Does USC give NMF scholarship to all students accepted?
Yes, they will get the 1/2 tuition Presidential scholarship, provided they are a) admitted, b) are NMF, and c) name USC as their first choice by the required deadline. I was told this directly by several admissions officers. The school will also give admitted NMFs $1K/year as a NM Scholarship (making them National Merit Scholars), provided they did not receive a NM scholarships from a corporation or directly from NMSC. As a recipient of a Presidential scholarship, the student is also eligible to live in the McCarthy Residential Honors college in the new USC Village. My D is a Freshman student on a NM Presidential scholarship, and loves the school.
Okay thank you!
Will NMF be considered for Trustee scholarships also?
NMF who apply by Dec 1 and are accepted in first round may be considered for Trustee. A HS classmate of DD is attending USC as Trustee and was a NMF.
Students don’t have their NMF status by the time the scholarships/interviews are given out at end of January. An applicant could have the chance to interview for a Presidential (also 1/2 like NMF) and the result of that interview could get them bumped up to Trustee (or bumped down), then later find out they are an NMF. Or applicant may not be given a Presidential scholarship/interview or any scholarship at all in January, then be accepted in the regular March acceptance cycle, end up being an NMF and in which they would qualify for the 1/2 (if USC is named as first choice with NMF by May 1st), but in this case they wouldn’t be interviewing with the chance for bump up.
So technically, the NMF designation alone will not get an applicant considered for a Trustee. It is only if the NMF has already been named a Presidential scholarship candidate first, then later also happens to be an NMF. The Presidential can be bumped up or down, the NMF scholarship is 1/2 and cannot be bumped up or down.
NMF has nothing to do with the scholarship notifications in late January/early Feb.
Confusing but true.
@harrypotter112 – you did not specifically ask, but your question implies that you are unaware of the following: while most schools that give automatic, significant scholarships to NMFs (it only stands to reason, since they are granting the money automatically!), for whatever reason, this is not the case at USC. If you search old threads, you will find lots of moaning from NMFs who were not admitted to USC when they kind of took it for granted since they were NMF!
USC’s acceptance rate is really low, and it is the only school with such a high USNWR ranking and such a low acceptance rate granting relatively big automatic NMF scholarships. So, read what @kcheves said carefully; a condition to the scholarship is you have to get in, and that is not automatic at USC, no matter how good your stats are.
Lots of folks last year speculated that NMF actually hurt them because the school doesn’t want to give out so many scholarships. I personally never bought into that, but enough high stat NMFs were rejected last year to convince me that, unlike the schools that aggressively recruit NMFs, USC is indifferent to the credential in its admissions decisions, which then begs the question why they grant the scholarship automatically at all. I do not have a good answer to that question. Maybe one of the more knowledgeable posters can provide insight on that. All I can advise is not to take admission for granted just because you have high stats and NMFs. You have a better than average chance to get in, but it is far from automatic.
@NJDad00 thanks for clarifying! I was aware that not all NMFs get into USC, I was just wondering if you get in, then is it automatic (to decide to apply by the scholarship deadline). I think I’ll apply scholarship deadline either way, for their full tuition scholarship, but I do understand that USC is very hard to get in. Thank you for your help!