As has been stated previously some schools or departments may add a smaller merit scholarship to the National Merit Half Tuition scholarship. This is in addition to the $1000 amount.
Sorry to bring this back up but I have a few questions.
The USC NMF scholarship is ANNUAL, correct? (24k/year?)
And what if I am chosen as a NM Scholar and a Finalist? Can I choose to reject the NM Scholar money so that I can receive the USC award? Because we can only get 1…
^ The half tuition scholarship is for all 4 years and rises with tuition increases. You can accept both the NMF Presidential scholarship from USC and the NM Scholar $2,500. The NM Presidential from USC is NOT from NM- USC decides to give all those who are accepted and are NMF this scholarship. You can search any of the MANY threads from previous years to get more information. Do not reject anything at this point-- you have until May 1 to make any decisions! You have to be accepted first to even worry about it.
I know that this is last year’s post, but how do we opt in for the $1000/year rather than the $2500 one-time?
You cannot opt between the $1000/y or the $2500 one time. if you get the $2500, they take back the $1000/y
either of these is in addition to the half tuition.
earliest we were able to see 1/2 tuition presidential scholarship online was 04/04 of our first year.
this is based on personal experience, and not knowledge of the rules.
Can anyone confirm as I was told that it’s possible to get the 1/2 Tuition NMF Presidential and the Tuition Exchange award if you qualify for that through your parent’s work at another institution that is part of Tuition Exchange?
My S recently received an official letter from USC with the 1/2 tuition NMF scholarship since he listed USC as his first choice. With the letter came a pamphlet which explained that “any other types of merit-based aid that can be applied to tuition” (e.g. Tuition Exchange Program) can be combined with the 1/2 NMF scholarship up to $8,000 over the full tuition. As I have explained in another thread, I received an email from the USC Office of Academic Records and Registrar earlier this year saying the exact same thing when we were approved for TEP at USC.
Since my S has not officially committed to USC (but >95% chance that he will), we did not get this (full tuition + $8000) in any official letter. My S and I are visiting USC later this month, and I will try to get this confirmed.
@Anamgol Thank you and I do remember you giving me this information on my initial thread I created when looking for schools for my daughter and I appreciate it. And it’s not that I don’t believe you I just figured I’d look for double/triple confirmation on the USC forum 
I look forward to your confirmation and hope things work out great for your son.
Thanks, I will come back and post the final numbers when it’s all said and done.
My son was admitted to USC and awarded $23K in a University Grant and $4K in a University Scholarship. He is also a National Merit Finalist, but has not indicated a first-choice school w/NMSC yet. When I just called the USC FA office to ask about this, the rep said that the 1/2 tuition award USC offers NMF’s (which they call the Presidential Scholarship) would be in addition to his current package. I asked if she was absolutely sure and she said assured me this was so. But I find that hard to believe, esp. given some of the contrary comments on this thread. Has anyone had experience with this scenario? Also, assuming that USC would lower or eliminate his University Grant if they add the 1/2 tuition NM scholarship, how we can determine exactly where he’d end up? We’d understandably like to know that before indicating USC w/NMSC, esp. since one of the other schools he’s still considering also offers NM.
I am happy to report that my S financial page at USC (FAST) has been updated.
Estimated Cost of Attendance: $69,644 (include everything: tuition, fees, housing, dining, books etc.)
Gift Aid: $60,442 (University Tuition Exchange: $41,154, Presidential Scholarship (NMF): $18,288, NM Corp. Scholarship: $1,000) — the Presidential Scholarship here is less than 1/2 tuition amount since the total stacked aid cannot exceed the full tuition + $8,000 ($51,442 + $8,000 = $59442).
Estimated Net Cost: $9,202
We are very fortunate and grateful for this.
@UpstateNYDad
If USC FA office told you that your awards can be combined, I think it will. When I first heard that NMF award and the tuition exchange can stack, I was very happy but also had my doubt. But, it has turned out exactly as I was initially told. Good luck.
This post is for the parents who qualify for the tuition exchange program and are interested in USC (@Dolemite). I just want to put up the final numbers on our unique experience/situation so that it will help those few families who may end up in a similarly fortunate circumstance. We owe CC a lot for many helpful advice and tips.
My S will be attending USC in the fall and we are very grateful to USC for making it very affordable for our family. So in the end, the USC will provide, a total of $62,442 per year ($59,442 (see above post) + $1,000 (NMC scholarship) + $2,000 University scholarship (this was added on after we uploaded our financial information (tax return, W-2). We weren’t expecting any additional money after uploading our FA forms since we probably don’t qualify for any need-based aid (I only did it since it was requested by the school). We were very surprised by the $2,000 University Scholarship since we were not anticipating any other scholarships from USC. We are just very grateful to USC.
Fight On!
@UpstateNYDad, did you get a definitive answer to your question of whether the National Merit half- tuition merit award and the grant aid could be stacked? We are in the same situation as you, with our child. I have spoken to USC Financial Aid twice, getting slightly different answers each time.
@BillPayingDad, I also got conflicting/unclear answers. When I called the FA office, a lower-level employee said they would stack… But I then emailed someone higher up and got the following response from the senior assistant director: “When coordinating scholarships, our office makes every attempt to preserve any university grant you may have been awarded. In most cases, any additional scholarship, such as Presidential, will be coordinated within the current award amount. The Financial Aid Office re-evaluates the financial eligibility yearly based on income and assets. If there is not a significant change, then students should expect a similar award year to year.” I could certainly understand them not being willing to speak to future years when our need and their policies might change. But to be so ambiguous about what’s going to happen this coming year just seemed inexcusably evasive. We took it as a “no,” and (based in part, though not primarily, on comparing FA offers) my son made his decision to attend a different school.
@UpstateNYDad, Thanks for your quick response. It is really helpful. Good luck to your son!
This is what I learned from the 2021 USC decision thread. You will most likely not be offered an interview for Presidential/Trustee scholarships from USC if you let them know in your application that you are a NMSF. Most of the rejections on that thread are high stat kids with NMSF. You are much better off holding this NMSF information from USC and you have till May 1 to let USC know after you get admitted. This way you may actually get admitted. The sad truth is there are way more NMSF applying to USC than there is USC Presidential scholarships available. You can test this out yourself if you don’t believe me. I think people will catch on that this 1/2 tuition offer is just a way USC attracts high stat students to apply and to lower USC’s admission rate. Most of the NMSF applied are rejected in the end.
"You will most likely not be offered an interview for Presidential/Trustee scholarships from USC if you let them know in your application that you are a NMSF. This way you may actually get admitted. "
this is pure conjecture on your part[ colored no doubt by disappointment]
"Most of the NMSF applied are rejected in the end. "
just as they are at individual Ivys, S, C, MIT and many other top colleges with acceptance rates lower than 20%. There is no guarantee of admission at USC for NMF’s.
Getting a high score on a test taken during a students Jr year does not make it MUCH more likely that USC, or ANY highly selective college which evaluates student applicants holistically, will accept them.
Being a NMF is one aspect of a students application- it is not a deciding factor- not even close.
@menloparkmom The point is letting USC know your NMSF status before admissions decision actually hurt your chances of getting admitted because there is simply not enough scholarships to be given to all the NMSF applying. The ones letting USC know that they are NMSF before admissions decisions get weeded out. As you have pointed out on USC decision thread that as long as you designate USC as your first choice by May1, you can get the 1/2. So there is no advantage to let USC know before admissions decision. People can go read the USC decision 2016, 2017 and judge for themselves. By attracting all these NMSF to apply is USC’s strategy of getting high stat students to apply and getting their application pool stat to look good and lower their admission rate.
@menloparkmom You keep saying high test scores, these rejected students don’t just have high test scores, in the decision thread they have also listed national level awards and amazing ECS and also GPA is not a simple test score, its your test scores for the entire 4 years of high school.
SATHater
why dont you read this from another thread you also posted on- hopefully it will help you get over your anger at USC.
This student who posted this works in the admissions office.
"Whether or not an applicant mentions National Merit on their application makes no difference. Especially because USC receives lists of NM semi-finalists and finalists every year, so has that information in their databases, often (in the case of semi-finalists) before those people’s applications are even read by the adcom. It doesn’t matter if it’s explicity mentioned or not because every file is already flagged by the time the committee reads it. 2,000 semi-finalists were in USC’s applicant pool this year alone. About 40% of them were named finalists by National Merit. Oh, and one other thing, there are three times as many applicants in the high end of USC’s applicant pool who are not National Merit students than are.
This year’s fall admission rate for finalists is 48%, 3x the overall admission rate. Also, more than 40 finalists were offered spring admission and they’ll get presidential scholarships too, even if they don’t get moved to fall.The ones that were turned down had average SATs within 5-10 points of those accepted.
Seems to me that all this conjecture of an applicant’s National Merit status somehow working against them in USC’s process is just that: conjecture. I’ve seen no evidence from the actual data that leads me to believe that anything of like that is going on here. If USC were so worried about the money, they wouldn’t make a promise in the first place. If they just had this as a way to pad their stats, as some have suggested on CC, seems to me that they could still market it in similar ways without actually making a promise. It’s not hard to dangle stuff out their to get kids excited. Lots of colleges do this.
In the end, believe whatever you want. As so many others have pointed out. Anyone thinking that a sub-20% admission rate school is somehow going to have easily predictable outcomes really doesn’t understand the intricacies of selective college admissions. Schools like USC could fill their freshman classes three or four times over with completely different pools of students and have roughly the same average GPA and SAT scores."