<p>@alamemon, thank you for your clear explanations above regarding NMF scholarship at USC.
I have some follow up questions for anyone who is familiar with the process. DS received his acceptance and the invitation for 1/2 tuition Presidential Scholarship competition. Incidentally, he is also a NMSF.
Does the fact that the letter only mentioned Presidential Scholarship and not Mork, Stamps, Trustee Scholarship means that DS is only being considered for the Presidential and out of the running for the rest of higher amount scholarship?
Assuming DS is going to be the NMF and select USC as first choice, he will then receive the 1/2 tuition scholarship automatically at that point. In that case, what is the benefit of going to the Explore USC for the Presidential competition. </p>
<p>4beardolls, congratulations to your S on his good news! He/you are in a fairly common situation, where NMF kind of wipes out a competitive Presidential since the 2 cannot be stacked and he’s already assured of 1/2 tuition + $1K/year as NMF. Extra good news is–he has been notified of his admission to USC early to help with planning and give him time to consider all his options. However, in years past, several (no real number to look at, but on CC we’ve seen 4-7 Pres finalists bumped up to Trustee/year) finalists do have their awards bumped. Likewise, sadly, it is a competitive award and several are not selected for the level they are interviewing for. The potential for a bump up is hard to judge–but if USC is a serious contender, I think it’s smart to give it a shot. In addition, there is no better way to get a feel for the school, meet the head of the department, meet other students and see if it’s a good fit than attending one of the ExploreUSC sessions. Of course they are going to try to sell you on the school, but it’s so nice after the stress of application season, to have the shoe on the other foot. They are wooing you. </p>
<p>@madbean, I really appreciate your helpful comments (as always).
USC is high on DS list. We are just not sure if 1/2 tuition is enough since we are full pay (but not comfortably.)
As a result, he has applied for other colleges with merit scholarship.
If there is a small chance that he could get bumped up after the interview, then it would be worth the trip.
Do you know if Mork and Stamps notification would have came out with this packet? Or are they handled by a separate process? </p>
<p>4beardolls, I can really relate. I think coming for the interview has little downside (they will help with cost of travel) and a ton of upside. The chance for a bump, alone, is worth almost $100K, and while it may seem less significant in light of these huge figures, USC hands out a large number of smaller merit awards. My son (Trustee) was also given an additional $2500/year in a totally unexpected University Grant which came in April. My other son received letters after his admission packet arrived that he had been awarded TWO additional merit awards, totaling almost $10K/year. We know how lucky we have been, and I can’t promise each deserving student will get such acknowledgment of their talents (I wish they all could), but it is too early to tell what the final numbers will be. I always always suggest that everyone expect the least (and have affordable options to go to if necessary), but not rule out that there could be a better outcome down the road. Re: your q about Mork/Stamps, those are relatively new scholarships and in the past they have been awarded from the pool interviewing for Trustee. It is possible a Presidential candidate could be bumped up, I suppose, but we have no reports, nor would we be expected to here on CC where we see a small subset of all the applicants.</p>
<p>if someone who lives in the same apartment building as me got their acceptance packet and I haven’t yet, does that mean i’ve been rejected? i suck.</p>
No, it does not mean you have been rejected. There are NO rejections at this point. Only about 3% of the December 1st applicants have/will receive a packet at this stage. The rest will receive their decisions in late March. In March approximately 8,000+ applicants will receive good news.</p>
<p>If you do not receive a packet or have any status change yet, does this mean you are not being considered for scholarships? I’m a National Merit Semifinalist with USC as my #1 choice, so if I don’t get anything at this point does it mean I have been straight up rejected?</p>
<p>Sorry for the numerous questions, but how long will they be giving decisions back? I read somewhere that they would do so till early February…</p>
<p>Thank you for your application to the University of Southern California. I am writing to update you regarding our admission programs, including selection for many of our scholarship programs.</p>
<p>Scholarship Selection
More than 28,000 students applied for admission in time to be considered for merit scholarships. We have identified approximately 1,000 finalists who will proceed to the next phase of consideration for our top awards: the Mork Family, Stamps Leadership, Trustee, and Presidential scholarships. Edgar, I am sorry to say you were not selected for further consideration for these awards.
Your application will still be considered for other awards listed on our Scholarships page, and I encourage you to apply for financial aid if you have not already done so. Visit the Financial Aid website for application instructions. Also, if you are admitted, named a National Merit Finalist and select USC as your first-choice institution, you will receive a USC Presidential Scholarship worth one-half tuition.</p>
<p>Admission Selection
So far we have identified a small portion of the 9,000 first-year students to whom we will offer admission. There is plenty of room for great candidates.
We are working hard to ensure that you and all other applicants receive the utmost consideration during the coming weeks. I am grateful for your patience as you wait for us to finish this hard work.</p>
<p>Mid-Year Reports
If you or your school counselor has not already done so, please submit your final grades from the first term of your senior year. For your convenience, you can report them online at USConnect.</p>
<p>Decision Notification
We expect to finish our review and mail notification of our decision during the last week in March, so you have it by April 1. In the meantime, you can visit USConnect to check the status of your application.
Thank you for applying to USC. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us online or at (213) 740-1111.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Kirk Brennan
Associate Dean and Director
Undergraduate Admission</p>
<p>Is anybody else interpreting this email horribly? “So far we have identified a small portion of the 9,000 first-year students to whom we will offer admission. There is plenty of room for great candidates.”</p>
<p>So that means I missed TWO rounds of admission already?! Are these 9000 already granted admission, even though only people with scholarships were to be notified?! what do you think @yoskis</p>
<p>@joysundayo No, I don’t that that is what the email is saying. It is saying that they have only identified a small portion(~1000) of the 9000 students they will offer admission to…They have only admitted about 1000 of the 9000 people they will admit this year, there are 8000 spots remaining.</p>
<p>I will add that they have already read everyones application who submitted before the merit deadline and made the first evaluation. They are just waiting to read the rest of the applicants before they admit everyone else. Does that make sense? </p>
<p>oh okay phew. well as I said on another post, I know somebody going for theatre who didn’t get any merit scholarships at all and is still going for cheaper than their in-state school, SUNY Purchase, because of USC’s fin aid. </p>
<p>Only thing I’m upset about is people in my school who have already enrolled to other schools and yet were invited for a USC interview…</p>
@theducky, please see my posts at the top of page 10 and bottom of page 9 for NMSF/NMF information. Once again, there are NO rejections at this point. ALL applicants who have not yet heard back or who have received the "no scholarship letter " are being considered for admission.</p>
<p>USC sent out a message to everyone that did not receive any scholarships.
Dear __,</p>
<p>Thank you for your application to the University of Southern California. I am writing to update you regarding our admission programs, including selection for many of our scholarship programs.</p>
<p>Scholarship Selection
More than 28,000 students applied for admission in time to be considered for merit scholarships. We have identified approximately 1,000 finalists who will proceed to the next phase of consideration for our top awards: the Mork Family, Stamps Leadership, Trustee, and Presidential scholarships. Shin Young, I am sorry to say you were not selected for further consideration for these awards.
Your application will still be considered for other awards listed on our Scholarships page, and I encourage you to apply for financial aid if you have not already done so. Visit the Financial Aid website for application instructions. Also, if you are admitted, named a National Merit Finalist and select USC as your first-choice institution, you will receive a USC Presidential Scholarship worth one-half tuition.</p>
<p>Admission Selection
So far we have identified a small portion of the 9,000 first-year students to whom we will offer admission. There is plenty of room for great candidates.
We are working hard to ensure that you and all other applicants receive the utmost consideration during the coming weeks. I am grateful for your patience as you wait for us to finish this hard work.</p>
<p>Mid-Year Reports
If you or your school counselor has not already done so, please submit your final grades from the first term of your senior year. For your convenience, you can report them online at USConnect.</p>
<p>Decision Notification
We expect to finish our review and mail notification of our decision during the last week in March, so you have it by April 1. In the meantime, you can visit USConnect to check the status of your application.
Thank you for applying to USC. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us online or at (213) 740-1111.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Kirk Brennan
Associate Dean and Director
Undergraduate Admission</p>
<p>@joysundayo I agree, it’s terrible when students accept a spot at one school, and then never inform the other schools they’ve done so. It’s so unfair to the other students who would love to go to that school. In my daughter’s high school, too, several students got into one HYP school with EA and then continued to apply to the others. Since colleges don’t take unlimited numbers of students from one high school, it just seems selfish to me, even if they are technically able to continue applying. If they’re doing that after actually enrolling, or after an ED commitment, it seems unethical to me.</p>
<p>I’m taking comfort in your info about the girl who got better money than if she had gone to SUNY Purchase. That is indeed heartening. </p>
<p>Questions for anyone: Would the scholarships have been on top of financial aid? If they are not in the running for Mork, Stamps, Trustee and Presidential anymore, are there any of any value left if you’re not an alum or other special case?</p>
i suck.</p>