Also, while there can be delay in notifications (USC is not known as notification wizards) the Saturday or Sunday is likely the “no scholarship for you, but still in consideration and will hear in March” portal update/email that they send to the 40,000+ that applied by December 1st that don’t get a scholarship invite. Remember invites are a teeny tiny number compared to the applicant pool.
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If we don’t get interview for scholarship, we won’t hear until April? Is there a possibility that we will know this week if rejected? Do they send letters saying not accepted? Or is that a wait til April thing too? Thanks for helping me understand…first time college mom here! Lol
If you don’t get a scholarship offer, it just means that you have to wait until the official decision date. No one gets rejected at this time! I’m not sure about rejection letters, but if there are, they would not be sent until the official decision date.
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Do you guys think that midyear transcripts could help our chance for the scholarships this year?
If they got them early enough and they provide relevant/helpful information. (i.e. your grades are soaring this year after a trend), then sure.
Anything they receive can theoretically help your chances.
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Does anyone know what the criteria they use to determine who gets an interview for a scholarship?
USC Kaufman released their interview decisions on Monday… they released the No’s first and then sent the Yes responses about an hour after. Not sure if it will be the same order for tomorrow, but that is what they did earlier this week.
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its holistic! Lots of kids with perfect stats, but from my understanding the scholarship kids are those who stand out have great ECS volunteer, and have some type of component of the application that is unique. Also the USC supps are really important and they want to see how much you are devoted to USC.
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Ok thanks for the info! My sons EC’s are decent, but not a ton of volunteering. He applied for the Animation program and had to submit a portfolio so I’m hoping that might be something that stands out for him. 
Most kids applying to USC have the stats and frankly, they also have ECs to be considered for a scholarship. (Most kids aren’t sitting around these days!) Not to scare anyone off, but the best example I can think of is a guy that got the Trustee’s a few years ago, he applied for astronautical engineering, had a passion for anything flying, which showed not only his essays and goals, but he told of building model airplanes as a kid, starting some kind of aeronautical group at school, then got his pilots license at 16. Not that everyone is expected to soar to such lofty (or pricey) goals, but it’s easy to see the theme, committment and passion in that example and how they fit so well in his planned major.
Point is, virutally everyone is bringing great stats and ECs to the table at a school like USC, they just are. State finalist at speech and debate, hospital volunteer, captain of a sports team - those are great but there’s a lot of those…so something different has to stand out.
Then again, there’s those demographics - well out of anyone’s control that come into play, USC has to be diverse in every aspect of their selection. That is why the school is so awesome - everyone is there! But if one takes 100 Trustee scholarships then divides them roughly in half for just each gender (speaking in generalities here), it cuts those 100 to 50 from the get go. Frankly, same with acceptances. It’s a numbers game, not a true reflection on the quality of an applicant.
Don’t let anyone or anything tell you, or make you think, that you are not awesome. You control that!
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do they allocate a certain number of scholarships for each of the departments? I applied to a smaller department(keck school of medicine). Does that mean that I have less of a shot for a scholarship than someone that applied to dornsife or does your major/school you applied for not matter?
no idea if this will be true for this year, but usually UC Berkeley and USC come out on the same day, and Berkeley said late afternoon/early evening of March 25th, 2021
It is per school. The smaller the school the fewer the candidates nominated for merit scholarship. My daughter was lucky enough to receive one from SCA. It was a very small group interviewing her year.
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@DTXNNN @ventri is right, to my knowledge they are allocated by school, but the smaller schools generally receive/admit fewer applicants so my guess is that the amount of nominees is probably proportional for each school
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Apparently if a student receives an acceptance tomorrow it will be for only their first-choice major. Does anyone know if this is true? I thought the admissions office pretty much got the ability to choose which major the student gets if they choose two (if they aren’t talent-based)
Nevermind, found the answer rather quickly on a USC Admissions Blog
“Students will be notified by the end of this month re: scholarship decisions. If they are moving forward in the process, they will be invited to campus to interview. They will also receive a letter of admission that states which major they have been admitted to.”
Source
Almost freaked myself out for a second.
If admitted tomorrow, is it possible to decide to switch a major at one point? I am still kind of undecided about what I want to study but I applied for one of the dornsife majors that i felt fit me, however if I go to campus and find a different program is it possible to switch?
USC seems pretty nice about students switching. I think it’s a school by school thing but some say it’s just signing a paper and others require pre-requisites.
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One of mine changed majors 5 times among different schools. Five times. lol.
Within same school easy peezy. If trying to go from Dornsife to Viterbi or Marshall, still doable, just have some steps to take to do that. (courses etc) Advisor will advise.
@eligrayy is on it. 
They make it pretty simple to help you ensure that you are getting the degree you want. It’s a very big perk of picking a private like this over some other options.
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Did everyone else get requests for mid year grades in their portal? I never did, so was I supposed to submit them some other way?