If you have been accepted to USC Class of 2021 and are NMF, it would be great if you could post if/when you receive your NMF Presidential Scholarship notification. It’s not clear to me how or when they notify and it would be really helpful to know when those scholarships begin to be awarded (for RD folks). Just NMF Presidential, not the one you have to interview for. Thanks!
@mickey2017, my 2 Ds are at USC and NMF with the scholarship. I recall being concerned that it wouldn’t come through and called a few times about it. No worries, it all worked like a charm and still does. In fact, one of my Ds is going to Oxford this summer and her scholarship also covers 1/2 of that tuition. Just make sure USC is designated as your first choice so you also get the add’l scholarship (assuming USC still does that).
Thank you @3tallblonds for the info. Could you explain the additional scholarship? I didn’t know there might be something else coming which would be awesome! I was going to wait until early or mid April to email USC about the scholarship if we hadn’t received any notification. USC is listed as #1 with NMSC and has been since the Fall–does that suggest we would get the scholarship offer before May 1?
Hmmm, I don’t see the add’l NMF listed on the USC website anymore, but one of my Ds received the add’l scholarship from USC which was something like an add’l $1k/year and the other received the NMF $2500 one time scholarship. I would call USC and simply ask. Did you apply for the NMF $2500 one time scholarship as well?
When do you find out how much financial aid you qualified for?
@ Santeeee Just NMF Scholarship here if we could–maybe you could start a financial aid thread? @3tallblonds OK I’m an idiot, I have no idea if we applied for the NMF $2500–I’m guessing it’s an NMF generated award but is it something different that needed to be filled out in addition to the NM application?
You aren’t an idiot - we always were confused about the scholarships too. Ok, I looked it up. When you applied for finalist, you also applied for the NFM scholarship. So now you just wait.
But I would still ask USC if they offer the College-sponsored
Merit Scholarships in addition to the 1/2 tuition:
Awards are renewable
for 4 years of
study at the sponsor
institution. Stipends
range from $500 to
$2,000 per year.
Hopefully you will get one of the two in addition to the 1/2 tuition award.
@Santeeeee Financial aid office tweeted that financial aid offers will be available beginning March 28 (tomorrow).
My D is a soph at USC and she received the 1/2 tuition NMF Presidential, then $1,000 a year NMF award (which she did not have to apply for), then another $3750 per year University Scholarship (again not applied for and solely merit based). So there is a bit more money at USC for NMFs besides the 1/2 tuition. Can’t remember when it first showed up but I remember it was confirmed after USC received official word from National Merit Corp that my D had designated USC as #1.
S got his 1/2 scholarship award this morning on the portal. Click on Admission Decision and it was in the messages box very clearly labelled for what it was. For reference, he put USC down with NMF long ago so his name was in the first batch sent to USC.
Does anyone know if NMF stacks on top of need-based aid?
This is what our letter said: “If you have applied for financial aid and establish eligibility beyond the value of this scholarship, you will receive additional funds from university and government sources. Information about combining your scholarship with financial aid, other USC scholarships and non-USC funds can be found in the Scholarship Guide (admission.usc.edu/scholarshipguide)”. That sounds to me like financial aid does not stack but you may receive aid beyond the scholarship if your situation warrants it. But what do I know…
@mickey2017 Thank you!
I was just wondering because I also received my need-based financial aid report today, and it didn’t mention the Presidential scholarship in the aid summary. Not sure if that falls under the “University Grant” or would be denoted as otherwise.
@mintchipmagic Did it appear under the financial aid section on the portal? And without the Presidential noted? Yikes, not sure what to think (ours is not updated yet.) I would like to see it all laid out, NMF Presidential, add on for NMF (1k/year) alongside any other grants or loans. Otherwise how do we know they won’t adjust once all combined? Argh.
I think based on the language in the letter we got for the scholarship that they do adjust. Meaning if your financial need is $28K and you receive the 1/2 scholarship of $26K, your financial aid will be $2,000. PLEASE NOTE I may be very wrong about that, it’s just how I read it. We did not apply for financial aid so I am not looking at anything other than the scholarship letter. Also, the scholarship notification will come based on when USC gets your childs name from NMF. As I said above, my S was in the first batch because USC was listed with NMF way back before March 1 when the first group of names are transmitted. I don’t know if it will appear on your financial aid reports or not–would be nice if it was all in one place.
@CalDreamin My financial aid summary appeared under the financial aid section of the portal. NMF Presidential notification was under “Admission Decision,” on the other hand.
In the financial aid summary, under “Gift Aid,” I had the subcategories of Estimated Federal Pell Grant and University Grant. No mention of Presidential scholarship, which is why I’m wondering if that comes later.
I did some research, and on the Scholarship Guide page (http://admission.usc.edu/firstyear/admittedfall/scholarshipguide.html), it said that “Depending on when you applied for financial aid, your USC Merit Scholarships may or may not be reflected in your summary.” I applied for aid way back in December, so I’m thinking it could be that they did my need-based aid before NMF results came out.
And I feel you. I wonder how Presidential will affect my financial need–hopefully that will update soon, or maybe I’ll call somebody.
(If yours gets updated later, or if there are any changes in mine, we could compare notes?)
@mickey2017 That makes sense! Thanks for the input. 
@3tallblonds Do you happen to remember how the NMF presidential scholarship was denoted on your daughters’ financial aid summaries? Was it included under “university grant” or listed separately under Gift Aid?
When you literally get 0 financial aid for USC.
Update: my financial aid summary was changed to reflect the scholarship. It reduced my university grant, but just in case anyone in the future needs to know, scholarships are denoted separately from university grants.