<p>I am an international accepted to the University of Southern California. Am I eligible for the Presidential and Trustee scholarships?</p>
<p>If I am, and I am selected for one of them, how will my interview be conducted since I can't possibly attend the Explore-USC event since I live in India.</p>
<p>If you were accepted to USC you must have got the notification if you have been selected for it.</p>
<p>Yup you're eligible for presidential/trustee scholarships as an international student :)</p>
<p>I'm not sure about the interview though... you might have to come, I remember for Explore USC last year there were people who flew in from countries like India, Canada etc for the interviews. If you are notified that you are being considered, I would call the admissions office, they can probably tell you more about it. Good luck!</p>
<p>They'll tell you more about it when you apply next year. If you're being considered (meaning you have top SAT scores) then they accept you in March. A few days later, they send you info about explore. They can also give you financial aid to pay for the plane/hotel reservations (if you book it through STA travel i think) if you can't really afford it since air fare can be kind of ridiculous, i can imagine, esp. coming from another country. luckily it was just an hour drive for me. and the interview was no sweat really. explore is really worth it if you can make it.</p>
<p>i think all the presidential/trustee nominees are notified end of january/beginning of february of their admission and hear about the scholarship 1-2 weeks later, since the interviews are conducted in february and march. </p>
<p>also, they pay half of your ticket (up to a certain amount, i think) if you have to fly to the interview, regardless of financial status.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, i guess i did get my letter in february... makes sense :)</p>
<p>@sjw2011 (and all others that were interviewed):
May I asked how high your SAT score and your GPA were?</p>
<p>Well, I got the Presidential Scholarship, so second top percentage scores.</p>
<p>I got a 2180 on the SATs. I don't know if GPA is considered, but it was 4.0 uw and 4.5 w.</p>
<p>I got trustee
2330 on SAT's, 4.6 W GPA</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>presidential</p>
<p>2250 SAT
4.0 UW, ~4.6-4.7 W GPA</p>
<p>Know stuff about current events for the interview...</p>
<p>trustee</p>
<p>2200 SAT
35 ACT
3.7 UW, 4.17 W GPA</p>
<p>(boy don't i feel dumb ...)</p>
<p>Are you guys all international students?</p>
<p>nope, I live like 30 min away from SC</p>
<p>sjw when you say know current events for your interview, do you mean that they ask you questions about current events during the interview??</p>
<p>The question I got, was something like "What big event going on in this news today is most important to you?" Something like that. Miraculously, I was able to ramble on about global warming and sound relatively intelligent.</p>
<p>Also, if one of the passions that you are big on in your application is currently being highlighted in the news for one reason or another, you should know why. For example, if you want to work for NASA someday, the fact that they found some pretty good evidence about water on Mars yesterday woud be good to mention in an interview. Or if you were into a big political issue, like immigration, know some of the current goings on.</p>
<p>My son would qualify for Presidential through National Merit (234 PSAT), but what does it take to get to Trustee? Does anyone know whether GPA plays a big role in invitations to interview, and/or in final selection for Trustee? His SATs are M800/CR800/W750, but his GPA is around 3.4 unweighted, as he takes the hardest courses at a highly competitive high school (e.g. 25% of any given class advance to National Merit Semifinalist). He would be applying to the Cinema program. ECs will be mostly around film, guitar and political work (website design type stuff), plus 4 years of soccer (not recruitable). Anyone care to guess his chances for the big scholarship, assuming he will interview well?</p>
<p>USC takes in account GPA, SAT, and EC's for admissions scholarships including Trustees.</p>
<p>From past threads here on CC, we've seen that those who received a Trustee Scholarship had a 4.0 unweighted GPA (having taken the most challenging classes available), SAT scores above 2200, and impressive EC's. There are, of course, no absolutes.</p>
<p>
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From past threads here on CC, we've seen that those who received a Trustee Scholarship had a 4.0 unweighted GPA (having taken the most challenging classes available), SAT scores above 2200, and impressive EC's. There are, of course, no absolutes.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think the process is somewhat arbitrary... I have a 4.0 unweighted, 2250 SATs, and very impressive ECs & i interviewed for (and was awarded) Presidential.</p>