University of San Diego 2023

@suburbiatexas There is another merit scholarship, though I do not know the exact criteria. In my portal, I received the Alcala scholarship for 25k, along with a “USD scholarship” for $11150 as well.

My D is still waiting to hear on acceptance. Really thought there would be something out this week.

@kkmtx From last year’s thread it looks like the second wave of acceptances came about two weeks after the first wave. If they follow that pattern, we would have another weeks wait. My daughter is in the same boat…been sitting in committee review for a week tomorrow. Meanwhile a bunch of her classmates got accepted in the first wave and none of them are planning to accept!

Anyone else check the portal and have their estimated cost of attendance listed as about $70,000 even though a scholarship and financial aid was already awarded to them?

@jetstar I got the Presidential Scholarship and it says my cost of attendance is $70,999
I think the cost of attendance doesn’t take into account the merit scholarship or need-based aid.

@sammycp: What is the Presidential Scholarship?

@hermom1, thanks for sharing. Her stats are amazing and at any other school, she would be a great candidate for merit! I’m very surprised she didn’t receive one. I’m not familiar with USD’s track record in the past with awarding merit, but it seems they are tighter this year.

@homestretch99 The Presidential Scholarship is a merit scholarship for $18,000

@JBSeattle Yeah, I didnt add in the Pell Grant and CalGrant there, which were both quite good. But all of that together plus USD Merit and Aid still give us a big loan every year…

@hermom1 The school is asking us to take out 4 kinds of loans through them, Fed direct subsidized, Fed direct Unsub, Fed direct Parent Plus, and USD Trust Loan. The loans equaling about 21K a year. A friend of mine is an accountant and I sent the letter over to her. Her thought is wait and see how good UCI’s offer is and if the Merit/NeedAid is no better then USD is back on the table.

@ThatKidsMom
Yeah sounds like you would be saddling your kid with a lot of debt since you could not afford the tuition.

I didn’t think UCI gave much aid but I know the situation in state is different so I could be wrong (I live in WA but grew up and went to college in CA).

@JBSeattle He has mostly applied to colleges that offer amazing Needs Based Aid but they are reaches (aka Caltech Stanford, HMC). We’ll see how that plays out in the coming weeks. I kinda knew USD was a long shot financially but a lovely campus anyways. And we always have UCI as a fall back, which is great for his CS major.

So is the hierarchy
president-18k
Trustee -21k
Acala-25k
?

@hermom1 that is really strange. I wonder if the calculator changed at some point? My daughter got exactly what it said when she put in SAT/GPA. I believe 1470/1480-ish plus and high GPA gets the Alcala. It may be a glitch, a terrible glitch for sure. . Playing around with the calculator it seems both have to be high to qualify, they seem very heavy score/GPA driven. Perhaps have your daughter call and ask just to double check?

@sammycp once you accept the scholarships, work study etc the total at the bottom of that column will change. So it will say 70,999 then next to it your award. What is left over is what you pay. Does that make sense?

@hermom1 my son did not receive merit either. He is a 3.75 uw /33 ACT. His highschool has rigorous grading. He rec’d 28k from LMU so very surprised he rec’d zero at USD. The calculator indicated he would get 15k. I left a message with the admissions counselor for our state to ask for clarification.

Did you run the calculator for your daughter’s uw gpa? When I run it with her stats (4.0 uw/1270) it does not show she should get a scholarship.

It is possible the calculator changed from last spring for this new cycle.

@suburbiatexas Yes that makes sense, although need-based aid and work study hasn’t shown up on my portal yet so that’s probably why it hasn’t changed. Also I have a 1500 SAT and a 4.58 GPA and I didn’t get the Alcala scholarship or even the Trustee scholarship, I got the Presidential for $18K. I’m grateful, but I don’t completely understand and I don’t think I’ll be able to go to USD now.

Daughter received denial letter in the snail mail today

Where are you located @CaliMck15 ?

@JBSeattle Northern California it’s a bummer too because at least 10 classmates got in and none of them are planning to attend. She has some good offers from both states and privates including Gonzaga,Seattle U, TCU, Chapman, univ of Redlands, but this is what she had her heart set on. It’s probably a blessing and I’m sure the aid would be minimal based on some super high stats kids not getting much financial help.