<p>Hey All,</p>
<p>I was hoping for some tips on how to get the Trustee Scholarship at The University of Southern California. Do you know anyone who has received this award and, as a junior in highschool, is there anything in specific I should be focusing on?</p>
<p>I have a 3.9 unweighted GPA, 33 ACT, a couple hundred hospital service hours, I am the drum major of the band and founder of the National Forensics League-based debate club.
I am fairly confident that I can be admitted if I stay on track. Unfortunately, I cannot justify going to USC unless I have a full paid or near-fully paid scholarship.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance,
Julian</p>
<p>It depends on your major. I don’t know too many Trustee Engineering majors to be honest.</p>
<p>The one Trustee I know scored in the .005 percentile on the SAT, which would be a 36 ACT. Yes, I am saying the top 1/2 of the top 1%. And had a 4.0 UW and over 4.6W. Seriously. And there are plenty in the country with these kind of marks. It is soooooooo competitive.</p>
<p>Planning on a full from USC is like planning on winning the lottery. Moon and stars have to line up. You need to have backup options. Your ECs are great, but they are what a lot of applicants bring to the table. And scrambling to add ECs at this point won’t change things, just stress you out. This Trustee I know is someone who got in soley based on merit, with no race advantage or economic need to get in. Purely on achievements, which is amazing. You may have other factors. But your stats are worth applying, just don’t put all your apples in one basket, find other schools you like too. Good luck.</p>
<p>Julian, to put it into some context, I had a 34 ACT, 3.85 UW, 4.3W GPA with E.C.'s and I was able to get quarter-tuition off (this would have been half tuition if I had scored a little higher on the PSAT)</p>
<p>Or let’s take a 3.9 UW, 4.65+ W (so just one B in HS, 8 APs with all As on those) at rigorous and prestigious HS, 2275 SAT, ton of EC’s, all As senior year with 4 APs (not even one A-), NMS, tech internship, volunteering, tutoring…and got nada, zip, nothing in science major. The prob this kid had at USC was being white and middle to upper middle class. So went to Princeton. </p>
<p>Again, moon and stars have to line up, meaning some things are out of your control. So do your best, apply, and have lots of options you are happy with.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses. I have a few follow up questions for anyone who can answer them.</p>
<p>Primarily, I should be able to get my ACT in the 35-36 range - the 33 was my first test and I have 2-3 more lined up. I am also signed up to take the SAT next test date. But, first question is about the balance between academics and interviews/essays in this scholarship. Does this scholarship, much like Ivy admissions, weight writing skills and interviews as highly/more than perfect academics? Any advice about the USC admission process in this respect would be appreciated since I have a little over a year to prepare. </p>
<p>Second question: I saw a mention of USC favoring certain majors. I am planning to go into medical school to become a neurosurgeon. I was planning on an engineering major with a music minor, however, if it makes a large difference I can be flexible with premed - any advice about this? </p>
<p>And last but not least, I am Cuban. This itself doesn’t help with admissions very much - but if they never ask me to specify then I can call myself Hispanic. Right now I am in an upper middle household (~140) but we recently functioned on a poverty level (around 15) for around four years. Would I have a chance to mention this?</p>
<p>Thanks again,
Julian</p>
<p>Retaking the ACT is a good idea in my opinion — it can’t hurt. And secondly, USC definitely does do a holistic review in comparison to UCLA or other UC’s, but I would still say that academics are very important (they want to know if you can handle the rigor). With that being said, there were a lot of people at my orientation who admitted that they had some pretty poor stats (3.0 GPA, less than 2000 SAT), so I assume they got in for a variety of other reasons. I think doing an interview and writing a solid essay is extremely valuable especially since it’s a private school so interviewing shows interest.</p>
<p>I don’t recommend doing an engineering major and then going on the pre-med track. You need to take a lot of pre-med courses and compounding that with engineering courses is way too much PLUS an additional music minor? No way =( Neuroscience is a good major that a lot of undergraduates choose which also has good opportunities even if you end up not doing pre-med if you’re worried about that.</p>
<p>Finally, being Cuban/Hispanic definitely helps. I’m Asian so I wouldn’t know about the benefits, but I’ve heard of people getting into certain colleges from being an ethnic minority, provided that they have sufficient grades and E.C.'s. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if the income thing is worth mentioning — probably not.</p>
<p>As a recent Trustee Scholar myself, I really want to encourage you to just be yourself. I had a 32 ACT, a 2080 SAT, a 3.8 unweighted, 4.4 weighted. I’m also an engineering major. I was invited for presidential, and got bumped up. I have to mention that I’m Asian, but at good schools like USC, being Asian is treated similarly to being caucasian. I didn’t do anything crazy, no national honors, didn’t do any fancy research. I was just myself, did my best in school, showed my genuine interests through my essays, did some extra-cirriculars, and some volunteering. Honestly, during my explore interview, I think they liked my personality, my genuine interest to actually attend USC over other schools, and my genuine interest in engineering. They want students who will strive to be their best in whatever they choose to do. I think it’s more important to them, projecting what you WILL do, based off of what you have done and who you are as a person.</p>
<p>Congrats hearmeroar. One question, could your family have paid for USC or did you need the scholarship to attend?</p>
<p>OK, here I go again. :)</p>
<p>As we observers see year after year, there is no perfect way to predict who gets invited for the big merit scholarships at USC. Just by looking at the stats posted each year, some students who do not even get admitted to USC (and yes, get angry) may have almost identical stats to someone who wins a big award. On paper. Of course, we can’t read their essays, see how truly involved they were in ECs and other honors or hardships. In this (Trustee, Presidential hopeful) arena, applicants need to be prepared for the exact same highly competitive pool–and the same unpredictability–as admission to the most selective ivies. In most cases, they are the same students vying for both.</p>
<p>Each Trustee finalist is selected by the USC School they applied to as their 1st choice major, and there are certain needs in each major that may be advantageous in a given year. Perhaps, being a female in a heavily male-dominated engineering major like mech. e. will bring an excellent applicant to the attention of the decision makers. Or someone who has had hands-on training/internships that show extreme leadership or compassion which fits well with a given major/career focus. Or someone has written an essay that speaks to a particular specialty that is up-and-coming in the School in the next few years. Who can guess? </p>
<p>The best way for applicants to boost their chances for an invitation would simply be to do your best. Be your own unique self. Re-take tests if scores seem a little low for this competitive scholarship, take care with the topic of your essay to really connect your passion for your major to your specific plans for the future, and apply on time! You cannot win the lotto if you don’t try.</p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>blueskies, I definitely would not have been able to pay for USC without the scholarship. But they didn’t know that when I was invited to interview. During my interview, it came up slightly, but because it was part of my explanation in telling them who I am and where I come from. I didn’t make a big deal of it, but I did mention that this scholarship is big deciding factor for me to attend USC. It came up naturally, and I wasn’t intending on telling them.</p>
<p>What I expected and certainly the pattern that I and a lot of others see at USC in talking with many kids interviewed for it. We are yet to run across anyone that gets one of the bigger, what is supposed to be “merit scholarships” that doesn’t need it to go there. It is causing a demographic of it’s own - they are losing the top scoring kids in middle to upper incomes. Since they aren’t getting money, they go to an Ivy or a lot of other great schools, like the Princeton kid mentioned. And before someone explains it at being angry perspective it is not, just a clear observation I have gathered in talking with a lot of people from different backgrounds over the last couple years. I expect they will see the same problems other CA schools are seeing when they try to fund raise over the next 10-20 years.</p>
<p>Another recent Trustee Scholar here.</p>
<p>All my stats were pretty “up there,” but really, just be yourself. Prepare yourself for an Ivy admissions pool, do well in school and ECs, and be genuine in your application. Other than that, hope for the best, expect the worst.</p>
<p>If you really want to do something that’s in your control, STUDY AND DO WELL ON THE PSATs. If you score high enough and are admitted to USC, you will automatically get a Presidential scholarship.</p>
<p>(One more thing, I didn’t “need” the scholarship to go here, but it certainly helps!)</p>
<p>Another quick opinion- D is a P scholar who lived with and became good friends with many T/P scholars (Birnkrant). Many of these kids would have been full pay or close to it. Several came from excellent private prep schools, and like her, may have gone HYPS if it were not for T/P. She would have been full pay and we are very thankful that we are able to use that savings for our other children while she thrives at USC. We did not request financial aid from USC after doing our homework and finding out that we would not qualify, so they knew this in advance also.</p>
<p>My observations agree with camomof3. My son was a trustee scholar and he and those friends of his who were also T/P tended to come from families that qualified for little to no need-based aid. </p>
<p>Frankly, a student with a very low EFC can attend most schools that offer no-loan FA – including USC – for the same cost as if they received the Trustee merit award. So it’s a draw for them, not an overriding incentive. </p>
<p>OTOH, big merit aid may be most attractive to families stuck in the middle, considered close to full pay at most schools but who are unable to pay full price without major sacrifice/loans. If a top student must decide between Yale or Stanford at full pay (as an example) or USC (top 25 university on the rise) with zero tuition payments for 4 years, many of these students visit USC, like it, and take the merit aid offered. It’s no surprise–this is the whole point. In this way USC has been very successful attracting ivy-level students, which over the years has strengthened the academic reputation of the entire school and dramatically improved its student body as a whole.</p>
<p>Of course, some of the merit awardees do have high calculated need. There are many reasons they could choose USC over other schools! And there are also some award winners who are in that lucky segment that truly does not have to worry about college costs. For these, the pull of free or half-tuition may also not be as strong, but their major or other attributes of USC may make it their top choice.</p>
<p>D is a trustee scholar. She thinks she got the scholarship because USC looked at her application holistically. Her application, in retrospect, hit all the Five Traits of a Trojan and her essays reflected her interest in her major. She would not have qualified for need-based aid, but she probably would have gone to another school without this scholarship.</p>
<p>
When a school costs $60,000+ per year, virtually everyone “needs” a scholarship regardless of income level. I think what you are trying to say is that you think USC is awarding merit scholarships based on need - that is not my observation nor is it USC’s stated position. I know personally several fine students awarded trustee or presidential scholarships who would not have qualified for need-based aid (though they would ALL say they needed the scholarship because they are sensible kids coming from financially savvy families). At the scholarship interviews there were students/families from all socioeconomic levels, but to be honest, I observed far more who would fall into the upper income ranges than the lower.</p>
<p>As madbean mentioned, the “big” scholarships are not a huge incentive for lower-income applicants, as they may get as much (or more) than a Trustee scholarship in need-based aid. The scholarships provide the greatest incentive to those who would have been half-pay to full-pay without them, and indeed those are the students we see posting that they chose USC over other wonderful options as a result of being awarded a large scholarship. High-need kids typically post that they chose the Ivy league option with the superior financial aid offered to very low income kids over a Trustee at USC.</p>
<p>Another important point is that the scholarship candidates are selected before the financial aid deadline - in most cases, USC does not yet know which of the applicants have relatively high or low need. If anyone feels checking the “will apply for aid” box on The Common App will hinder their scholarship chances (it won’t) is free to skip checking the box for USC - USC will still allow you to apply for aid (though be careful with other colleges, some will not allow you to apply for aid if you do not check that box). Then submit your financial aid applications on February 1st - all scholarship candidate selections will have already have been made.</p>