<p>anyone know the criteria and relative importance of each criteria?</p>
<p>BUMP I’d like to know too!</p>
<p>They are looking for the kind of students that are likely to be accepted at the most highly selective U’s and colleges. Students with tip-top GPA’s, SAT scores, AP scores, LORs, very strong EC’s, leadership, etc etc who have demonstrated a passion for learning AND exceptional academic ability. All are important.</p>
<p>this post from the main scholarship thread above
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/756060-scholarship-criteria.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/756060-scholarship-criteria.html</a>
gives a good idea of the kind of student that is typically offered a Trustee scholarship.-</p>
<p>“My daughter, who is in her first year at Georgetown’s SFS, was offered the Trustee Scholarship last year. My understanding, from what we were told when she was being wined and dined (and the website includes a similar, albeit brief description), is that for this full-tuition scholarship (and the Presidential as well), they’re looking for the top1-1.5% students nationally. I assume that is partially based on test scores. My daughter had a 2340 on the SAT I and her three SAT II scores came in at 2350–each above 770. She was a straight-A student and ranked 3rd in a class of 560, she was a full IB candidate and additionally had taken numerous AP classes. Finally, as referenced on the website, they’re looking for leadership. My daughter had a very strong EC resume including 4 yrs journalism–2 years as editor-in-chief of school newspaper, 3 years mock trial including team wins and personal awards, she had won a nat’l journalism writing award, Nat’l Merit commended, lots of voluntarism in journalism and with youth, she was a paid academic tutor, and much more. It appeared that all the other kids that were candidates were of the same caliber.”</p>
<p>Here is some infomation on the Mork Scholarship…</p>
<p>The scholarship is for full tuition and a $5,000 per year stipend. The Mork family wished to have a number of the scholars be from the surrounding community. For these students the scholarship will be an engine of opportunity for those of varied backgrounds.
Other students are to be considered who also have the highest standards of academic excellence, student involvement and intellectual promise. Mork scholars, when they are juniors and seniors, are expected to mentor incoming scholars. </p>
<p>In a recent SC periodical a Mork Scholar was mentioned with a brief biography. These are just SOME of the student’s accomplishments.</p>
<p>First in class
Outstanding test scores
Science major
Interned for a federal judge
Competed in dozens of triathlons
He and his sister raised $15,000 for a well know charity.</p>
<p>Son is a Mork and friends with lots of Trustee, presidential scholars. All of these kids have leadership in several areas in common as well as great academic records. Leadership varies from class presidents, lead violinist in an orchestra, started own photography business, founding member of charity type organizations to team captains. USC wants their scholars to be interesting, intelligent and able to make an impact when they step on campus. Interview is key…more important than test scores. I am on my way to parents weekend and can’t wait to see my son and meet some of these neat students I have been hearing about! Good luck and fight on!</p>
<p>Wow! Those kids sound like awesome students and fun people to be with :D</p>
<p>So when the admissions people sit down to review apps, do they just handpick the scholarship applicants based on test scores, GPA, and extracurrics? Or do we have to send a separate scholarship app?</p>
<p>Admissions picks the applicants they want to interview, which is the next step in the process of scholarships selection, based on everything the student has submitted. [Only those invited to interview are considered for a Mork, Trustee or Presidential scholarship, and if you get the invitation to interview that means you have already been accepted to USC]. Potential scholarship winners are then interviewed on campus in late Feb or early March by a panel of 3 people- a trustee scholar, a prof in the college or specific major the student has applied to, and an admissions member. After interviews are completed, each college decides who will be offered the scholarships.</p>
<p>I was at a USC info session in DC last week, and they said the only thing you have to do to get one of these scholarships is “to be great at everything you have done in your life up until now”! Sounds easy, huh? They also said you are NOT admitted prior to the interviews. Occasionally someone goes to these interviews and does such a poor job of presenting themselves that they not only don’t get a scholarship, they don’t get offered admission. They said that was very rare, but has happened. So a scholarship interview means they are very interested, but NO guarantees you will be admitted… put your best foot forward if you are lucky enough to be chosen for the interviews.</p>
<p>Maddenmd, that is totally not the way it used to be. Unless there’s been a change this year, the student receives a letter of acceptance at the end of January and a notice a few days later that she/he is a candidate for Trustee/Presidential, which will require an interview at the Explore USC session. After the interview, the student is informed near the end of March which scholarship she/he has received. Some students are bumped up and others may be bumped down. I have no knowledge of how the Mork scholarship works.</p>
<p>Just got back from parents weekend.</p>
<p>Last year, my son just applied by December 1. There was no special application but the USC application I think was more detailed than some(I never saw his application). He recieved a BIG packet in January saying he had been admitted AND was finalist for presidential scholarship in one packet. They included the number for USC travel agency with notification and they said we should book travel with them. They paid for most of his flight out to campus and his lodging/food–he stayed with another presidential scholar–He had a 3 person interview at the Explore USC session like Kathc indicated. We did not go with him. When he was there, he fell in love with the school and even scored some tickets to the Lakers game. They were playing the Charlotte Bobcats(our home team).</p>
<p>After the interview, he was “upgraded” to trustee scholar in late March–just before the IVY acceptances came out-- and THEN around May he received an email that said he had received the Mork–at the time we had no idea what that meant but it sounded great! 
Two or three weeks later we received a very nice,detailed letter explaining the Mork scholarship. It was very exciting. Particularly for us since I was diagnosed with lymphoma about the same time and this scholarship has taken the stress out of paying for his eduction.(I am now in remission…)</p>
<p>BTW…I met several presidential/trustee/Mork scholars…obviosuly bright but none of them seemed to be “nerds”…they were all just great,normal kids. Too bad about football game but what a FUN, exciting evening…Good luck to all!!! Hope this information helps some students…</p>
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<p>interview was outlined by menlopark mom…Also each school has certain number of scholarships but that can vary year to year based on quality of applicants I think. Again…I am OBVIOUSLY not an expert…just a parent…</p>
<p>Just to add a note of clarification, the procedure is to admit scholarship candidates at the end of January, beginning of February. These students receive the full big “Welcome to the Trojan Family” envelope package with the nifty USC certificate of admission and all the trimmings. For many, the invitation to interview for the Trustee or Presidential (and maybe Mork–we’ll see this year) comes soon after. It came about a week later for my son and I wouldn’t have had a clue what the early admission packet meant if it weren’t for CC. We were so surprised (duh) that I started googling to figure out what it might mean, which led to my discovery of this site (and my addiction? heh) Over the past several years, we’ve seen the same pattern here with those applicants who receive the early admissions packets <em>most oftentimes</em> getting an invitation to interview. But we’ve also seen students who are admitted early and, alas, not get the invitations–so it’s good to hold off the celebrations until the next piece of mail hits your mailbox. :)</p>
<p>In all of this I cannot see how a candidate could be un-admitted after the interview. She/he has already been officially admitted, so… I think this rep must have gotten a little mixed up, or perhaps was meaning to say some who are invited have been downgraded to lower $$ awards and perhaps even (rarely!) been downgraded out of a merit scholarship altogether. I don’t believe we’ve gotten a report of a down to zero adjustment here on CC. Conceivably, such a downgrade could happen as there is no guarantee of any award, only an invitation to interview for one. But now that I think about it, I guess if a candidate revealed in a scholarship interview he had cheated or lied on his application, that could be grounds for rescinding? How weird would that be!!
I hope this helps any nervous students/parents of applicants out there who may worry an official letter of admission might somehow be rescinded if they flub on the scholarship interview.</p>
<p>Glad to hear madbean. The person who stated that admission happens after the interview was the representative from the financial aid office, in response to a direct question from one of the students about whether one is admitted prior to the interviews. Perhaps he was not as versed on the process as others. If the admission package comes first, one has certainly been admitted!</p>