<p>My Son got Presidential and he will likely be attending USC (95+%) but he's traveling today to check out Cornell to make sure USC is the right fit.</p>
<p>This got me curious about how these great awards may have influenced your decision on which school to attend.</p>
<p>If you are accepting the award did it make the difference in pursuading you to come to USC? What other offers did you pass up as a result.</p>
<p>If you are declining the award, why wasn't enough to pursuade you to come to USC?</p>
<p>Without the Trustee there is NO WAY i would even be able to consider going to USC for financial reasons. So without it, USC wouldn’t even be a legitimate option</p>
<p>3 years ago S was awarded the Trustees scholarship and that was a BIG factor in his decision to attend USC. His final choices were between USC, Dartmouth and Brown. He is very happy at USC. The ability to take TO and honors science classes, the fact that many friends from Calif were either at USC or nearby at UCLA were also factors. And he has been able to develop a close relationship with the head of his Dept- he will be doing a prestigious internship with him this summer.
Now, if he had not received the Trustees, but only the Presidential scholarship[ he was a NMF] then he might have accepted a spot at one of the Ivys. Hard to say at this point as he really is a Calif kid, and hates to fly long distances.</p>
<p>S applied to USC because he expected to be a NMF & projected he’d get at least a NMF Presidential Scholarship, which he did. It was a huge factor in choosing USC, where he’s very happy. Of course, we’d have been thrilled he get got Trustee, but are grateful for the generous merit awards he’s gotten and the tremendous opportunities he’s had while at USC.</p>
<p>My S just declined Cornell and accepted USC Viterbi as a NMF/Presidential, but I think the biggest decision factor for him was the passion he felt at USC on his tour.</p>
<p>WashDad: That passion was what sold me too. USC might not be as high number wise as some of the other schools, but that passion is something you can’t quantify</p>
<p>The fact is that most Trustee/Pres Scholars at USC have turned down ivies and other top-ranked schools because…by nature of the stellar GPAs, scores, essays, everything that got them the Trustee and Presidential–they have also been admitted to many highly competitive schools and so must choose. Of course, this doesn’t mean they all take the Trustee $$ and attend USC. About 200 Trustee awards are offered (we hear) and about 130 or so accept USC’s offer. By extrapolation, it would seem about 65% are probably turning down higher ranked (although not better!) schools to attend USC. The numbers are a little lower for Presidential worth half as much $, which competes against very generous FinAid offered at a few top ivies/Stanford for qualifying families. </p>
<p>In fact, a practical person might suggest this is exactly why USC offers these extremely generous merit awards–to snag the top academic students who may come from middle and upper-middle income families away from high-cost HYPS etc. But it’s often not just the money. Attending ExploreUSC really opens eyes to how wonderful the four years at USC will be.</p>
<p>Just saying… My S and almost all the other Trustee/Pres kids he knows at USC have turned down crazy-good other schools. Many were initially attracted to the great $$ help. That’s the point. But the other point is that USC is one of highest ranked private universities to offer such a large quantity of big money merit awards. Many USC undergrad programs rank at the top in the nation and the education available is excellent. Add that to the SoCal weather, the fun atmosphere, the friendliness of the kids, the great honors programs for gifted students, the Trojan family and amazing career opportunities and USC makes a kind of unbeatable choice. </p>
<p>But it isn’t an easy choice for everyone. Being offered the Pres or Trustee puts a lot of pressure on some kids who are torn between the ivy names and the chance to be a Trojan and also save $80,000 to $160,000 after tax dollars.</p>
<p>I’m in the process of rejecting Cornell for USC (presidential), but I need to make sure of the quality of USC’s premed/science program. Can anyone vouch for usc’s premed?</p>
<p>bluereedz, I’d say USC isn’t particularly renowned for its science program. I don’t know too much about Cornell, though.</p>
<p>I was named a Presidential Scholar, but I turned USC down to become a Bruin. I chalked it up to the gut feeling I got when I visited both campuses.</p>
<p>These have been copied from the SC Facebook group. There is no way of knowing if these are real choices, but this is what students posted.
The topic was: I turned down …for SC.</p>
<p>State of student, if known. Turned Down</p>
<p>TX UCLA, Texas and Northwestern
WY NYU, Fordham
CA Penn, Cal
ILL NYU
CA NYU, Occidental
? Cal, Rice and UCLA
CA Cal and UCLA
CA Penn, Duke and Northwestern
TX Amherst, NYU and Hofstra
CA UCLA, Regent’s Scholarship
CA Washington Univ. at St. Louis
CA Duke, UCLA, Cal and NYU
CA Yale, Cal and UCLA
? Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt and Emory
CA Georgia Tech, Cal, UCLA and UNC
MO Washington Univ. at St. Louis
TX Boston U., Rhodes and St. Edward’s
? Georgetown and Michigan
CA Cal and UCLA
PA Northwestern, UNC and NYU
MA Emory, NYU and UCLA
Malaysia Washington Univ. at St. Louis
N.J. Cornell, Vanderbilt, UNC and UVA
? Duke, UVA and Michigan
Conn Columbia, Michigan and NYU
IN Wesleyan and Loyola of Chicago
NY UNC, UVA and UCLA
? UNC and Indiana (full scholarship)
GA Brown and Washington Univ. at St.Louis</p>
<p>I don’t think so. Money wasn’t really a factor in my decision. I’d pay to go somewhere I really liked, rather than get a full ride somewhere I felt “ehhh” about.</p>
<p>My D made her decision today. She was admitted to Interactive Entertainment major at SCA, and received trustee scholarship. It is a very good offer. However, after coming back from MIT campus preview weekend, D decided to attend MIT.</p>
<p>D also has a classmate in her high school, who was also admitted to SCA Animation major and awarded the trustee scholarship. But she decided to go Stanford. </p>
<p>This is a really hard decision for both of them. They communicated and discussed a lot about the college choice during the past few days. Today, they finally made their tough decision.</p>
<p>Congratulations to you D. MIT is tough to pass up even with the trustee scholarship. I guess the trustee scholarship is at least getting highly qualified candidates like your daughter and her friend to make tough choices between the very best of the best colleges in America.</p>