Help me with the math here, if only a little more than 50% get the award they are interviewing for and only 4% are bumped from Pres to Trustee, is he saying almost half of Pres get less or even nothing? Did he verify if some get zippo? Going back long before I was here, the regular posters said they hadn’t heard of anyone getting nothing but then again, who is gonna post they got nada I suppose?
Did your student like USC?
@sekere62 Besides merit we are full pay, so no idea, but I have heard rumblings on cc that they aren’t as good as other schools, but honestly, I have no idea.
@CADREAMIN, your guess is as good as mine about the fate of those who do not get their Presidential or Trustee award. Brennan said nothing else. I am guessing that some may receive the 25% instead of 50%. I think I recall another poster a while back writing that her daughter was offered $4,000 instead of the Trustee full tuition, so who knows. I suppose it is possible that some get nothing.
S loves USC. What’s not to love, right? University Village was incredible. It was a nice surprise half way during the orientation when they opened the curtain to the USC Marching Band playing the Fight song. Will have to see what the final offer is and still waiting to hear back from Stanford. S thought his interview went very well. Fortunately, he has other strong offers. It will all work out in the end.
@sekere62, agree that even though the Presidential Award is appreciated, $27,000 out of an estimated $72,000 annual price tag is still going to be out of reach for many families.
Good choices is a good problem to have, good luck! Did they play Fleetwood Mac Tusk? That is the biggie at these dog and pony shows as well as the Fight Song. USC is very proud of that one too. 
Yes, the Village is insane, such a game changer.
Yes, they always ding cc (I heard that too) but they don’t want to give out info - so I think they ding it cause they want to be secretive more than cc is wrong. A lot of the info repeated on here came from insiders, lol. Weird they would want the message out that they give out way less scholarships, that’s not good, particularly with higher app numbers, the percentage keeps shrinking as the numbers of scholarships aren’t going up!
Don’t worry non-scholarship folks, you get the band too at the welcome week and orientations. They always have the band!
In addition to the Fight Song, I recall the band playing Heart Breaker by Pat Benatar. Not sure about Fleetwood Mac. They were really strong though! Let’s just say my son drank the Trojan koolaid :-).
We just got home from Explore. I can confirm everything that @Nomorelurker reported. However, I was talking to an AO before the parent dinner. She said that all students would receive something. She didn’t specify if that would be Dean’s or a lesser amount.
My D had a great time! She can really see herself there. She had a good time with her host and the other prospective student she roomed with. She thought the interview went very well. There were three people but none were related to her major. All her questions were based on her EC’s. Her grades/test scores are good but not tippy top. But she is very involved and has lots of leadership positions. The interviewers were impressed with what she’s done at her school.
I LOVE the Village. I really hope she gets the presidential so she’ll have the opportunity to live there. Heck, I want to live there!
My daughter enjoyed USC emensly. She got a shirt there and keeps wearing it nearly everyday since coming home.
She would be content at USC. One uscexplore question was dicey…since kids who are nmf get presidential automatic, was hard for kids to imagine the situation if they do not get the presidential scholarship through interviews.
We are awaiting financial aid before any final decisions. DD is still in on one large national scholarship which has a myriad of hoops to jump thru. If it comes through or financial aid is generous enough, USC is a great fit for DD.
We were there with my son was at Explore March 1-2. He’s an NMF and they never addressed (and we never asked) what is the timing relative to the interview results. In other words, do they make decisions based on the interview (he interviewed for Presidential) without regards to the NMF? …or do they, even if he bombed the interview (which I don’t think he did BTW 8-), see that he’s NMF and give him the Pres scholarship anyway? …or would they say "here’s a parting gift for trying give him $4k/yr and then come back later and replace it with Pres based on NMF? 8-\ See what I mean? (psst - only reason we interviewed of course it possibility of bump to Trustee! 
Good luck to everyone!
@kevbostic, not an expert on NMF but yes, I believe if your son selects USC as his #1 choice by May 1st, he will automatically get half off tuition as NMF, but if he did really well, he could be in the 4%, as you suggested, to get bumped up.
In terms of timing, others have posted that the scholarship results from ExploreUSC interviews will be made available on the day regular decisions are mailed. The last two years, that date was reportedly March 23, but in some prior year, it was apparently made known a week prior to the day the regular decisions were mailed or made known. So how did your son like USC? Are you in state or out of state? Good luck!
FYI a lot of NMF Presidential Scholars at USC also will receive a University Scholarship of about $4,000 a year, even if they were not invited to the Presidential/Trustee Scholarship Weekend.
Wait @vistajay how did you hear this? You are saying NMF could get the 1/2 tuition PLUS another 4K? That would be huge for my S18.
@Booajo , my D15 is at USC and received it. It is not automatic but not uncommon either. It showed up in her FA portal, after her initial award. Let me check the timing for you.
@Booajo , my D15’s timeline was she was accepted 3/27, then received a FA award letter in her portal on 4/1 which listed a University Scholarship of $3750 per year. She listed USC #1 with NM on 4/1, and about three weeks later her portal was updated to include the half tuition Presidential plus $1,000 NM award and she also still had the University Scholarship.
@booajo can confirm what @vistajay is saying. My (NMF) S got admitted with the end-of-March lot and got a University Scholarship $3750. When he declared USC #1 and got his NMF presidential, it dropped to $2k + $1k official NMF sponsorship + Presidential (1/2 tuition). Unfortunately, when he got the NMF $2.5K (one of the 2500 kids to get one directly from NMF), the $1k dropped off and I assume it will stay off for the next three years. Maybe TMI, but the point is that my S got some unexpected extra “University Scholarship” $, which was very nice!
@vistajay and @CaveMom Thank you so much for sharing the timeline. We were wondering whether the 2500 NMF money and USC 1/2 tuition compete with each other. I guess 1/2 tuition is not the official USC sponsorship money.
@PatiencePls happy to help! You got it–there will be an “official NMF sponsorship” either by NMC (2500 for the first year only) or by USC (1k per year for 4 years). By the way, if you are offered the 2500, you have to accept it (even though you will end up with slightly less in official NMF scholarship money over 4 years at USC and possibly less of the university scholarship as well)! The presidential 1/2 tuition is then stacked onto the official sponsorship as is any extra “university scholarship” money. I think there are different rules for the NMC 2500 versus the NMF 1k/year in the way that they treat the university scholarships, but you should be able to keep at least some of it no matter what. (Basically, you just wait for the FA portal to update to find out.)
@PatiencePls and @CaveMom and others - so your S or D’s weren’t offered the Feb. interview for Presidential Scholarship and then were accepted at end of March? We were very disappointed that our S did not get offered to interview for the Presidential scholarship mostly because those kids of course now know they were accepted, and we are still unfortunately stressed waiting. He is a NMF, and USC is his #1 choice… and we know if accepted will get the 1/2 tuition scholarship. With 66K applicants though…
@cm19992000 that’s right. My S17 didn’t find out anything in Feb., but got the end-of-March acceptance box. So, with his NMF status, he is now a happy presidential scholar freshman. Sometimes the good news just takes a little longer!
@cm19992000 We are in the same boat. My son wasn’t invited for the scholarship interviewing in January. We are waiting for the March round. I think I am more anxious than he is.