<p>I was wondering if you might be able to answer a question about USC scholarship stacking. I am going on a college tour with my 2nd D to the usual suspects incl. Davidson, Wake, Clemson and Furman. I have been hearing great things about the honors college at USC. I think I have her interested enough to stop by on our way. Does USC stack scholarships above and beyond COA. My D should qualify for Lieber, Validict. and enhanced Palmetto. If she were to qualify for Carolinas or Hamilton could she surpass the COA? Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>I’m not sure, but I think there’s legality issues with schools giving out more money than the cost of attendance. (Loans, state scholarships, federal/state grants, etc.)</p>
<p>That being said, I definitely know of students who originally thought they were going to be getting $10k back from USC each semester, but were shocked to find out that their financial aid package was severely limited over the summer. USC will give up to the COA amount.</p>
<p>My financial aid this year actually went over the COA and I had an “over award hold” placed on my account.</p>
<p>OP - basically no. USC will stack leiber and Palmetto fellows on top of other merit scholarships but not the valedictorian one (based on D’s experience). However, there is a number that is basically COA that scholarships are capped at. This happens at all schools that I know of (obviously the number is difference) and I think is a federal thing. The cap is pretty generous - my D gets overage checks every semester. She has Hamilton, palmetto fellows enhanced, Leiber and now a departmental scholarship. They just start reducing scholarships down to the limit - from a glance it looks like they start with state scholarship to reduce first (logical since that leaves more money to hand out to other students from outside funding sources). So, for instance, when you look online at your scholarship totals, you might see Palmetto is only $2000 a semester instead of $3500 (not exact numbers).</p>
<p>Now D knows a few that get larger overage because they are RMs and scholarship does not reduce for that (basically you’ve gotten a job) but since that provides housing, stipend, etc, they get a lot more back. Some say that outside scholarships allow for you to go over, but the ones D got were paid to school and they adjust accordingly. FWIW, the scholarship does not go away…so as COA # goes up, so do the scholarships.</p>
<p>As nice as it would be to get all that overage, we are happy with a free education and quite a bit of money in the bank - D is frugal and now that she is in an apt she doesn’t even come close to spending the food plan amount on food.</p>
<p>Great, thanks for the information. We are looking forward to seeing the campus this week.</p>
<p>^^Invitations should go out for Stamps/Carolina/Hamilton scholars interview weekend by end of month - fingers crossed for you. If I can answer any questions about the honors college feel free to pm me.</p>
<p>If you are doing a tour when you visit, you may luck up and get a honors students - I know there are several ambassadors in honors. Also, if you call honors you can arrange to attend a class, although may not be as interesting the first week of class.</p>