Scholarship?

<p>So I submitted my complete (part 2) application to USC over the weekend (submitted part 1 in October) as I really wanted to make the merit scholarship deadline. I have a pretty good chance at getting in, but I'm not sure about the merit scholarship.</p>

<p>Can anyone tell me what the requirements are for merit scholarship consideration? I found the PDF online of the profile of the 2008 entering freshmen class... it had average ACT/SAT scores, GPA, rank, etc. for applicants and admitted students, but it didn't have the average scores (etc) for those who received scholarships. Does anyone know what the cutoff (or range) is for the scholarships?</p>

<p>There is no cutoff for scholarships although from posts here on CC, GPA and test scores of scholarship recipients tend to be over the mean scores you saw on the Freshman Profile.
<a href="http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/0910/FreshmanProfile2008v3.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/0910/FreshmanProfile2008v3.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>You can also check on the Stats from last year's recipients who posted here. Most of the acceptances in January and early February were scholarship candidates.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/454785-stats-only-usc-official-decisions-fall-2008-a.html?highlight=stats+only%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/454785-stats-only-usc-official-decisions-fall-2008-a.html?highlight=stats+only&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>If you are a candidate for one of the BIG ones (Trustees or Presidential), you will be invited to attend an event called Explore USC (special overnight just for scholarship candidates) where you will receive your interview. These events/scholarship interviews are usually in February and March. The interview seems to be very important in the scholarship committee's final decision. Notification of which of these scholarships you received usually is at the end of March.</p>

<p>Other scholarships recipients are usually notified in March or April.</p>

<p>(I know I put info other than what you asked for but I'm sure others will ask this stuff later.)</p>

<p>cc411- Thank you so much for all the info. So USC sends out decision letters early for scholarship candidates? I didn't know that!</p>

<p>mollie--we learned last year that each School at USC will select the finalists for the Trustee and Presidential Scholarships. So, for example, Marshall will select their candidates, School of Cinematic Arts selects theirs, etc. This means the Theatre School might have slightly different criteria for scholars as they may weight the audition heavily when deciding who makes the cut. In some schools, therefore, like Viterbi Engineering, the GPA and test scores will most likely be scary high for merit scholars, while for arts they may consider talent, portfolios, professional success, national awards, etc in the mix and test scores will be high--but perhaps not scary? lol.</p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>