<p>AF</p>
<p>I am coming from the angle that my S doesn't even want to go anywhere else, we just can't afford it without a little bit of a scholarship plus in-state tuition. We don't have any other offers, or acceptances yet. </p>
<p>In other words, we are comitted to them, it would be a sure thing if they gave him a scholarship and in-state. </p>
<p>Sort of the flip side of most people who have multiple offers, mulitple acceptances, etc.</p>
<p>Gotcha namtrag. We could be in the same boat - because USC threw a monkey wrench into my calculations by giving my D an acceptance before our in-state U. Never know about admissions, nothing can be taken for granted. Given my daughter's other OOS choices (the "other" USC) and a "reach" school Penn, we may have no other offers to make a deal with either. Still hoping UW comes through before our visit to Columbia in April. If not, there is still ROTC (kinda like covering your bets at a roulette wheel) where we may be hanging out there in limbo until the end of April before a final decision is made.</p>
<p>The knowledge about USC giving in-state status based upon only a $250 scholarship would have us leaning their way already if they had already made the offer. Without it we are forced to play the waiting game and, in return, any acceptance from the Huskies or Trojans will be used to try and cut a better deal. Needless to say,an acceptance by Wharton would just mean I will suck it up and take out a second mortgage.</p>
<p>Yep, some of us are in the purgatory of the unknown for now. But it's better than the hell of not having any acceptance letters I suppose.</p>
<p>AFA</p>
<p>"Needless to say,an acceptance by Wharton would just mean I will suck it up and take out a second mortgage."</p>
<p>We were in a similar situation in 2004 with or son. He was accepted EA to Yale and was a winner of a Morehead Scholarship at UNC. Son opted to take the Morehead and graduate debt free knowing that med school was in his future and was considerably more expensive than undergrad. He has never regretted his decision. I think it took EAmom and me longer to get over the fact that we couldn't put a Yale sticker in the back window of our cars.</p>
<p>In retrospect, the sleep we lost trying to get comfortable with his decsion was foolish and he has thrived and made the most of the opportunity given to him.</p>
<p>Just to give you one real world example to think about. S and his best friend from HS (at Wharton) were taking the same advanced Calculus class freshman year. Both had scored 5s on the AP BC calculus exam. Son's class at UNC was taught by full professor who spoke English and had 55 students in the class. Friend's class at Penn was 300 strong, taught by a TA/grad student that spoke very difficult to discern English. I'm not knocking Penn but for 40+ thousand a year difference we think S had by far the better classroom experience.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong, Wharton is Wharton but unless she is planning on being a Wall Street Investment Banker, graduating from Moore with Honors and relatively debt free isn't a bad option and let's face it, an MBA is becoming a business world pre-requisite. She can go to Wharton for grad school and financially be way ahead of the game.</p>
<p>Understand where you are coming from eadad - and as yet we don't have to make that choice. It would be hard to imagine my D getting admitted to Penn, without a pretty good scholarship offer from USC - but stranger things have happened in the Alice in Wonderland world of college admissions.</p>
<p>Still, if the strangest of strange happens - Wharton on one hand, and Moore on the other without a scholarship, I would rather suck up the extra burden for Wharton. I would certainly try and use a Wharton acceptance (or our in-state U) as a bargaining chip for USC to sweeten to pot.</p>
<p>I am certainly willing to forego Carolina (without a scholarship) for our in-state U. I would also be willing to pay the difference to Wharton as well. Since my only other child is graduating from the Air Force Academy this year I would chalk the difference up to that.</p>
<p>Let's face it, as parents we want to do the best we can for our kids higher education. It's great to have kids who themselves have put in the effort to excel in academics/SAT/ECs/Community service/Essays/etc. Scholarship rewards are a result of their hard work - but as with the recent McNair Scholars notice told us, only 40 finalists out of 1600 eligible - for only 20 awards. Most of us will have to absorb a chunk of costs for a college education for our kids (cross-country transportation alone for us will be somewhere between $1500-$2000 if she goes to Carolina). And for those of us in the middle class (squeezed between the endowments/legacies of the wealthy and the need based/diversity issues of the poor) it's hard enough to even get into a decent public college much less one of the Ivies (or Stanford, or Duke). </p>
<p>Again my main point is at some point a decision has to be made regarding how much we are willing to pay out-of-pocket - going to USC with an OOS tuition ain't gonna make it with us - as regards my tongue-in-cheek about having to "suck it up" for Wharton. If I have to suck it up anyway for Carolina, Wharton would seem like a bargain.</p>
<p>I guess I am still asking if there is any experience out there dealing with USC FinAid, where you came away with a better deal.</p>
<p>AFA - My advice is to hang on a couple of weeks. IMHO you will probably have a scholarship forthcoming from USC. I did not see your d's stats , but if she a contender for Ivy she is probably going to receive something from USC.
And most of those do come with in-state tuition..
I agree with you that it is a must - my d has been told that if she does not keep her grades up to keep her scholarship she will need to transfer. We are not willing to pay the OOS tuition for her to continue when there are many in-state options here.
We made up a spreadsheet and included travel costs in the information when she was deciding. What I did not count on was my usually very outgoing daughter getting homesick and wanting to come home more often than we had planned. Flights in and out of Columbia are not great, so that is a factor as well.
She is happy at USC and loves her classes and life in Columbia. When you visit, you will see why all of these OOS kids like it so much.
The other day when it was about 0 degrees with the wind chill here, she phoned to let me know it was 71 there and she had on a tank top and flip flops....what a brat!</p>
<p>PA Mom
I wonder if her homesickness will abate this semester.
Did she go see John Mayer last night?S didnt but said the girls were all swooning waiting for the concert time to hit.
He also called me to give me a dig about the weather the other day.
AFA
you're a bit off on the McNair figures..there are 40 called for the interview.20 get designated a Scholar and get $15,000/yr.the others are designated Finalist and get $11,000/yr.
Its still an intimidating # but its twice as many winners as you thought</p>
<p>Well, at winter break she told me she was not coming home for spring break because she and her pals wanted to go to the beach. So I asked when she would be home again and she told me "May". She did not seem too worried about it so I hope that means she is more comfortable with being away. She misses her dog alot - he usually slept by her side and followed her everywhere. I did go ahead and book a flight home for Easter since I figured I'd get a better rate in Jan than I would last minute. I thought that if she was going to get homesick that would probably be the time.
She did not go to see John Mayer - didn't mention it so I guess maybe she's not a big fan.</p>
<p>Thanks PA Mom, it's the waiting that kills you. Having flown into Columbia many times I have learned to check out Charlotte or even Atlanta for better tickets, many times saved enough to get the rental car. It would be an option to think about. Still, you can imagine r/ts to Seattle - so I'm only talking the major holiday/breaks, certainly not any homesickness (and I do have relatives and friends to help out there).</p>
<p>As far as the McNair, even 40 out of 1600 lets you know how competitive it is. Even with in-state status it will come down to how much scholarship money is also offered. I have to assume our own in-state U. will make some total package offer as well. So again my question is mainly directed at anyone who has sat down with USC FinAid regarding the bottomline and came away with something - even a token better deal.</p>
<p>And I can certainly attest to how great the weather is in the Spring and Fall (we may have a chance to run over for a day at the Masters during our visit in April). Usually there are mild winters (although Seattle, with it's rain notwithstanding, has had milder winters than SC) - but students don't usually get the full summer effect. I spent a couple weeks this past summer helping out a friend - and realized why I have remained in the NW even when my heart (and BBQ) keeps calling me home.</p>
<p>My younger d is interested in only west coast colleges AFA so I will be right there with you on the cross country travel...uugghh. We are heading out your way the first week in April ( her spring break ) for college visits. We will be in Seattle, then down to Oregon, then flying to San Diego all in one week. If she does decide that she wants to apply out there I will have to start earning some major frequent flyer points to cover both her and her sister in SC ( although my d in SC has a car and can drive if the time frame allows) .</p>
<p>From Philadelphia I haven't foound the flights to/from Charlotte to be any better, but I haven't really tried Atlanta. Maybe I'll try there next time. One of my d's other school options was in the Raleigh/Durham area and the flights were great there (Southwest). If we can get a Southwest gate at Columbia that would be awesome!</p>
<p>My S just got an email from the CS department saying congrats for being admitted to USC (he had indicated his intended major to be CS). They also attached an application for a $3,000 scholarship for CS and engineering majors. The bad thing is, it has pretty much the same questions on it as the McNair app, and it's due next Friday. </p>
<p>It was so nice of them to give my son a whole week to prepare it...hehehehe.</p>
<p>Would it be ok to use the same answers as he did on the other app? The only question that seemed any different was a request for a <300 word essay on why Computer Science is your intended major.</p>
<p>Well, PA Mom, I can't promise that Seattle will provide you as good a weather in April as I am hoping for in Columbia - but if you get lucky I can promise you that between the Olympics to the West and the Cascades to the East, with the Puget Sound in-between, it tops anything Columbia can offer for eye candy. If the weather is real good you can see Mount Rainier, and Mount Baker - we live about 26 miles from Rainier as the crow flies with a great view.</p>
<p>My wife never liked the humidity of the summers in SC - but promised once the kids were out of HS we could open up a possible move for discussion. So you can imagine her feelings on the USC deal - for her USC will have to beat UW hands down. She has been real cool about the USC acceptance letter - but is almost meeting the mailman at the box everyday now. For me having our daughter go to USC would serve as our trial period to make a decision to move - maybe even to the Ashville, NC area. But even I have to say the summers up here hiking and eating Copper River Salmon may have already added more years to my lifespan than summers in SC eating BBQ (Shealy's; Smokey Valley; Dukes - even Maurices Piggy Park) and fried catfish (I do love it so).</p>
<p>Have a good trip - if you are visiting UW you can tell me how it ranks with Carolina. The last ime I was on the Carolina Campus was the late 70s, and my friends have told me I would be amazed at the changes, so I am looking forward to the visit in April. But the UW campus is no slouch in the atmosphere factor as well. I would have to say all the boats coming up for a game at Husky Stadium is a lot different than what you see at Williams-Brice, but I also have to admit Southern Football has more passion inside the stadium than what you normally get out here on the West Coast.</p>
<p>Nam
See, thats the stuff we were talking about..the departmental scholarships!
By all means have him use the answers from the McNair..this app will stay in dept.
Find out if your S can file it electronically to save some time..there should be a dept coordinators name on the letter to contact.
Such great news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Nam,
My S was also sent an app for departmental scholarship....Computer Engineering. Maybe the same thing? Ours says it can be emailed. It is fairly lengthy and is due next week. By the way, has your S toured the Engineering building? My S wants to major in computer engineering. We talked with a very helpful prof. on one visit, but she dealt mostly with the types of courses S would take. S is very interested in seeing what types of actual computer lab setups they have for computer engineering (and CS) majors. Other schools we visited showed him a networking lab, etc. (I'm not too literate about those things, or I could make a more informed comment here!)
Has your son had a chance to see the computer facilities in the Engineering building? Was he impressed? We plan to go back for Showcase and hope to set up an appointment to see the computer facilites.</p>
<p>Words of wisdom from USC Admissions Blog, directed (appropriately) at those of us reading, posting, and sharing our knowledge (and opinions, and thoughts, and suspicions, and theories, etc). They are right, but we will still likely be here. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.uscbloggers.com/connie/%5B/url%5D">http://www.uscbloggers.com/connie/</a></p>
<p>greenville</p>
<p>Probably the same app. The questions look a lot like the Top Scholars app.</p>
<p>We didn't get to see the Engineering Building when we were there. My son had not decided on CS at the time we toured(I don't think he is 100% sure yet). He is interested in math, CS, French, Arabic, and a couple of other things. That's why he liked the HC, because Dr. Baird said S could design his own major.</p>
<p>Browse
i dont think we're telling anyone not to contact the powers that be,in fact i think we encourage those asking questions to make use of all the University's resources for information.</p>