@kcheves, Thank you! That will be a big help.
Yes if you were accepted and are NMF you will receive the 1/2 tuition scholarship if you select USC as 1# choice with NMSF by May 1st. You will receive a letter that you sign accepting the scholarship. It will then be deducted from your USC account. balance.
@blueskies2day Thanks for your post â I went back and looked at the thread youâd mentioned. While the specific word is banned, it is clear the poster above consorts with billy goats.
@hafamama, I do not know the purpose of @ttrojanâs post about the scholarship interview nor his/her true role if any at USC. Maybe he/she has one, had one, or never did. Even if he is not an âinsiderâ at USC, some of what was posted seems reasonable and should not necessarily be discounted as decent input for future students who may be up for scholarships next year. For example, it might make sense to stay on topic and not give any indication of a potential desire to change to another major⊠Also, it is not necessarily bad advice to try not to respond too much with âmemorized linesâ rather than directly answering the question.
There are many ways to prepare for an interview and each student may have her own level of comfort with how much to memorize versus ad lib. In any case, not sure about this messenger, but parts of the message seem reasonable. However, it may be somewhat insensitive to present that information AFTER students have had their interview. I can see how hafamama and others might feel that is something that could have and should have been provided beforehand.
@kcheves, thanks for posting that. It appears that 3.0 GPA is the minimum to maintain the USC merit scholarship but will definitely confirm that with Admissions if S matriculates at USC.
@Nomorelurker Oh yes, I agree that the general common sense advice regarding interview preparation was relevant and helpful. Personally, I found the tone in the first few sentences to be condescending and The use of the word âbehaviorâ to be ill chosen . If the poster is associated with USC and has participated in the interview process, one would hope he/she would ask the student questions that would elicit new information. If the student sticks to a canned script, then that is another story.
@Nomorelurker Thanks. Iâd like to believe my daughter will maintain a 3.0 but one tough class can sink a GPA.
@kcheves I havenât been able to find what you googled re: GPA, but I found this on the USC website under âScholarship Policyâ in the Academic Honors and Fellowships Office:
âThe university expects you to maintain a high level of academic success during your university career. If you are academically disqualified by the USC Office of Academic Records and Registrar and the Committee on Academic Policies and Procedures (CAPP), you will automatically lose your scholarship. Readmission to USC will not restore your scholarship.â
To me it appears USC has changed its scholarship renewal policy concerning the 3.0 GPA. The academic progress part of scholarship renewal appears the same:
âYou should be able to graduate within 8 semesters, or 10 semesters in the five-year Bachelor of Architecture program. Scholars are generally advised to complete 16 units per Fall and Spring semester, or 32 units for one academic year. If you complete fewer than 32 units in one academic year (Fall and Spring semesters), your academic record may be reviewed to determine if you are making satisfactory progress toward your degree. Your course of study, Advanced Placement units, and work at other colleges will be taken into consideration for your overall unit count.â
Finally, since there have been questions about this on this thread (and itâs nice to have information confirmed from multiple sources when this much money is involved), I had also done some investigating about NMFs receiving Presidential as daughter is a NMF who was invited to interview. USC Admissions told me the following:
All National Merit Finalists who are admitted to USC and list USC as their first choice will receive the half-tuition presidential scholarship. There are no extra steps to take other than naming USC as first-choice school. If selected to receive the full-tuition Trustee scholarship, that will replace the National Merit scholarship. If selected for the Trustee scholarship, but awarded another USC scholarship (Presidential, Deanâs, or Directorâs), that cannot be stacked with the USC National Merit Finalist scholarship. Essentially, USC honors the higher scholarship received, but the USC National Merit Finalist scholarship cannot be stacked with other USC Office of Admission scholarships.
@Isoinfo, agree that it might be important to pace the really tough classes, especially first semester to get a feel for how hard classes might be. I remember when I started college, I took beginning language class even though I had three years in high school and it was an easy A. Of course, not all majors require foreign language.
@MC, youâre welcome.
@isoinfo, the excerpt I posted about maintaining the 3.0 may not be current. I did not navigate to it from USCâs web site. Thanks for conforming the 1/2 scholarship for NMF presidential, itâs consistent with everything I have heard. We will go to one of the accepted student events and confirm with the FA office.
@kcheves and @Isoinfo, I had looked for it a few weeks ago and did not find it on their current webpage, so I agree it may not be current but have seen nothing to contradict 3.0 is the minimum GPA to maintain merit awards at USC.
On the comments made by âttrojanâ the supposed USC âinsiderâ: no respectable institution would represent itself on any form of social media if it canât be properly verified. Besides, messages are curated so they wonât be interpreted in any way as offensive to anyone, which this one clearly was. Nonetheless, @Nomorelurker is right that there is some conventional wisdom in that.
From my interview, I was relieved that my application was completely honest and I wrote about things I was genuinely passionate about. I figure any future applicant reading this should make sure his/her application is genuine because it makes for great conversation during the interview.
Anyone have any insight into this, which I heard from my student, who picked it up on some social media or chat channel related to USC admission: They were asked to come interview for a Presidential scholarship. In the interview, the interviewer said and wrote on the form she was recommending that they be bumped to Trustee. When the notification came out, the award was Presidential, not Trustee. Great news nevertheless. But my student was told via this group chat that if you donât respond immediately and wait a couple of weeks, it is not unprecedented that USC may wonder if you are considering going elsewhere and sweeten the offer, coming at you with additional enticements, maybe even the bump if they were on the cusp. Has anyone heard similar, or know if there is any truth to this?
@FutureUSCdad, I remember reading about that rumor about the student who reportedly was told by the interviewer that he/she would be recommended for bump up, and it did not seem real to me. As to the second part of the question about responding immediately vs possibly being offered more if not responding right away, I doubt the veracity of that one too. USC knows that many students are still waiting on Ivy decisions and Stanford this week, not to mention financial aid!
Any Thornton accepted students heard about presidential/trustee scholarships yet?
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@piranhavator , not yet. Hoping we will know one way or the other when FA letters go out.
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@Nomorelurker That rumor, in the case of my student, is true. The fact USC knows prospective students might be waiting on Ivy/Stanford/etc might actually be supportive of the storyâŠif they suspect a student is waiting and weighing an alternative, that may incentivize USC to try an make their offer more attractive in a effort to lure a student who is considering that sort of alternative. Who knowsâŠI suppose it canât hurt to wait until mid-late April, after those decisions have come out, and see what happens, as long as the May 1 acceptance deadline doesnât pass.
@FutureUSCdad, I could see if a student were offered Presidential and he/she gained admission to Stanford or a strong Ivy at a significantly better financial cost, I suppose it might be possible that they would entertain increasing the offer to Trustee, but this is complete speculation on my part! On a side note, S did apply to Stanford and an Ivy so I hope you are right :-).
They do not ever increase Presidentials. Just keeping it real, but one has to realize that there are thousands in the regular pool that have those same credentials. These are not a distinct set of honors kids with significantly higher scores like at some universities - more than half of Presidentials just scored well on a single test they took. These awards were started when the applicant pool was very different than it is now. Today many kids bring the same excellent resume to USC and only demographics and luck may be the difference in getting it or not. Not to diminish them, but frankly, there are probably a couple thousand that could get Presidentials if they gave them to everyone equally deserving them. So no need to entice them, they have a school full of them. Morks, Stamps and Trustees usually have something more differentiating.
Iâm sorry @hafamama. It was not personal, nor directed personally at you or anybody else. It is just a reflection of my experiences interviewing Trustee and Pres candidates.
I was simply providing one explanation of why a kid gets dropped since the tenor of this thread was one of inexplicable circumstances. There are reasons kids get dropped; I provided a couple reasons why I drop them.
@blueskies2day, there may be thousands of âregular poolâ students who have similar âstatsâ as those awarded the Presidential scholarship, but most students who did not get selected as one of the 800 to be nominated for Presidential did not likely have the combination of the strength of resume, extracurriculars, leadership activities, communication skills, and/or essays to warrant the award.
No doubt many USC applicants are very impressive in their own right, but itâs not simply a difference of a score on a test on a single day. What evidence do you have it is more than half who were nominated because of a single test day? It is possible that some number of students may have been on the cusp or close to getting the Presidential, just as some students who got the Presidential may have been on the cusp of being offered Trustee. No one is arguing that there are thousands of bright accomplished students at USC who did not get the Presidential award. Sorry to burst your bubble blueskies, but it was way more than luck that led to my S and others being offered a Presidential merit award at USC. My S worked his tail off for four years both in and out of the classroom and fully earned his Presidential award.
@ttrojan I appreciate your response above, and that you shared your experience in interviewing candidates. Surely, no one wants to hear rehearsed scripts and canned responses (âWorld peace!â ala Gracie Lou Freebush). I admit I had a knee-jerk reaction to your post, as it hit close to home with my son being dropped down to Directors. Iâm still hopeful that the complete FA package may enable him to attend USC, regardless of the scholarship result, since we are a single income family. Now he just needs to get off a plane and check his portal.
Fight On!