My EFC is $2500 from SAR. Would USC Topping Scholarship and Asian Alumni Scholarship (which look at both merit and need) reduce my parent contribution? or would these scholarships be redundant and replace any need based aid I would have received?
And would I even have a good shot at these^
Stats:
GPA: 4.4 (W), 3.96 (UW)
SAT: 2200
ACT: 33
Thanks!
This is an excellent question, and the poster who knows all about these issues isn’t around much these days. We miss alamemom!! You can read her excellent thread all about USC FA details (it’s long, but informative), or I really suggest you call USC’s FA office and ask this specific question. If those scholarships are deducted from your grant aid, it will make no significant difference to your family’s contribution. But it may (perhaps) be used to substitute for your Workstudy ($ you need to earn by working during the semester) or other loans. If you talk to them, please come back and post their answer which will be so helpful to others.
@madbean thanks for the reply. I was planning on contacting the financial aid office but was worried my question might be easily answered by searching.
I read alamemom’s post initially, and it said that merit aid reduces need based aid. Usc’s website says SOME merit awards reduce need based, so I wasn’t sure for my case.
I will contact USC and will post an update!
From what I understand, any scholarship is going to reduce institution aids first, then work study, finally EFC.
Thus, if your scholarship is not larger than the sum of grant aids and work study, then it won’t reduce EFC.
@madbean I called the financial aid office. They told me what you and @co4usc2016 told me.
From net price calc my coa is 63k, with 48 k gift aid and estimated net price of 15k. With 8 k in loan and work study, leaving me with 7k parent contribution.
So topping award varies but average 5.5k and Asian alumni maxes out at 3k. So if I get both, would it reduce 8k loans and work study atleast?
The woman I spoke with encouraged me to apply to both, and if it covers loans and work study I would, but if it just replaces gift aid , I feel like it would be a waste of time.
@Sugoi15: I think the 8.5k is going to come out of 48k gift aid. I am not sure whether it can replace the work study first, you should present this scenario to the Financial Aid office and confirm with them.
But scholarships would look good on your resume.
In http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/17361704/#Comment_17361704
@alamemom stated the following:
"
My student DID put in the time and "bothered’ to apply to outside scholarships, applying to over 40 outside scholarships. She had great success, earning enough to replace subsidized loans and work/study for all four years. We were very lucky that her school, USC, allowed her to use those scholarship funds for the student self-help portion of her aid package rather than reducing grants.
"
Thus, at lease outside scholarships do replace federal loans and work study first.
But, I am not sure whether the small USC scholarships will do the same.
@co4usc2016 thank you for the help. I believe that is what USC will do, but I emailed them to make sure.
If I have time to do the applications, I will definitely do them since I didn’t receive the main USC merit scholarships.
Co4usc2016 - please note that at the time Alamemom posted that comment on a non USC “thread” where parents noted how hard it is to actually achieve many of the outside scholarships advertised. So for context, please read the rest of that thread carefully, including my own post right above hers to which she was responding. Most of the parents weren’t in agreement about the ease of getting outside scholarships. Even USC reps say they are hard to get and take a lot of time for little result. I’m not sure how a student with a full course load has time to apply for 40 scholarships. Ours were in competitive college prep programs and did not have that kind of extra time. But I’ll take her at her word that somehow her own child did.
My spouse and I had several candid conversations with USC about how to plan for future year’s tuition. One competitor had told our daughter to apply for five outside scholarships a day (sorry - but I thought that was just ridiculous). USC was more forthcoming and told us it would be a waste of our time - that they are hard to come by and that students who try that usually don’t net enough to make it worth their time. The FA officer also explained their policy for handling an outside scholarship:
So my advice is to do exactly what you did - talk directly to the person in FA about your specific case and how an outside loan would impact your package. The FA officer gave our daughter a specific dollar target to aim for if she was going to try for a scholarship. He said anything above that would be a wash because it would result in other grant dollars being taken away. I found it to be a very candid, and a very welcome conversation because it allowed us to make good decisions on how to handle the process and we could also talk through the issue of having another child in college at the same time and how that would impact the FA.
Also note, however, that if you find scholarships and they reduce the student loans, that will still leave most parents with a very large hill to climb.
I think you should apply. Most outside scholarships = a lottery, but the ones offered by USC-affiliated organizations (ie ones listed on USC’s scholarships PDF) aren’t that hard to get.
Key part: If you get enough to replace the student contribution, you can still take out the federal loan and use it for the parent contribution. It’s technically “replaced” in the sense that you’re not required to take it anymore, but you’re still entitled to it. Last yr. my EFC was pretty much the same as yours -$7k. I applied for and received the Latino Alumni Association scholarship as well as some small local ones, replaced my entire student contribution, & used my stafford to help my parents w/their EFC. You can do it too, if you wish. 
@sugoi15
@Lilliana330 – good point. That’s what happened for our case.
@ArtsandLetters and @lilliana330 thanks for the wealth of info.
@lilanna330 compared to outside local scholarships, which would I have a better shot at? For USC topping, priority goes to California residents (I live in ohio) and USC Asian alumni - I don’t think I am particularly doing anything specifically for the Asian community. How was your experience with the Latino scholar program? Did you fit qualifications pretty well? I don’t know if I’m the right candidate
Basically I have many local scholarships at the same time, so I don’t know which I should focus on. Thanks for the help
@sugoi15 DO apply for Topping since you can only apply for it as an incoming freshman/transfer. They do consider geographic location, but the most important aspect is financial need. Apply!
As for the Asian Alumni one…I don’t know much about it, but the Latino AA asked for involvement within the Hispanic community as well. Basically all ethnic ones do; however, this isn’t as stringent as it sounds. I wasn’t doing anything specific for the Latino community, other than being involved in worship @ church (which just happened to be a Hispanic church). I did write about my experience as an immigrant, though. The point is, they don’t expect activism, just identification with the community. I’m assuming your Asian? Depending on the essay prompts, I’m pretty sure you could reflect your experience as part of the Asian community in some way. I think that’s all they expect.
Note…Some of these might say “partial tuition.” This isn’t what it implies. If you get the value of tuition in grants in your aid package, don’t be discouraged. You can still use the amount for other costs, as long as you have loans in your package to replace. Unless they specifically say that people getting tuition covered = not eligible (such as the general Alumni Association one), you’re still eligible. There’s a difference in the wording which should tell you. This happened to me with the LAA; only after I applied did I notice the “partial tuition” on the description. I didn’t hear from them for months, assumed I wasn’t eligible/wasnt gonna get it, but was pleasantly surprised in late July.
@ lilliana330 okay! You convinced me. I will just give it a shot for both
^ Good luck!