<p>Looking at their website, the way they phrase the selection criteria makes it sound like test scores are their primary consideration, followed by extracurricular. Is this true? Will a 36 act provide a significant advantage in being considered for these scholarships?</p>
<p>It’s the whole package, lots of students have great stats these days.</p>
<p>Depends on what you’re applying for. SCA doesn’t even look at your test scores, only your SlideRoom application, for example.</p>
<p>Each department at USC looks at the applicant pool in their majors and considers the whole student, all aspects. They give a lot of weight to items in your application that show outstanding personal initiative, independent achievements (outside of HS), special awards/talents, and leadership. It’s been suggested that the overall point of offering such generous merit awards is that USC wants to lure very desirable high-stat students who will make an impact on campus and also raise USC’s overall student profile to attend–that means stats that help increase SC’s average GPA and SAT/ACT. This means above the top 25% of admitted students on the student profile. While a few students just below that threshhold may be invited to interview for these scholarships each year, these are exceptions and they have other amazing credentials like having won an international music competitions, invented a very popular app, started a business, etc. </p>
<p>The majority who become finalists, however, have it all–great gpa, test scores, and over-the-top personal achievements. In general, merit finalists are the same students who would presumably be admitted to ivies and similar. Look at previous threads for in depth analysis of what it takes. Plus, 2 important truths: 1) All students with these sorts of great qualities are still not ALL invited to interview–as there are more highly qualified candidates than open spots. And 2) Even after one has been invited to interview, they are finalists in a very competitive field. Scholarships may be worth $100K - $200K, over 4 years, and only a percentage will be offered the scholarship they interview for. The most assured way to get half-tuition (Presidential) is to be a NMF AND be admitted. All NMFs who are admitted (that’s the trick, of course) automatically get the Presidential award. Still, you never know! Best of luck.</p>
<p>So while Layra is sorta right when it comes
SCA admissions (they do look at your stats, but only after they are blown away by your SCA supplement) for top merit awards, all Schools–even SCA–tend to reward the more academically outstanding applicant among their pool of very creatively gifted students.</p>
<p>One more question- do the scholarships go towards USC’s grant portions, or do they cover the family’s EFC?</p>
<p>One note - SCA scholarships are rare. I do know they review academics and reward scholarships to film students who apply in the spring of their Freshman year. Not everyone gets one, but I do think academic performance as well as film activities weighs heavily in the decisions.</p>
<p>And sometimes, depending on the circumstances, they may help cover the family’s EFC. But the Financial Aid office warned us not to expect it. More often it eliminates the student’s loans and work study grants first. And in some cases may reduce the University’s grants second.</p>
<p>Just depends on the circumstances.</p>
<p>There is a very informative thread started several years ago that gives ALL info on financial aid vs. merit scholarships at USC. In general, any merit $$ awarded means the EFC (expected family contribution) will be recalculated. These merit grants are considered assets and will be subtracted in some manner from the FA awarded. They may first subtract Work Study (which is hardly FA, since it just offers students access to certain campus jobs–the student must still work to earn this $ and use it to pay for college), but then they often substitute merit grants for university grants (financial aid grants) and the outcome can be a wash. However, for a student who gets little to no need-based grants, merit grants are the biggest benefit. Very low income students often receive as much and often more from the university’s financial aid grants.</p>
<p>Also, even if you’re low income, merit scholarships still give you an advantage. You can stack non-USC scholarships on top of them, which, if large enough, can cut into your EFC. For Presidential it’d be hard, since you’d still have large grant to cut trough before you get to loans/wrkstudy & then the EFC. But for Trustee & Morks, it’s great.</p>
<p>^ Cant edit:</p>
<p>For many low income students, the EFC can still be unaffordable. For example, $0 FAFSA EFC students will often have a USC EFC (after loans/work) of ~$3000. Thus, the advantage. </p>
<p>& even if you’re not able to cover the entire EFC with scholarships, you can use the loans “replaced” by scholarships (you can still take them out) to cover the difference.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<p>Before scholarships:</p>
<p>USC Grant: $51,500
Pell: $2000
Work study: $2000
Loans: $5500
USC EFC: $4,000</p>
<p>After scholarships (both USC & non-USC):</p>
<p>Trustee scholarship: $48,000
Pell: $2000
Outside award 1 (renewable): $5000 (work study = lost)
Outside award 2 (renewable): $3000
Loans: $5500 (still available)
USC EFC: $1500 (you can cover this w/a summer job. It’s personal expenses anyways, since the cost of attendance is inflated.)</p>
<p>So if any low income students find themselves comparing packages with similar EFC’s but one USC merit another pure grants, & haven’t heard back from outside awards yet, take this into consideration.</p>
<p>This is incredibly useful madbean. Do you think I could you some individual questions about the USC scholarships/admissions? I DM’ed you.</p>
<p>Would be best to know if you even get a scholarship before spending time figuring them out. Fulls are extremely hard to come by, USC comes off like they give so many but remember being able to borrow money is considered aid, don’t get caught up believing it is easy to get any scholarship at USC. There’s plenty of time after notifications go out. It’s the holidays, take finals and relax.</p>
<p>I’m happy to answer questions published here, arjunn11, if a topic hasn’t been covered already. And I agree with Blueskies2day–everyone needs to realize all grant $$ (merit or FA) must be considered a reach and, more importantly, a gift from the university. No one can feel entitled to such gifts, just hopeful. That’s why you should apply to a number of schools, and certainly schools that are more predictable of admissions. USC is highly selective; their FA is calculated by their own institutional formula and differs, in some cases, from other schools, and their highest merit aid goes to the top 1.5% of the admitted class. So be realistic, but it’s ok to dream big if you have financial back-ups.</p>
<p>@madbean Great! One question I had was after the application is submitted, if there are significant achievements the applicant has, or developments on a certain activity/project, can USC be updated with this info somehow and would it be appropriate to send anything?</p>
<p>Might be a question for the adcom but thought I’d ask.</p>
<p>I don’t think I can advise on this. If the achievement is truly spectacular, I would consider it.</p>