I’m not sure if anyone can answer this, but the headmaster of my school helped me get my application in with a member of the Board of Trustees (he’s looking for African American students). Do you think that will help my chances of a Trustee Scholarship (if at all my admission)?
@sunnyschool same for me. If you’re worried though, you can check on the FERPA section on Common app, it shows the status of your recs and whether or not USC “Downloaded” them
DS had recs attached to his QB/CA app, and separate recs for his SCA supplement. None show in the portal.
So I am assuming that this white box with the merit scholarships packet also serves as the “acceptance letter”? And how many people (percent or number) normally get notified from this early release?
About 40,000 students apply in time to be considered for USC merit scholarships. Around January 23ish they will offer admission to approximately 1,200 students who will proceed to the next phase of consideration for the top awards: the Mork Family (10), Stamps (5), Trustee (100), and Presidential (200) scholarships.
MERIT v FINANCIAL AID AWARDS - Just to be clear, Nearly all of the merit recipients (which is mostly interview invitations, with some Deans (1/4) being outright scholarship with no interview) will be at end of this month. (Some smaller departmental will be given in March and some Deans MAY be given in March. If and number of Dean’s in March depends on how things play out for them in main scholarship round.)
Financial Aid does not come out till around April 1st, usually within a week or so of regular decisions. Financial Aid is not with your acceptance package in January or March, so some will be very excited to get in then have the big downer when they find they can’t attend because they don’t get the aid they thought they would.
So even if you are accepted with merit in January, and you interview for let’s say, the Presidential, you will not know until mid/end March IF you get that scholarship (yay), and you will not know until April what your FA award is (if you applied for FA). So this process is complex, and final answers about merit $$ vs FA won’t come through until then.
Hang on folks, it is a long ride for most.
I really appreciated your answer! That definitely helps me to understand the process a lot better! Thanks!
Best of luck to you - try to keep busy, this site will make you crazy! It’s great and maddening at the same time. Pace yourself with all your results. What will be will be!
Thanks for correcting that! @CADREAMIN
So true. I remind my son (and myself!) often that Jan-March is exciting, but April is what were waiting for.
@romns116 You’re welcome - good luck to your son (and you)! Went through this 4 times (I color my hair to cover the evidence of that) with all admitted, and three that attended USC (two recent grads and one still there). The majors include four different schools within USC, so been through a lot of variation there. It can be an exciting and fun time, but also a crazy and exhausting process.
This most likely doesn’t apply to anyone but just in case there are any applicants that qualify for Tuition Exchange if you get acceptance notification at the end of January you should receive your Tuition Exchange acceptance about a week after.
If you don’t get notified of any Merit Aid on or around Jan 23rd, does that mean you definitely won’t be accepted or just that you didn’t get any Merit Aid?
just not get Merit Aid.
My daughter got in a few years ago and got no kind of merit aid letter (and therefore no merit aid).
Only about 1200 will get merit notification in a couple weeks. This also means they are accepted. The rest (and large majority) will get their acceptances about the third week of March.
Is it you either get the scholarship and get in, or you get to interview for the scholarship and also get accepted?
Questions about USC’s merit acceptance process? What the January decisions mean and do not mean, etc.? The what, when and how…? There’s a complete recap of all the Info you need listed here via @CADREAMIN …
Does anyone know if you have to have applied before December 1 for merit scholarship? I applied on December 1 and have received no email regarding an admissions status account.
I’m joining this thread although I’m kind of hoping my D does not get accepted at USC, that would make things a lot easier. Question, do we have to submit the CSS Profile before a certain date? My DH does not want to submit that, only if D gets accepted. Because D will only get to attend USC if accepted, if given merit/scholarship money.
@CADREAMIN Do you know how much being a SCion helps with admissions, and if being a SCion is a yes/no type thing, or if the more family connections you have the better? For example is it just as helpful to have one grandparent who graduated vs. a sibling currently attending and both parents are alums? In other words, are there degrees of SCion-ness, or simply either you are or are not one.Thank you!
If you get a notification for merit aid at the end of january, does that mean you got accepted into your first choice major? Or is it possible that they accepted you for your second choice but still offered an interview/scholarship? Thanks