<p>I'm interviewing for a Trustee scholarship at an upcoming Explore USC session soon, and I'm very excited and nervous. I did hear, however, that choosing the Trustee/Presidential finalists has less to do with how the interview goes and the applicant and more about how many applicants show up from each school/major. Is this true?</p>
<p>no, thats not true. they have already divvied up who to interview for the scholarships based on school/ college-that was done when the finalists were first selected. scholarship offers are not yanked away from someone in the Music school because there are more hi stat Engineering students interviewing. The interview is now what counts- why else would they require it?</p>
<p>I’m not sure any of us know the details, but I suppose they allocate a certain number of Trustee/Presidential scholarships to each major or school. Supposing they invite 10 to interview for Trustee in one particular major (I’m making this # up), and they intend to offer a certain specific (?) number of scholarships–if only 8 candidates show up to Explore the odds would be greater that those who attend will be offered the scholarship in that particular major in that particular year, than in a different major when all invited admits showed up. Follow? OTOH, they may very well reduce the number of scholarships give out to keep the ratio somewhat equal across majors. We really don’t know. </p>
<p>However they are awarded, the scholarships likely go to those who are prepared and do their best on the day of the interview. </p>
<p>In case anyone wonders how there could be less people showing up than invited, it happens quite a lot. Many invitees have already received early acceptance information from other schools and decide to pass on attending these interviews.</p>
<p>It was probably my post that you are referring to, and I am sorry that it was confusing. I was specifically referring to the small percentage of candidates who are “bumped down” when I posted that. It has seemed that those very qualified candidates have had wonderful interviews, and are perplexed when they are bumped down. As madbean says, the Trustee/Presidential scholarships appear to be disbursed across the majors in percentages similar to the percentages in the various schools/majors, so my supposition is that if all the invited candidates show up and there are only a certain number of Trustee scholarships in that major to be disbursed, someone might be bumped down - not because there was something “wrong” with their interview, but rather in making a very difficult decision among an incredibly talented pool, they had to chose some to bump down.</p>
<p>Wow, thank you all so much for such helpful replies- it was as reassuring as any info concerning a scholarship this important could possibly be. Alamemom, I do think that it was your post that I read; thank you for clarifying. I’ll just do my best to convey who I am and how much I love USC.</p>
<p>any tips how to get bumped up from presidential to trustee. USC is my sons first choice but money is really tight and at the end, it will depend on the money factor. Thanks!</p>