<p>My daughter will be a USC senior and receives a relatively small ($5500/yr.) merit scholarship from the university. She is a straight A student, just elected to Phi Beta Kappa and also a Renaissance Scholar.</p>
<p>Her scholarship still hasn't posted and she phoned FA today. She was told the scholarships would be posted by the end of <em>August</em> -- after school starts and after tuition is due! -- and Financial Aid could not commit to her that her scholarship would be maintained at the same level. In fact, she was told to take out a student loan including the amount of the scholarship, "just in case." I really don't want to do that and be responsible for the interest, even if we can return it a couple weeks later.</p>
<p>I got on the phone and politely expressed my displeasure. We comply with all of USC's due dates. We have already had our need-based university grant reduced by $4000 despite no change in income, due to an "across-the-board" reduction of $3000 they supposedly applied to all students, and a $1000 reduction because she is a senior who is supposed to be able to be responsible for more of this year's costs.</p>
<p>This merit scholarship should be a "slam dunk" for renewal. I completely don't understand.</p>
<p>The grant reduction was difficult but we have been able to work it out, cutting down expenses with a different meal plan, etc. But if they take away a scholarship she has earned for no reason other than the bad economy (which is affecting our family, not just the school), it would be devastating.</p>
<p>Is anyone else having difficulty with a merit-based scholarship being posted?</p>
<p>PBK, how discouraging! I hope others, if in the same situation, will post too. Was this the Dean’s Scholarship? </p>
<p>FWIW, my S, a returning Soph, had his merit scholarship (Trustee) posted quite awhile ago–maybe a month? For which, we are terribly grateful. Until your post, there hasn’t been mention of merit $$ changing for those in good standing.</p>
<p>Off-topic a bit, but big congratulations to your daughter on phi beta kappa and Renaissance scholar. Wow. She is certainly one of USC’s shining stars and I hope there is no more downsizing of grants to your family.</p>
<p>Thanks for your kind words, MadBean. We are very proud of her hard work – and of course, in a way it makes this all the more frustrating, because she/we shouldn’t need to be worrying about this!</p>
<p>It used to be called just University Merit Scholarship and then a year or two ago was renamed the Eugenia Clair Smith Scholarship.</p>
<p>She also has a Town & Gown Merit Scholarship which posted weeks ago with no problem! (Whew!)</p>
<p>I am really leaning toward paying everything but the amount of the scholarship and if USC can’t decide by the first week of school, it should be their issue, not ours…why should we have to pay a late fee or loan interest because they couldn’t get their act together? I am trying to be optimistic that they will renew it at the same amount but the fact that they haven’t yet, and can’t commit to doing so soon, is real cause for concern.</p>
<p>I also would love to know if anyone is in the same boat.</p>
<p>I’m so disappointed to hear about this situation - your D sounds like the kind of student USC should be supporting in every way possible! </p>
<p>Interesting that the University Scholarship turned into a named scholarship and then things got slippery. I know of several rising sophomores (including my son) who recently received notice that the funding source for their University scholarship was changing, so they would be seeing a different name on the statements. I hope your D’s experience doesn’t reveal a slippery slope for declining University awards.</p>
<p>Within the last couple of weeks someone posted here about getting a waiver so that you don’t have to pay the late fee when you’re expecting scholarship money to arrive at some later day. It seems absurd to have to do that if the money is coming from within USC, but you might look into it if you want to avoid a fight. Good luck to you!</p>
<p>PBKmom, do you by any chance still have the original award letter? Maybe you could try FAXing it with a cover letter reminding them that it is a four year scholarship, that all requirements were met, and you would like to know when it will be posted.</p>
<p>Like FauxNom’s son, my D’s University Scholarship turned into a named scholarship this year. I am going to file the letters about it carefully so in case it doesn’t post as scheduled next year I have something to FAX to plead my case.</p>
<p>I have all the paperwork of that nature since she was accepted; the interesting thing is I’m not sure there was ever a formal award letter for this scholarship. It simply appeared on her financial aid package. (Maybe because it was smaller than the Dean’s, etc.?) I believe back at the time it was awarded the conditions (for maintaining a GPA) were spelled out on the university website. I’m going to go through our files tonight and review what we may have. Thanks much –</p>
<p>My son’s international scholarship just got posted recently (last week). We were worried about it also. Last year his scholarships were on Oasis but not on his statement but they didn’t charge us late fees because it was their fault that there was a glitch in their system.
Hope you get things worked out. I think all of us moms here who rely on these fundings know how you feel. Do let us know.</p>
<p>Thanks for your note, BMom. I decided to go to the top and copied my FinAid letter to President Sample’s office. Later in the day I received a note from FinAid in response to them having heard from President Sample’s office, telling me that the scholarship would fund by tomorrow and in the same amount as last year. HUGE relief. It’s a shame it took doing that to have adequate service, but on the other hand I was pleased that contacting the university president did resolve our situation satisfactorily in a matter of hours. We finally felt “heard.”</p>
<p>This is the ONLY problem we have had starting her fourth year at USC. A couple years ago they had cut our daughter’s work study but we were able to work that out promptly and have it reinstated. This year the lack of responsiveness and them not processing something that should be a “slam dunk” was really strange, especially as they wanted us to financially cover them running behind schedule!</p>