@lesjubilants I think the weekend will give you great info . USC is very good at making people feel welcome. It is a trait of SEC schools. Going down twice will give you a broader view. The HC is a college within a University. As a HC student, you don’t just take HC classes. After first year, you will not live in segregated HC housing. So if you want a sense of the broader university population, the other Admitted Student Days are good ways to get that feel. Too bad it is not football season because I really think that the energy level on campus is amazing on Game weekends.
Hello to all. I don’t want to be that person, but do you think it is still possible that they are sending out top scholars invitations? I live in Rock Hill, South Carolina and we just had a three snow days last week. I think it is possible that the mail might have been delayed, but I may just be grasping at straws here. Is there any other way to know if you were invited to Top Scholars other than the Fed-Ex package? Do you receive an email notification? I saw somewhere in this thread that someone said that something would appear under forms on your USC application account. Is this true? Again I apologize for being that person. I know that more than likely I did not receive a Top Scholars invite. Congratulations to all of those that got invited to Top Scholars weekend! That’s an amazing honor!
I’m in a group chat for the Honors College, and someone emailed their local recruiter. From the email, it sounded like they’re sending out Top Scholars invitations in rounds, and that they are waiting to hear back from the first group before finalizing the list. I’m thinking that they invited the most highly qualified people first, since we are also more likely to reject the invitation (some people probably got in ED or EA to an Ivy or similar school). Our RSVP deadline date is tomorrow.
I think they will continue to send out invitations, especially since there is a remarkably low number of people both in the group chat and on College Confidential that have received invitations; out of the 46 OOS and 50 IS possible candidates, I’ve seen maximum 5 on these two platforms, which makes no sense, especially since CC tends to attract high-scoring, school-conscious kids who are more likely to get Top Scholars.
Again, I don’t really know at all. This is speculation. And yes, you will see something on your portal. I only saw it on my portal the day I received my FedEx package, so again, don’t be disappointed if you don’t see anything. Wishing you luck! @Thoreau8
@lesjubilants I wouldn’t take the online presence as indicative of anything. Last yr there were only a few as well. Out of the Scholars invited last yr, I think all but a very few accepted.
If past years are any indicator, there may be additional offers for slots that remain open after the deadline. Sometimes people have conflicts with the dates. Some choose other places to attend. One of the old blog posts indicates that an applicant received an invite to the weekend before receiving their HC admittance. I do recall an old post saying that at some point the HC advised people that all the Top Scholar invites had gone out and no more would be made, regardless of whether people decide not to attend.
Lots of folks with similar (or better) stats don’t get an invite to the weekend… Having talked to some of the people invited to TS in the past, not all have the " highest " “stats.” USC advises that they focus heavily on the essays in awarding the TS. Some kids with equal or better stats actually never even apply to Honors College. My son has several friends in Capstone who purposefully did not apply to HC due to the additional graduation requirements (which can translate to $$ and time if they don’t bring in enough AP credits), and the additional fees (which add up over 4 years), and because they wanted to focus on a high GPA for admittance to Grad school.
Good luck!
I’m not sure if this will make a difference to any of you or not, but my son (in-state) had to decline his invitation to the Top Scholars weekend so there might be another spot opening up. He had already accepted his invitation for Clemson’s NSP weekend which is on Friday and Saturday of the same weekend. We thought he might be able to do both with most of USC being on Sunday and Monday, but sadly USC said that he could not do both. Hopefully someone else will be offered his spot and be able to benefit from the weekend! Good luck to all!
I’m OOS from FL and have pretty decent stats (1440 SAT, 33 ACT, 4.9 weighted GPA, 4.0 unweighted, AP and AICE credits, admitted into USC and Honors College) and haven’t heard anything from the Top Scholars program…is it too late to still have high hopes for the program??
Are they still sending out letters for Top Scholars? I was accepted to HC in December with a 1500 SAT, 32 ACT, 5.0 weighted GPA but haven’t heard anything since the HC letter
We were told last night by Undergraduate Admissions that notifications will continue over the next 10-15 days. When a student declines the invitation, the next student in line will be extended an invitation. This will continue until all slots are filled. Once all slots are filled, they will send notices to everyone else that didn’t get chosen. We were also told that everyone is already ranked and that those students with National Merit status are probably the top ranked.
Thanks for posting this. We were there this weekend and asked about the invites. We were just told they had not all gone out. My daughter is a national merit semi finalist and has not received an invite. This is promising.
When did he get his letter? Do you mind sharing his stats?
We got am email this evening that DS was not chosen for Top Scholars, but is still in the running for some other opportunities.
My son got an email tonight which stated that his application for honors college is still being reviewed and they expect to notify him soon with a decision. In addition, while he has not been named a top scholar candidate, he is still being considered for other university scholarships. Not really clear what is happening: are they waiting to see who accepts Honors college offers before they officially deny?
Did your child get the email or you? My son is still waiting.
No, they are not waiting on any student to turn down HC. ALL students have until May 1 to accept their admittance. The final notifications for HC will go out around Feb. 15.
DD got the same email as @percussionboymo DS. Hoping for good news- planning to visit if that happens- haven’t been there yet- waiting for HC notification first.
My son is auditioning on the 10th. That will be the first time he will be visiting. If the question about the email was for me, it was my son who got the email.
Does anyone know any detail about Top scholars interview? How hard it is? What they are looking for? Thank you!
@SchoolMother My S interviewed 5 years ago and he said it was not hard. He interviewed with 3 people and they asked him questions related to his essays, his application and his interests. I do not know if they have changed the format, but his was not stressful.
Thank you @atlkaw6 .
Which award your S ended up getting from the interview?