk who gets that, but don’t buy in to generic surveys, your situation is the only one that matters to you. Who is going to pay for things like added cost of travel back and forth? Agree with above - find other affordable schools, there are many students like you that dream of USC, then if lucky enough to get in, end up shocked when the FA comes. Heed the warning, apply elsewhere as well. Also, doesn’t matter if the rest of your family is poor or uneducated - that won’t give you bonus points, your parents are who they are looking at - and they have (had) decent income and professional degrees. Watch contradictions when you apply.

With a 4% admit rate to SCA, no one has a fair shot at getting in, make back up plans. I wish you well, but dream school is a dangerous game to play with your future.

5

Thank you guys for your advice. Very real, and good foresight.
I have two other questions: when I do the USC gift aid/financial aid calculator on their website, it says I will receive about $30k. How accurate is that? Secondly: how much does location play into admissions?

6

Like everyone said, financial aid depends on a myriad of factors. The NPC is simplified and doesn’t take into account a variety of other factors that’d be indicated on FAFSA/CSS. Now with that warning in mind, here’s how accurate the NPC was for me:

USC’s NPC predicted I’d have an estimated net price of $14,500. After loans and work-study, the net cost would be $6,500

In reality my financial aid package got me an estimated net price of $15000. After loans and work-study, the net cost would be $7,000

In my case, the NPC was off by $500 which is still pretty accurate. However, my family’s financial situation is pretty simple. USC’s financial aid office was the least generous out of the colleges I got into (Brown was cheaper by $1K, JHU was cheaper by $4K) but the aid I received was still good enough to make USC realistically affordable for me and my family.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case for everyone. USC seems to do a great job at helping out low-income students but once you reach the middle/upper-middle income bracket, the generosity starts to decline (as is the case for most schools).

Don’t be like the many kids I saw on USC/NYU/Brown’s FB groups who were heartbroken when they received their financial aid packages. Always have backups in mind, even if you get into USC. The NPC can be accurate but only to a certain point, you never really know until you get that official financial aid package.

Still, I encourage you to apply to USC anyways and see how it ends up. I wish you the best of luck in the college admission process!

7

@GudMornin thank you! That means a lot! Believe me, I’m not someone whose head is up in the clouds thinking money will rain down and all of my USC dreams will suddenly come through. I’ve got pretty decent backups (like UF, considering I’m FL in-state). I’m just excited to start the admissions process, put my heart into it, and hope for the best :slight_smile:

8

USC’s FA isn’t as generous as, say, an Ivy League institution, but it’s pretty good in my opinion. Job loss is something they take into account, and if they don’t give you enough $$ the first time around you can always appeal.

USC also has excellent merit aid, in my opinion the best merit aid of the Top 25 Colleges in the United States (since most of the top 25 don’t even offer merit aid…). I was lucky to receive a full-tuition scholarship with a stipend. Your ACT score is probably a little low for merit aid (although maybe for a half-tuition one) but write good essays and continue to get very very high grades your senior year and you have a shot at it. Merit aid is guaranteed regardless fo financial need so that may be a way to make your dream of going to USC a reality.

Good luck, and fight on!

9

OP – stop spreading misinformation and hyperbole: “Not to mention that SC is becoming the university with the most expensive tuition in the nation…”

Where are you getting your information?

True, USC has one of the most expensive tuition rates in the country. But it won’t be the most expensive this next year. Columbia University’s current tuition and fees are $53,000 (http://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/ask/faq/question/2501), so even if they don’t increase a penny for 2016-17, they’ll still be more than USC’s 2016-17 rate. Also, Carnegie Mellon’s 2016-17 is $52,310 (https://www.cmu.edu/hub/tuition/1617-undergraduate.html), which is higher than USC’s 2016-17 rate. Many schools haven’t yet released their rates for next year, so I am sure we will hear of other higher ones soon.

Like others have said, you should still apply and see what happens.

10

We live in FL as well. When my D compared her financial aid offers, USC ended up being only $3-6K more expensive overall than attending FL schools like U. Tampa, UF, FSU, & NCF. NCF (New College of FL) offered the most aid/grants/scholarships. In the end, getting to attend a school like USC and paying the differential was more than worth it. Comparing private schools, USC offered much more financial assistance than U. Miami, for example. In any event, it is always worth trying and then hopefully being able to compare offers of assistance later. Every school if different and uses varying factors to determine aid… the giving yourself options will always be the best strategy. Good luck…