MERIT PACKAGES - What? When? How?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
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I am making this thread to make posts and answer questions about what will be happening in the next week or two with hope of alleviating some of the anxiety because you don’t know what’s happening. I am also attempting to help us experienced parents that try to contribute avoid answering the same question 84 times and rather just link to this info below. Will post additional little tidbits later and I’m sure pro’s like @WWWard, @jmek15 and other experienced folks will jump in to add and fix anything I may have got wrong.

Disclaimer - This is what has happened for last 6-7 years when I have been through it 4 times, they could change it up - they are in charge! Apologies in advance if they do something entirely different!

THE MERIT PROCESS

WHAT?
Scholarship Selection
Over 30,000 students apply in time to be considered for merit scholarships. Approximately 1,200 students are invited to proceed to the next phase of consideration for the top awards: the Mork Family, Stamps Leadership, Trustee, and Presidential scholarships. About 100 are given Dean’s (1/4) and do not interview for bigger one. Some additional Dean’s have also been given in March, but not the bigger ones.

Please know approximately 30,000+ will NOT get a scholarship or invitation to interview for a scholarship in January and will have to wait until March with the other 20,000+ students that applied after December 1st. Big numbers. So don’t be discouraged, but it is a long haul for most. A letter is added to your portal if you did not receive a scholarship when portals are updated for those that applied by December 1st, 3-4 days after packages are mailed, this tells you that you are still being considered for admission, will hear in March (they say by April 1 but is always in March), but no soup (scholarship) for you. :frowning: There just aren’t enough scholarships as there are great kids!

NMFs - These are not part of the January process.

WHEN?
I would guess (only a guess people) that they will be sent between January 19th (seems early) to January 26 (seems late) or something in between.

Last year, there was extreme storm in LA on Friday/weekend. Not sure it was the reason, but in a newer move, they were sent on a Monday - Jan 23, first arrived in LA on Tuesday 1/24, Norcal and most everyone on Wednesday, and most everyone by. Portals started updating on Wed night/Thursday morning at 12:50am.

In 2016 and other years before that, they were sent on a Friday (January 22nd in 2016), and started arriving the next day (Saturday) in SoCal at 11:30am (first report). Reached northeast and FLA on Monday, with some trickling later. Most done by Tuesday. When mailed on a Friday, even some Socal people didn’t get theirs till Monday, although several get it Saturday in LA/Orange County. Virtually all Norcal people got theirs Monday as well. Quite a few Midwest people in major metro areas (Chicago/Minn/St. Louis) reported Monday as well. But don’t be disappointed Monday afternoon, mail times vary greatly. Portal should update Tuesday night after midnight anyway and end the stress nightmare.

I don’t like Friday sends because you have Sunday in there and not everyone has Sunday mail delivery - so it can add an extra day of angst.

THE PACKAGE
The scholarship packages have been sent in white boxes (they may be different color this year) that fit in most mailboxes, some are left on porches if not. They are a little bigger than a piece of paper and little less than an inch thick. They are impressive and beautiful packages as are the “regular” acceptances in March.

First, if you get the package, you are accepted. The package includes an acceptance letter and tells you what major/school you got into and which scholarship. Some will also include invitations to interview for a higher level scholarship with brochures like “Explore USC/Trustee’s Finalist” or other info relative to your specific scholarship. It will direct you to log into your portal to sign up for interview and other tasks. Your portal will have changed or will in the next 24 hours or so.

You will not interview for higher scholarship if there isn’t an invite to do so included in your package.

If you DO NOT get scholarship info within your package but did get the JANUARY white box/acceptance package, in the past it has always meant that yes, you are accepted, and with the Dean’s which is 1/4 tuition.

HOW?
It is sent United States Postal Service - the good ol’ mailman. It is not UPS (the brown trucks). Since they come USPS, meaning postal service, and in your mailbox, setting up a My UPS account won’t get you anything here. International packets are sent DHL

USC does not enable tracking on these package, so you cannot track it. The SENDER (USC) has to enable tracking. But ahhh some of you think - “we have have Informed Delivery Daily Digest” - the postal service that tells tells you what is coming in your mail that day. HOWEVER - I have had that for awhile and I have only seen letters scanned. Packages from the postal service have not been included in the Informed Delivery Daily Digest I receive, but technology keeps changing and varies by areas. I am sure many will have their conspiracy theories on findings ways to beat the system and find out early. It never works or hasn’t so far.

While I understand the anxiety, I would sit back and let it happen likes USC intends - see if it comes to your mailbox! Seeing it online in some mail program defeats the mailbox moment which can be spectacular.

Good luck all! I’m happy to not be going through it this year, but best wishes to those that are! USC is utterly fantastic, I wish there was room for all that want to attend.

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Thank you for setting this up, @CADREAMIN ! :-*

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Indeed. Well done. Thanks!

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Thanks for gathering the info in one place.

I’m confused about the interaction of NMSF and merit scholarships. I know that if a kid is admitted and selects USC as their NMF choice, they (basically) automatically get the 1/2 tuition scholarship. How does that factor into the upcoming merit scholarship decision? Does USC know that an applicant is NMSF? If so, do they typically push those kids to the regular March notification because they know that the kids will already get the 1/2 tuition scholarship?

Or does NMSF/NMF play absolutely no part in the upcoming merit scholarship decision?

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It is confusing but here goes:

NMFs do not get any particular notice now … and being NMSF/NMF is no guarantee of admission. Once admitted, AND if you advance to NMF AND if you name USC your top school with NMSC by the May 1st deadline you will get the 1/2 off tuition.

They are completely different processes and NMF is not in play in the January merit round. The merit awards given in the next week or two are independent from NMF. Having said that, when a student becomes NMF and has been admitted (either in January or in March), then the NMF status and 1/2 tuition comes into play.

So an NMF can be invited for these scholarships, any of them, but that invitation has nothing to do with being an NMF. It makes sense that NMFs often do end up with other scholarships, but again, in this merit round they are separate.

Let’s say a student gets the Dean’s in January which means they are admitted and get 1/4 tuition. Then they are declared an NMF and choose USC as their #1 school with the NM Scholarship Corporation by May 1st, and bam, they now have a 1/2 rather than the 1/4.

This is the scenario that confuses folks the most, but it’s not so bad to understand…
Say a student is invited to interview for the Presidential (1/2 tuition), but before that interview finds out they are NMF - same 1/2 scholarship (they do not stack) so heck, why bother interviewing because they are getting the same 1/2 tuition? Because a Presidential recipient may get bumped to a full as the result of a good interview. And if it is a bad interview the NMF holds them at 1/2, they can’t get knocked down (only occasionally does a student gets less than they interview for, not too common, but can happen). An NMF 1/2 tuition recipient does not interview and has no chance to increase or upgrade that particular scholarship, only if they received a different scholarship with invitation to interview as well in January.

Hope that helps.

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STATS ON SCHOLARSHIPS

2017 Actual Scholarships:

New first-year students 3,358
USC Mork Family Scholars (full tuition + stipend) 10
Stamps Scholars (full tuition + stipend) 6
USC Trustee Scholars (full tuition) 118
USC Presidential Scholars (half tuition) 398
USC Dean’s Scholars (quarter tuition) 138
Recipients of other USC merit scholarships 59
National Merit Scholars 245*

*Some have previously done the math and believe the NMF scholarship number is included in the Presidential total, but not sure.

2016 Actual Scholarships:

New students 3,068
USC Mork Family Scholars (full tuition + stipend) 9
Stamps Leadership Scholars (full tuition + stipend) 3
USC Trustee Scholars (full tuition) 117
USC Presidential Scholars (half tuition) 370
USC Dean’s Scholars (quarter tuition) 99
Recipients of other USC merit scholarships 44
National Merit Scholars 229*

2015 Actual Scholarships:

2,949 New Freshman
USC Mork Family Scholars (full tuition + stipend) 10
Stamps Leadership Scholars (full tuition + stipend) 5
USC Trustee Scholars (full tuition) 105
USC Presidential Scholars (half tuition) 351
USC Dean’s Scholars (quarter tuition) 123
Recipients of other USC merit scholarships 51
National Merit Scholars 211*

2014 Actual Scholarships:

3,098 New Freshman
USC Mork Family Scholars (full tuition + stipend) 10
Stamps Leadership Scholars (full tuition + stipend) 5
USC Trustee Scholars (full tuition) 120
USC Presidential Scholars (half tuition) 351
USC Dean’s Scholars (quarter tuition) 80
Recipients of other USC merit scholarships 58
National Merit Scholars 230*

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@CADreamin These stats are the number who receive a scholarship and actually attend. More scholarships are awarded, but some students choose to attend elsewhere. I have never seen data on the actual number of merit scholarships offered, just the yield.

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I have read, mainly here, that the # of merit scholarships offered vary by year but are routinely in the 800-1200 range.

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What about students auditioning for Thornton? Auditions start on January 20th, when do they get notified?

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@museoffire yes, the figures @WWWard mentioned have been the quoted and consistent stats for awhile. The other frequently cited figure is 3% of the 30,000+ that apply by Dec 1 get merit invitation/offers which also puts it between 800-1200. Using those figures, and the yield, and award budget, posters much wiser than I determined the NMF figure is included within the Presidential total. Which also adds to the confusion of NMF v. Presidential and when NMF comes into play which was addressed earlier.

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Thanks for posting! USC is one of my sons top choices. I just hope he is in that 3%! Going to be a long January waiting.

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Both of my daughters are at USC presently, and neither of them heard the news that they were hoping for in January. Believe me, the wait until late March is very hard… especially if your top choice is a college like USC with no other early action or early decision route. But 54K+, or about 98% of the total applying, (using last year’s #s of 55K total having applied) of the total applicants are also waiting until March. It clearly worked out for our family.

Good luck to all those waiting for an answer this cycle.

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@wwward, if your daughters heard in March, did they get any scholarships?

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@CADREAMIN So if one does not get the white box in the mail in Jan then it’s safe to say there’s no USC
(non-NMF) scholarship of any %? Are RHP kids handled any differently?

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The do give out Deans (1/4) and some other department or group type scholarships in March, but the big ones (1/2+) are only January. In terms of RHP, the student I know interviewed for the Presidential (1/2) like a regular student in terms of the opportunity for it to go up or down (I heard stories about the interview) but frankly, I am not sure if timing is the same or not. With only 15-20 RHP kids, I don’t have a lot of data on it, maybe another parent will jump in.

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This is a very helpful post. I will add a few things that might be useful to parents:

If your child is invited to interview for the larger merit scholarships, USC will reimburse the student’s travel expenses up to a certain amount (I can’t recall if it was $200 or $300). You just send in receipts and they send a check. The students invited to interview are housed overnight with current merit scholarship students - usually freshmen - so very likely students would overnight in the new McCarthy residence hall. They also get meals (at least most of them) during that time and there is a social gathering in the evening.

While some students come alone for the interview, if you can afford the travel (and cost of accommodations) it is definitely worthwhile to attend as a parent. There are a number of events for parents, including a dinner without the kids where you are seated with administrators and faculty and have a chance to talk to them and hear some deans speak. It was a well run 2 days and you will learn quite a bit about the university and have no need to re-visit in April if your child is considering various colleges once all admission decisions are in.

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Thank you @CADREAMIN Do you know anything about the Norman Topping scholarship?

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Hey @kelvin82 - been thinking about you and fingers still crossed! I just know it’s a need-based grant for those with serious financial need that show super-duper community awareness. First gen and local area are given priority. You have till mid Feb to apply and you should! They say amount varies, but I have heard figures of 4K per year and would assume this scholarship would stack on others, so regardless of January outcome, I would be thinking about the app. Looks like there is a little drama in the group, but it sounds like they are committed to program and perhaps growing it…I just scanned over the article real quick.

http://dailytrojan.com/2018/01/09/usc-restructures-norman-topping-fund/

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@CADREAMIN Thanks for the post. So if you do not get the white box in Jan and the portal a few days later updated to say you are not being considered for scholarship, does that mean even the 1/4 (Dean) is out of window too? I am trying to figure out the possible paths for Dean Scholarship. The 1/2+ needs the invitation in Jan so pretty simple. The 1/4, not so clear. If you get white box but no invite then you get 1/4 most likely, but what are the clues that you will or will not get 1/4 w/o Jan white box in the mail.

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@bogeyorpar No… in our case, the scholarships offered were external to USC, things applied for directly elsewhere. So no merit scholarships from USC generally or its departments. The vast majority admitted in March will be in that same category. But the FA offerings (grants, work study, loans) were sufficient to allow each to attend USC.