I heard that USC is one of the main colleges that gives scholarships based on being a national merit. What is required to get this scholarship, and how much is the scholarship usually for? Thanks!
You have to be named a NMF
You have to be ACCEPTED by USC
The award is for half tuition.
For a student with little or no “financial need” it is a nice award. For a student with need that exceeds the amount of half tuition, then it is probably almost meaningless since USC promises to meet need.
Will the student still receive financial aid on top of the half tuition then?
It’s the other way around.
Let’s say that after using FAFSA and CSS Profile, the school determines that the student’s family should pay $30k per year for USC, so that means the school will provide $35k of various aid (a mix merit/grant/work-study/loans)
$65k COA
$30k Family contribution
$35k of need
So, if the USC merit award for NMFs is $22k, then that is applied to “need” and now USC provides $13k of aid of a mix of loans, work-study and grants).
Thank you!
There are other colleges that provide major award for NSF, see the thread pinned to the top of the forum. You might need to check the end of the thread for most recent updates:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-an-updated-compilation-p1.html
Thank you, @BrownParent !