When my dd received her admission packet months ago, the letter said that she will receive “at least” $XX,XXX per year but they will let her know in mid-March of their final offer. What have your experiences been? Did the figure go up? Did it go up a lot? Fingers crossed!! OOS student.
Thanks for asking that question. We are curious here too.
My son is a freshman at USC (we are OOS) last year he received the “at least equal to in-state tuition” letter with the possibility of additional scholarship funds. In March his scholarship was increased slightly…for which we are grateful because it all helps when writing the checks each semester. I think they award the named scholarships in March (Cooper, McKissick, Flynn, Woodrow and Simms etc).
Best of luck to you.
@Mac001, what dorm is your son in? Just gathering housing intel. Thank you!
He’s in Capstone this year and will be in east quad (business LLC) next year.
My freshman son applied RD last year. He had ACT delivery problems at all his schools which delayed processing. He received his admission packet in late January, and his financial aid letter in mid February. capstone came first week in March. He did not get an increase in award in March, but he did get the information on government subsidized loan awards in Mid March, just before we visited for admitted student days.
Note that some of the award names have recently changed. The amounts are the same.
BTW—-capstone notification was by u.s. mail. Financial aid was via email
The website provides some info on what one might be in the running for based on grades and test scores. https://sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/undergraduate_admissions/tuition_scholarships/scholarships/nonresidents/index.php
@PhilipM I think the stats may have gone up significantly from last year.
D has a 1410 SAT and a 4.87 GPA through junior year based on my understanding of how UofSC weighs grades: 5 AP, 8 Honors, 2 regular classes in the core (assuming foreign language is included in the core). I was expecting her to end up with the Flinn Scholarship, and hoping her GPA would give her a chance at McKissick.
Her acceptance letter indicated she would get at least half the OOS differential. This sounds more like Sims or Woodrow. I was pretty disappointed and can’t really see choosing UofSC now that she’s been accepted at FSU and UF where she will likely get full tuition covered by Florida’s Bright Futures scholarship (we’re FL residents). Paying in-state tuition for UofSC would be fine if she felt it’s the better fit. Paying $22K or more is really hard to justify.
@shortnuke. Our D has 32 ACT (with 36 on both reading and Eng but not great math) and a 4.15 weighted Virginia GPA (3.8 uw). She is getting full OOS differential. I haven’t a clue what that GPA converts to in the SC formula. She has 8Ap, 1 IB classes, but our county doesn’t designate any classes as honors; the bulk of her other classes (7 or 8) are designated “intesified” so I suppose that equates to honors. It would appear, I guess, she is in running for Finn and McKissick.
@shortnuke My freshman son has Woodrow. High ACT score, but a bad Calc. Grade tanked his Jr. year GPA. My younger son got the at least OOS letter, but we are waiting to see what else they offer. We have in state tuition at UVA and a large grant from Chapel Hill that right now make USC more expensive than both of those schools. My older son loves USC, for my oldest, the difference is about 4K a year, which is largely due to the ASPH special fee that he incurs each semester. He plans on obtaining residency by Jr. year which should help considerably.
@VAMom23 It is encouraging to see you including USC along with UVA and UNC-Chapel Hill in your son’s final list! I took my son to visit USC in the fall, and we were so impressed! The students leading the tours were so well-spoken, personable, and prepared. In Georgia, we have lottery-funded scholarships which are difficult to pass up, but USC is close enough, money-wise, to keep it on the list. Planning a second visit!
My son received his acceptance packet last week, but there was no mention of merit scholarship money. Should I assume he’s not getting any, or is there still a possibility for a letter in March? We are OOS.
@SU88BFA I would venture to say it means they don’t intend to offer any, BUT I would definately call next week and see if they can tell you for sure. My son’s letter off acceptance included a mention of “at least $39K…” with final # to come in March so I would imagine they would tell everyone right away so that could sway their decision before the March timeline. Good luck!!
My D (OOS) received at least reduction to in-state tuition plus will receive an additional scholarship. She is in Honors College but did not get Top Scholars. She will find out which scholarship but her stats indicate around either Cooper or Alumni award, based on the website. We have a friend whose son went to USC and got the Cooper plus $1500 departmental scholarship, so there are other scholarships out there that are available besides the named ones. Admissions replied to my tweet awhile back that final scholarship notification will come out mid March. Hope that helps!
Got in touch with financial aid, regarding no mention of merit $ in my son’s acceptance letter (His scores and GPA indicated to us that he would receive some merit $.) We received this reply: Our merit-based scholarship decisions will be released in mid-March. Recipients will be emailed when their scholarships are posted to their USC account.
We did have an email from financial aid about a week before the acceptance letter went out, saying there was financial/FAFSA info missing from his account. (Maybe that had something to do with it?) So-- we’re keeping our fingers crossed! Luckily, son has another school running neck-and-neck with USC, so if merit falls thru, he’s got another great option. (Requires a plane ride to get to, though. USC is a 6.5-hr drive away.)
@shortnuke, DD did not get the instate tuition reduction equivalent, and we did Florida Prepaid (we are now in VA) She got into UF but is choosing USC over it because she just loves it more (even though she grew up in a Dual Gator household!) and because UF is primarily in-state kids. She loves that USC has 40% OOS and a lot of kids from our region. UF is a higher ranked school, though, and would be FREE for her to attend, with better programs for what she wants to study. It’s a bit hard to swallow but we want her to be where she feels is a best fit. In your DD’s case, I’d push for one of the FL schools (UF!) because I’m sure she’d fit in fine being an in-state resident. Also like you, we got a lower scholarship than we anticipated based on the posted stats–I do think the requirements are going up every year and it gets tougher.
@g8rmomk8ans my daughter also got into UF and will qualify for instate tuition thanks to the post 9/11 GI Bill. We are also OOS(Alabama) and my daughter is on the shy side. I’m very worried about the fact they have hardly any OOS kids. We are visiting UF this month and will visit USC for the second time next month. Even though UF is a very highly ranked public university I think the OOS percentage they have will be a deal breaker for her/us.
@tif1972 Yes, that’s exactly how we felt about it. My husband and I attended there and knew NOBODY from OOS back then, and I’ve asked several friends of ours and they can’t remember any, either. I know they’re statistically THERE, but it’s just a much lower percentage than a school like USC. We also prefer the newer buildings/updated dorms, etc. that we saw at USC. UF doesn’t look like it’s been touched much at all in the 30 years since I left…
@g8rmomk8ans Ouch! stop making fun of our 60’s style bomb shelters, that we like to call “student housing”. I heard that “Brutalist architecture” style should be back in fashion, any day now…still waiting…waiting… (