WashU or USC presidential spring admit

Hey you guys, so I am struggling to figure out what to do with college decisions.

USC was always a school that I really wanted to go to, and I didn’t know that much about WashU, however, after getting in I do think it would be a good place for me.

So at USC, I was awarded a 1/2 tuition merit scholarship - my family does not qualify for financial aid, so this means USC will be ~100k cheaper. This is not going to be a difficulty on my family – there is enough money saved in my 529 to cover WashU, however, I would feel bad asking my parents to pay that much more. Unfortunately, I got a spring admit to USC - I would be studying abroad first semester and knocking some GE’s out of the way before starting in January. I’m a little worried about being a spring admit - I was a transfer student in High School, and let’s just say it was a hard experience for me.

WashU I never really knew much about. After getting in I started doing research and I liked what I saw - alot! It would be nice to start in the fall for sure. However, the location and the price are something that makes me reconsider.

I never thought I would be dealing with a situation like this - spring admit AND a half ride combined never crossed my mind as a possibility and it’s kind of making all my decisions difficult. So WashU people — what should I do? What are some positives to WashU I haven’t considered yet?

@tailryan My D is looking at both of these options as well. Spring Admit and Wash U. We have been to visit Wash U twice and absolutely love what they have to offer there. You didn’t mention your major which I think would be an important factor.
My D received a half tuition award at WashU and is NMF, so half tuition at USC as well. The distance to USC is an issue for us living on the East Coast and have not been to visit. Have you been to USC?
Maybe you two should communicate?

hi! I am planning on majoring in economics and minoring, or potentially double majoring in political science. I haven’t been to WashU yet, but am going next week. I took summer classes at USC before my junior year and stayed on campus in new/north. It was a great experience – if you get the chance I definitely recommend you visit before deciding. the vibe at USC is a large reason of why I like it so much, and you can only really experience that by being on campus. At this point, I’m leaning to USC, because it’s both closer (I’m from NorCal) and about 100k cheaper — but we’ll see how I feel after visiting WashU. best of luck to your daughter!

WE have visited both USC and WashU. While WashU a great, great well-respected school, USC is almost to that level of respect now. However, I mostly comment that the vibe and intensity and seriousness at WAshU is a TOTAL opposite environment from USC, totally. We are from the SF Bay Area.

How did you get a big merit scholarship yet a spring Admit?

@ClarinetDad16 It appears that USC automatically awards accepted NMF students the half-tuition Presidential scholarship even if spring admit. I read the following on a thread about USC NMF applicants:

“This year’s fall admission rate for finalists is 48%, 3x the overall admission rate. Also, more than 40 finalists were offered spring admission and they’ll get presidential scholarships too, even if they don’t get moved to fall.”

@scholardad @ClarinetDad16 that’s what I thought too, but they also just emailed me giving me an extra $2000 university scholarship on top of the NMF scholarship and now I’m all shades of confused. Seems very contradictory - we want you so much we are going to give you extra money to incentivize you to come! but you have to start in the spring. makes no sense to me.

I am above their average stats for GPA (3.9 uw, 4.36 w (most wgpa you can get at my school is 4.42 due to grad reqs) as well as SAT score (2290), so I guess I just don’t really understand the decision.

Are you accepting?

Not sure – touring washU next week. Looks like probably yes. @ClarinetDad16

To get 1/2 tuition NMF scholarship you have to specify USC as your first choice with NMSC a few days before May1, 2017 deadline. Do not forget this important detail.

specified it back in January, thank you though @grtd2010