@DrGoogle It does not.
@layrasparks, not picking on you, I got the information from your posts. So many kids are disappointed because they think getting into USC with merit/aid is easy with misunderstood comments like “meets full need,” NMF guaranteed 1/2 tuition (they have to get admitted first) or the rare cases of students with lower scores that get scholarships. The kids with close to perfect scores that get most of the big prizes don’t tend to be the ones that post about their scholarships. Not sure how an interviewer can get to know a student without knowing where they are from and their background? It is good to dream and try, but it is also good to keep it real and set proper expectations. It’s great that you did so well, but some that won’t get news like that aren’t as resilient to the outcome that could be ahead for them. USC is getting as challenging as getting into the elite schools cause of the sheer numbers applying.
@LayraSparks: I remember you (you’re one of the happy stories :p) and that’s why I pointed out, obliquetely, that you weren’t an ORM with 1980. - You were an exceptional international applicant who could have chosen an Ivy.
OP is not in that situation and would be very disappointed if he thought “wow that could be me!”
USC shouldn’t be on his radar if he needs the full tuition scholarship to attend, it’d be a waste of his time. There are, however, excellent universities in Southern California that OP has a shot at.
@layrasparks, it sounds like you are quite a student, and USC is quite a school, nobody disputes that. But I don’t think it serves USC to promote the notion that it is generous with merit scholarships. It isn’t; they are exceedingly rare, and if students apply thinking that a high-but-not-stellar application will get them merit money, they will be very disappointed on “yellow envelope” day. Then these boards fill up with angry and disgruntled comments targeted at USC. Better to just be honest and transparent about the financial opportunities available at a college.
Agree, my kid SAT is higher than 2300, she is in the 2300+ category with top 1% GPA or 4.0 UW with 10 APs, female applying to engineering and she only received $5k per year.
@DrGoogle it would be interesting to know why do you think this happened? My DD with similar start is applying this year.
Perhaps because they know we can afford it. I don’t really know the reason.
USC offers their top merit scholarships to attract the most extraordinary and talented students in each major/field. Think about it from the university’s point of view and you’ll discover that merit awards are not simply a nice generous gift but a way to draw the strongest (by the school’s assessment) students to matriculate. While there is more to this determination than simply stats, and while some majors require accomplishments not charted on SATs, and while many with equally outstanding accomplishments/grades/scores do not get selected in a particular year (many more highly qualified than scholarships), it doesn’t serve the readers of CC to be in any way misled what it generally takes to be invited to interview for Trustee and Presidential scholarships.
I’ve been around this forum for quite some time and I will offer my observation that sometimes the parents who post have a more objective view, year in-year out, of who tends to get these awards than any one particular student. Many young adults have been taught to be modest about their strengths and grateful–a good thing! But not many 17-20 year olds have the perspective to recognize what about their character or drive is considered extraordinary by the seasoned adults in Adcoms, nor the personality to proclaim it publicly.
Point is–one can look at the typical merit award winner from recent prior years and get a general idea of the quantifiable traits that are often (but not always) recognized by USC. In addition, one can recognize what about them is truly remarkable–from the standpoint of the major they are hoping to pursue. In that case, make sure all essays are geared to revealing that exceptional background or quality. And good luck to all!
“USC offers their top merit scholarships to attract the most extraordinary and talented students in
each major/field… In addition, one can recognize what about them is truly remarkable–from the standpoint of the major they are hoping to pursue”
Those sentences are REALLY important to understand- especially the part "In each major/field. "
The Full tuition scholarships are divided up among the different colleges- Engineering , Letters and Science, Cinematic Arts, Music, etc, etc. Those colleges have a say, via the interview process required to win the top scholarships, of who will win one based on who they REALLY want to come to USC. There are thousands of students who apply to the school of engineering, or to arts and science college as Neuro-biology majors, but that does not mean a larger % of scholarships will go to engineering or A &S majors.
And they can be wrong too. Two trustee friends of one kid didn’t turn out as exceptional as they were on papers.
@DrGoogle, this is really a problem inherent in college applications: how the student looks on paper vs how the student really is. It is a problem that plagues lower income applicants who do not have access to the same “packaging” resources as others. There is nothing a college can do about this, but I do think that experienced application readers/admissions officers are good at cutting through a lot of the BS.
re#49
My DS agrees with you.
post #50, the two students are low income but Caucasian students. One almost lost the scholarship, I think USC now reduces the GPA to 2.0 instead of 3.0 so there is no chance of that, at least last time I checked. So it’s almost like financial aid except you don’t have to reapply every year.
But it’s not just USC, one student got accepted with scholarship to UCLA as well. The other student I can see why he was picked but he didn’t follow through the major choice that he had chosen, which was pretty prestigious.