<p>What type of stats do you need in order to receive a merit scholarship? just ballpark.</p>
<p>Take a look at this thread-
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/294755-official-usc-class-2011-decisions-thread.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/294755-official-usc-class-2011-decisions-thread.html</a></p>
<p>Most of those accepted before the end of February received invitations for merit scholarship interviews (Trustees and Presidential.)</p>
<p>This is just a very rough estimate. There are people who got scholarships with slightly lower numbers. :)</p>
<p>SAT- over 2100
SAT II's- over 700
UGPA- over 3.6</p>
<p>Unique EC's certainly don't hurt, and USC places quite a bit of emphasis on essays. I was a scholarship interviewer last year and we just kind of glossed over the "numbers" (SAT's, GPA etc.), and spent prep time before each interview on the essays and extracurriculars. In fact, I think every other scholarship person I've talked to has said that his/her essays were great.</p>
<p>Do any of you know whether merit aid (specifically the National Merit award) is contingent on applying for USC financial aid? Or do merit aid awards happen even without going through the filing of profile, FAFSA, etc.? Thanks!</p>
<p>Your "Or..." is correct. National Merit finalists are awarded a Presidential scholarship (1/2 tuition) as long as they designated USC as their first choice. But they also have to be accepted to USC and there is no guarantee to that.</p>
<p>Do NM finalists ever receive scholarships on top of their NM scholarship?</p>
<p>Thanks cc411. My son is hoping to not only get into USC, but to the film school as well, so he's definitely not counting his chickens ... I comb the threads here trying to figure out if the film school requires higher stats than regular admission (something a couple people have hinted at), or if it's more selective based on the other factors like experience, creativity, writing samples etc. I would have expected these subjective factors are what make it so hard to get into film. If anyone has opinions on how important test scores and school record are to the film school, I'd be interested in hearing them.</p>
<p>Band10 - I learned everything I know from reading CC, so I'm no authority ;) but it looks like a NMF can potentially get a Trustee scholarship, which would appear to replace the NMF half-tuition. But you can't stack Presidential or Deans on top of National Merit. If not Trustee, then the best you can get is half-tuition, plus an extra thousand for NM, according to some posters.</p>
<p>What about the International Freshman Academic Scholarship? I can find almost no Info regarding this scholarship...does anybody know how many scolarships are given out? what are stats of the ppl who got them? what is the main criterion?
Also, what are the general stats for those who got the USC Associates and Deans scholarships?</p>
<p>I don't know very much about the International Freshman Academic Scholarship, but I'd imagine that the stats of the recipients are similar to those of the recipients of other merit scholarships. If you are an international student, international students can receive the normal merit scholarships (trustee, presidential, etc.) as well. (I'm technically an international student and got one) :)</p>
<p>Does anyone know if there are scholarships given to legacy kids?
I've been told there are but I am not sure.</p>
<p>Yes, but the application was due December 10.
USC</a> Alumni Association</p>
<p>National Merit finalists DO receive more than just the National Merit Presidential; if they are awarded the regular Presidential scholarship for inteviewing than there's an extra $1k a year</p>
<p>The film school unfortunately does not receive that many funds for merit scholarships, so only a few people get Trustee's, even with higher stats than people from other schools in USC. But the film school is worth paying for, and getting in is an honor upon itself.</p>
<p>When we attended the Discover USC event, the financial aid people said NMSF's do not need to fill out the FAFSA, as it is administered through the admissions office, but he advised us to fill it out anyways. I do not think you can stack pre-designated merit awards without showing financial need.</p>
<p>i heard they look at the SAT2 scores particularly to see who to give out the scholarship to. Is that true?</p>
<p>SAT II scores? I actually heard that essays were more important...especially if you told them somewhere in there that USC was your top choice.</p>
<p>As expected, it seems that the top applicants with high GPA, high SAT or ACT, and catchy essays received the top scholarships. The interview also seemed to make a big difference for the final recipients. </p>
<p>SAT II scores were probably not a big factor because several scholarship recipients did not have SAT II's.</p>