USC Merit Aid Chance Evaluation

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
1

I’ll try to keep my situational sob story short: my parents make a lot of money, but have absolutely no interest in helping me pay for college, which puts a major strain on my ambitions of attending a competitive and expensive school like USC. This circumstance has made me really strive to make myself as competitive an applicant as possible in the hopes that I might receive some merit aid should I be accepted. Below is my resume in a nutshell; please use it to give me a realistic idea of whether or not I have any shot of receiving any substantial merit aid when I apply during my upcoming senior year of high school:

STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES/GPA
-GPA: 4.00 unweighted; 4.59 weighted (as of the end of my junior year)
-Class Rank: 1 out of 392 unweighted; 3 out of 392 weighted (as of the end of my junior year)
-ACT Composite: 35 (English=36, Math=32, Reading=36, Science=36, Writing=9)
-SAT Subject Tests: 770 in literature; 720 in Physics (plan to retake Literature as well as try Spanish and Biology in the future)
-PSAT: 216 (I live in Kansas, and this score has never not been high enough to make National Merit Semifinalist status {knock on wood})
-AP’s: AP European History=3; took 5 my junior year and am waiting on my scores; taking 7 my senior year

EXTRACURRICULARS
-Cross Country: 9, 10, 11, 12?
-Swimming: 9
-Track: 9, 10, 11, 12 {varsity}
-Debate: 10, 11, 12 {varsity}
-Book Club: 11, 12
-Student Council: 11, 12
-Tiger Mentor (council a group of underclassmen on high school life for about 1 hour per week): 11, 12
-Science Outreach (go to grade schools and do science experiments to get kids interested in science): 11, 12

LEADERSHIP
-elected Junior Class Secretary
-elected Executive Student Body Secretary
-elected Secretary of my high school’s chapter of the National Honor Society
-regional leadership conference attendee
-Herff Jones leadership seminar attendee
-selected to attend week long Emporia State leadership camp this summer
-chosen to represent my high school by serving on the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Board, a committee that meets every semester to discuss how the school district can best adapt to meet the needs of its students

COMMUNITY SERVICE
-volunteer weekly during the fall and winter as a youth group leader at my church (10, 11, 12?)
-involved in Gift of Life Rally (an organ donation education group; 11, 12)
-a myriad of other things through my involvement in student council

HONOR SOCIETIES/AWARDS
-principals honor role every semester
-National Honor Society
-National Spanish Honor Society
-National Science Honor Society
-National History Honor Society
-Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society)
-National Forensics League (Debate Honor Society)
-Ayn Rand Anthem Essay Contest Semifinalist
-NCTE Award for Superior Writing Performance
-1st Place Winner of the District Poetry Contest

  • Published Author of Poetry (in a national anthology of high schoolers’ work; less than 2% of entries were accepted for publication)
2

The truth is, no one can tell anyone if they will get in, yet get merit money. There are kids with scores like yours that have done well - got in and with some merit, and others with those scores that haven’t even been accepted. Yes, that is true. There could be someone just like you from a larger more competitive school, or that wrote a killer/better essay, or that was part of a certain EC for 10 years, and any one of those advantages over you could knock you out. It is competitive and it is holistic, meaning all you can do is try, hope for the best, but never count on a dream school and never ever count on a large merit prize. Not trying to be discouraging at all, you look good on paper, but so do a zillion other kids nowadays, depends on what they need or want that year or when your application passes the desk. So do all you can and apply broadly - a couple reaches, couple safeties. Research will tell you what schools would be financial safeties for you (where larger scholarships are most likely). At USC that is too hard to call by any outsider, particularly when interviews are involved.

Also remember full tuition is tuition, there is still room and board and other expenses associated with going to college. Certainly your parents are going to step up to some of it - hope so. Substantial merit aid from any school is achieved by being at the tippy tippy top of the students applying not just with grades but with extraordinary ECs or circumstances. I frequently reference the student applying with super scores to aerospace engineering who was already a pilot as an example of this.

This is a great thread here by @madbean:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/1597366-tips-insights-observations-and-scoop-on-uscs-top-merit-scholarships-p1.html

Good luck!

3

CADREAMIN-

Thank you so much for the honest response and the great link! Both were very informative and helpful.

4

You have some amazing scores and should do very well, all of us experienced folks just hate to see kids heartbroken come next spring because they put too much hope into that one dream school. You will have great choices, and hopefully USC is one of them! Wish you well!

5

Make sure you apply early for the merit scholarships. With your profile you have a VERY GOOD chance at the trustee scholarship which will cover the entire cost of your tuition.

6

Thanks for the kind words xMaSTeRx.

7

You really need to bring up your writing score. The 9 is much lower than all you other scores. Wouldn’t bother with retesting your scores in the 709s, but would believe a 9 for writing would be noticed. Get some tutoring and work on that.

8

I HOPE you can get into USC with a merit $ scholarship, BUT since you need help in paying for college you need to cast a wide net, and you cant afford to fall in love with any one college. Instead you need to look beyond USC and find colleges that GUARANTEE full rides or full tuition scholarships. the following is a lost of colleges that will pay you to go to college. Many of these colleges will offer the same scholarships to students with very hi ACT scores, such as yours
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/

9

HI,
You have really good numbers, and it helps that you’re OOS. You probably would be considered for scholarships. BUT, DO NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH SC until you know you’ve been accepted and have a financial package that works. I’m an SC alum and love SC, but they are notorious ( you can read many posts on CC) for breaking hearts by giving relatively low need based aid, especially if you say your parents have a high income.
You will have a good shot at many many schools that offer full tuition. Look at colleges in the top 20-70 in USNews. Head to their scholarship web pages first and you will learn a lot.
Give SC a shot, but give yourself 5 or 6 other options that will give you merit money. Good luck

10

Getting good advice here, and just for reality check, I know a student with pretty much identical scores except for 34 ACT, 12 APs (with 4s and 5s) and tons of ECs with solid leadership, NMS, that wasn’t even accepted — and I would guess that some of these other experienced USC alum/posters know similar stories which is why they are telling you to cast a wide net. Didn’t get into USC but got into an Ivy, plus other pretty much full offers elsewhere, go figure. Others with lower scores/stats get in, USC likes diversity in many senses of the word, and is more unpredictable than some. Good thoughts for you, let us know how it all works out.

11

Just an update to help others gauge themselves in the future:

Since this post, I’ve taken an additional 7 AP classes in my senior year, scored a 2320 on the SAT, been named a National Merit Semifinalist, and done a couple of other things of that nature. I’m now happy to report that I have been admitted to USC and named a finalist for the Trustee Scholarship, the Mork Family Scholarship, and the Stamps Leadership Scholarship (all of which cover at least full tuition). Fingers crossed the interview goes well and I receive one of those!

12

@abcninja And then there are people with even better stats and more APs that won’t get in. There are many factors at play in admissions that are driven demographically and holistically. I have had two attend USC but have seen kids not get in but be accepted to MIT and Harvard. USC has changed its student body goals dramatically over the last couple years. There is no forumla to gauge yourself by, it is what they want for their profile that given year, many many kids applying have fab stats. I fear setting a preconceived standard when there is so much missing from that picture (ECs, race, essays, where from, recommendations, etc) leads people to false expectations. Better to do you best, apply and hope for the best, but don’t count on it simply with stats, those are routine these days.

13

@blueskies2day very true. I just figured the more information available out here, the better others might be able to get a general idea of the whole scenario.

14

Congratulations @abcninja! It’s great to see you go through this process with a success.

15

CONGRATS!
Just be SURE you review what you wrote on your USC essay, as they often ask questions about that in the interview.

16

Final update: Just got my letter in the mail today, and I’m officially a Trustee (full-tuition) scholarship recipient!!! Hard work really can pay off kids.

17

MEGGA CONGRATS!

18

That’s so cool! Congrats, you’re living the dream fam.

19

CONGRATS!!!

20

That is great news, congrats, I am sure you worked very hard for this! Just curious, did you not log on to your you.use account last week? It was posted last Friday. Did you wait all this extra time before knowing? That’s a long few days when waiting for news like this :slight_smile: