<p>He did not receive any information about scholarships in packet or any financial news via USConnect. What exactly does this mean? Does this mean he is simply accepted without potential of the aformentioned merit scholarships? Any info or advice will be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>There have been various procedures in the past on this - in the last couple years, scholarship invitations have been INCLUDED in the large packet. Further back in the past the scholarship invitation followed the package by 3 days to a week.</p>
<p>It appears to me (and these are just guesses) that THIS year the scholarship invitations are INCLUDED in the package. Those not receiving that notice in the package are very likely to be awarded a Dean’s 1/4 tuition scholarship (~$11,500/year) outright later in February. Please note, this is a GOOD thing! Some of those invited to interview will be awarded a Director’s scholarship of $4,000/year, so those with a Dean’s in-hand are in better shape!</p>
<p>AND, please keep in mind that there will be MORE scholarships (including University Scholarships and departmental awards which CAN be combined with Dean’s, Presidential and Trustee) awarded in April! In addition I recommend any family who thinks there is even a slight possibility for need-based financial aid to submit ALL FA materials on time. Wait until all of the information is received (and this goes for those invited for the “big” scholarships as well - do NOT submit your commitment deposit yet - you have until May 1st to decide, so get ALL the info first!).</p>
<p>As always, NMSF who meet 3 criteria will receive a 1/2 tuition award* even if NOT invited to interview:
1 - be accepted (acceptance is NOT guaranteed for NMSF)
2 - Be named NMF
3 - List USC as their first-choice school by the deadline</p>
<p>*The NMF 1/2 tuition award cannot be combined with Trustee, Stamps, Mork, Presidential or Dean’s awards.</p>
<p>Did he get into Viterbi? I got my packet for Viterbi Engineering and I didn’t get any scholarship information. </p>
<p>No, Keck School of Medicine as a biology major.</p>
<p>I thought Biology was in Dornsife - Keck’s undergraduate majors are Global Health and Health Promotion and Disease Prevention - was it one of those?</p>
<p>Yes Alamemom my error, he was accepted into the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention major at Keck.</p>
<p>I think we may just end up with a Deans Scholarship. To be honest, because you cannot add financial aid and scholarships together at USC, I might just have to go to a UC system school because of the cost. Kind of unfortunate, but glad to have been admitted anyway. </p>
<p>Scholarships and financial aid actually are coordinated at USC. If your USC-determined need is greater than your scholarship USC will meet 100% of your USC-determined need (which, I always note, is calculated using the CSS/Profile and considers assets the FAFSA does not, including home equity) by adding to your scholarship. Outside scholarships and the USC scholarships that are awarded in April (and that Dean’s Scholars often receive) may be applied to the self-help portion of your financial aid package (Stafford loans, Perkins loans, federal work/study) before reducing grants.</p>
<p>Please submit all financial aid forms and wait until you have ALL the information for all of your schools. Then sit down with your family and figure out what works for you. There is no need to submit commitment deposits until May 1st.</p>
<p>One more note: The UCs are excellent options!</p>
<p>alamemom: Are you saying that Dean’s scholarships may be applied to the self-help portion, but Trustees and Presidential may not? It seems they must, or they will have no effect for those who are receiving substantial need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>WatchfulEye,</p>
<pre><code> Are you aware that major at SC is highly selective? Only a small percentage of applicants are admitted… It is only one of two majors at SC in the Keck School of Medicine that include freshmen. Congratulations!
Does your senior plan to work this summer? Has he applied for any local scholarships? Many students at SC have part time jobs during the school terms. Those sums would not be huge amounts of money, but every dollar helps. I just checked the UCLA cost of attendance. Next fall for a California resident living in a dorm it will be around $35,000 per year.
As alamemom suggested wait until he receives ALL USC information and possibly department or alumni scholarships. You may find in the end the cost may not be that significant between SC and a UC choice. There have been some changes this admissions cycle. We are speculating at this point.
</code></pre>
<p>Georgia Girl, Thank you. </p>
<p>SoCalDad2, alamemom is an expert on USC’s Financial Aid so I’m sure she’ll respond to your question, but I thought I’d point out that the FA office at all universities including USC calculate an amount they refer to as Expected Family Contribution. Some schools use FAFSA only, but USC and many others also use CSS Profile. In any case, the FA office comes up with the EFC amount. Let’s say for Family A that amount is $30,000. For USC, whose Cost of Attendance (including estimates at room/board, books, travel, etc) is about $63K, that means USC’s FA office will put together a package to pay for the 33K left after the EFC. This will always include federal student loans (both subsidized and unsub) of about $5500 which the student will have to pay back. The rest of the USC FA package is made up of grants–in other words, money that will not have to be paid back. In my example, Family A will be expected to pay $30K, their son, STudent A will take out $5500 in fed loans, and the rest of the 27,500 will be USC grant aid. However—let’s say Student A earns merit scholarships. If Student A is awarded the USC Trustee scholarship (approx $43K full tuition), that amount is subtracted from the full COA (63K) leaving 20K left to pay. That is less than the EFC, so the family saves 10K but will be responsible for the 20K. Had Student A earned the Dean’s scholarship ($11,500), again–that amount is subtracted from the COA leaving 51,500. The EFC will stay at 30K, so USC will offer a FA package to make up the 21,500 difference–in this example, $5500 in fed student loans, plus 16K in USC FA grants. Depending on the EFC, some merit awards seem to cancel out the FA grants that would come, netting no real difference in cost to the family. Those who really benefit from merit awards are often full-pay or close to full pay families, as families with very low EFCs can qualify for mostly grant aid from USC.</p>
<p>^ PERFECT answer! </p>
<p>And SoCalDad2, no, Deans, Presidential, and Trustee cannot typically be applied to self-help, unless all other need has been met. What I was mentioning is that VERY often we see Dean’s, Presidential AND Trustee scholars receive additional scholarships in April that CAN be applied to self-help. Not always, but often. It will not hurt to wait and see. Outside scholarships may be applied to self-help.</p>
<p>As for your question about those receiving substantial need-based aid, I don’t understand why that would be a problem. If indeed they are receiving substantial money from USC, whether it be a merit scholarship, need-based financial aid or a combination of the two, that sounds like very good news! The advantage of the merit-based awards is that they remain constant even if a family’s financial picture changes while need-based financial aid is recalculated each year based on the previous year’s information.</p>
<p>Do the scholarships based on 1/4 or 1/2 tuition increase over the 4 years as the tuition cost increases.</p>
<p>Yes, they will always be 1/4, 1/2 or full tuition even if the tuition rises (which it always does…).</p>
<p>Following up on the posts of madbean and alamemom, and adding another scenario, I was thinking of an example with EFC of $20,000. With no merit scholarship, the family would pay $20,000, would have a loan of $5500, and would have need-based grants of $37,500. It sounds like a merit scholarship of, say, $25,000 would reduce the need-based grant by $25,000, leaving the family with the same out-of-pocket cost of $20,000, and the same loan of $5500. Right?</p>
<p>Yes SoCalDad2, that is correct!</p>
<p>If we ran the USC Financial Aid calculator and had an estimated price of about 16,000 (with 2500 of work study and 5500 in loans), could that be covered by a USC merit scholarship? </p>
<p>The scholarships come off your university grants not your family contribution or loans. Your EFC will stay the same unless you get one of the big scholarships and the amount you owe is less than your estimated family contribution. Alamemom can explain better how loans can be reduced. For my son, he has always had the student loans calculated in.</p>
<p>SoCalDad–you are right. A family who gets significant need-based grants will not benefit from the award of the merit based grant in the example you supplied–except… the merit award is guaranteed for 4 years. In your example, if the family were to suddenly win the California Lotto 47,000,000 windfall, their student would STILL get all of their merit award for the full four years. The FA student would suddenly get bupkis. *Caveat: If you should win the 47 mil, please consider donating a building to USC. B-) </p>