Those of you who recently received acceptances to Thornton, did any of your letters mention merit scholarships? My son’s didn’t but it mentioned that financial aid awards will be sent separately at the beginning of April. Just trying to figure out if that means he’s not being offered any merit or whether it’s coming with FA. (I did try to call them but it’s just going straight to voicemail.)
We’re in the same situation. I could be wrong, but I assumed that merit as well as aid awards would be announced in April (that is, if you weren’t one of the ones who got their biggest academic scholarships - Stamps, Mork, Trustee, etc. Those were announced earlier).
Oh, yeah, son got a pretty brutal letter a while ago clearly indicating he would NOT be getting any of those! LOL
Ditto! 
Don’t expect a large scholarship from Thornton. And, if he didn’t get a large academic scholarship already - then the Dean’s Scholarship is probably the most you can hope for. (1/4 tuition, I believe.)
Ditto x 3, @ScreenName48105 @JazzKeyMom! 
Ugh! But I sort of suspected as much. Do they tend to give any non-loan, need-based institutional aid?
Yes, they do give grant aid based on financial need. USC does meet need with a combination of loans and grants. Thornton grants tend to be on the small size - academic merit grants are larger - then there are the financially warranted grants. USC, however, for both my sons, never offered as good a package as other schools - even with the Presidential Scholarship and a Thornton Scholarship. Still, if they’d wanted to attend, USC made it possible.
When I ran their NPC, their net cost was middle of the pack and it included $8K of “other gifts” which I assume was their estimate for Thornton merit. Thornton says their merits run $5-10K and I’ve read elsewhere that $10K is their maximum merit award. That said, I didn’t get the impression that their merits were a given.
I called today, and someone at admissions said that they’d be sending out an email this afternoon. Not sure how accurate this is
That would be awesome. Thanks for calling!
Pretty accurate, actually; just got an email with my merit aid award