OOS-son was accepted last night, 28 ACT, 4.54 GPA, 2nd in class, and numerous AP classes. No mention of merit scholarship. For those of you that have done this before, have they awarded any merit or in state tuition after this initial acceptance or was this the screening and then for those of you that mentioned you would hear exact amount in Feb/March that is it. Just wondering if they reconsider giving any merit past this initial date to those who had no mention of it?
@gottobenc we had no mention of merit either - AND when we had first looked and sent away for info from UofSC they had a table in their pamphlets detailing by SAT range and GPA range what your likely merit would be…yet nothing mentioned. We in part applied because with that likely $ it would help my son to attend.
@gottobenc If you look on the USC website they list the general scholarship guidelines, most have a minimum criteria of 30 ACT . . . may be upside down the road, but for the initial acceptance information they may have used that as the initial cut . . . the scholarship information was very general in the acceptance letters stating that the final scholarship information will not be available until March. Maybe you will hear more then as well, good luck and congrats to your son!
@3rdgengamecock It looks to me that the scholarship may be harder to get in Engineering. Engineering is likely more competitive.
Also, it appears from postings that SAT/ACT was the biggest driver of scholarship $.
@gottobenc What is son’s major?
Well that was exciting last night - S was admitted OOS (Charlotte area)! His acceptance included a merit award also which is extremely welcome given OOS status. I’m happy for all the others who received good news yesterday!
I would not presume that if there was no mention of merit based aid in the initial notification that does not mean there is no aid forthcoming - it appears final decisions are made by March. It was nice to have it in the initial letter for sure but based on all the information thus far it is tied solely to metrics.
Honors College/Top Scholars etc… is not determined until late December (first wave) and February (second wave). My S applied to other Honors Colleges and this seems consistent with how other schools handle it. Obviously the first requirement for HC anywhere is general acceptance.
At USC it was my impression based on our interview that they give a detailed review of applicants after admission decisions are made - although given the first notification they must review higher scoring applicants earlier assuming they will be admitted.
Accepted OOS, Business, Marketing
ACT 32, not sure of recalculated GPA…probably like a 4.4
Instate tuition plus a merit amount TBD later (letter mentioned at least 85k value).
When my oldest applied a couple years ago his scholarship offer had a specific merit amount listed, but it also said a “minimum of “that amount””. After following this for a few years now, it seemed apparent to me that each year the scholarships require higher stats.
My daughter’s portal stated she would receive at least 85000 scholarship. We r oos.
I think the scholarships were based on test scores . If your GPA was higher and test scores lower maybe they will come back later My son was given the lowest scholarship which is what I thought he would qualify for but I wasn’t sure since his GPA was a tiny bit lower than the avg.
Congrats to everybody on their acceptances and potential scholarship awards!
I hope they will give us merit numbers soon. My daughters acceptance in November just said she will receive merit. No idea how much though. I just hope they will give some money to their high stats in-state students as well.
@jgwolf What is the lowest scholarship?
I was accepted last night with the following stats!
OOS (MD)
4.6/4 Weighted GPA
3.84/4 Unweighted GPA
1390 SAT
Lots of volunteer work, extracurricular, & leadership positions
My letter informed me that I was awarded a tuition reduction totaling a minimum of 40k over 4 years. I’m very happy about this, however I’m feeling a bit bummed that I wasn’t awarded in-state tuition. I was expecting a bit more considering that my stats are on par with those awarded the superlative award (in-state tuition + $500) last year. However, I know that aid isn’t finalized until mid-march so I’m keeping my hopes up that my award will be increased. Congrats to everyone else who was accepted!
@sunnyschool last year the lowest scholarship (for OOS) was the Academic Scholar - Merit Award. It has an annual value of $500 + tuition reduction, totaling a four-year value of $37,800
In 2019, recipients of the Academic Scholar - Merit Award had an average SAT score of 1318 (ACT score of 29) and an average weighted high school GPA of 4.13.
I was accepted with a promise of at least 10k per year and my SAT was a 1400. Likewise a little disappointed I wasn’t awarded in-state considering I was much closer to those stats listed on the website compared to the next-lowest award, which is what I got. But then again, nothing is final until March!
My dd was accepted 4.3 GPA, 1410 SAT and was offered $40k total as well. OOS
@collegemomfromnj - I saw that same graph about the 30 ACT that I believe @Momtofourkids also mentioned, however in that same graph, if your GPA was high enough, which my son’s is, with all the AP / Honors etc classes, then it tagged him in the chart as likely to get some sort of tuition discount. We will hold out hope as USC is his top choice, but need just a little help being we are OOS.
In the past, you had to meet both the test scores AND gpa for the OOS merit scholarships. I assume this to still be the case, and the thresholds seem to go up each year. I will also add that two years ago, my daughter’s award did increase in March, and a friend whose initial acceptance didn’t mention any merit aid got a little bit thrown at him in March also.
Is there now a group established for deferred students 2024?
I noticed they had one last year.
@gottobenc @Momtofourkids
My daughter did have mention of merit in the 2nd paragraph, but the amount of the "at least’ was about 2 scholarship levels lower than the original letter when they sent about her test scores. My guess is they are either being conservative and that’s why they are “at leasting” until Regular Decision or the stats of kids was much higher than they expected. Either way, we are good. More scholarship would be awesome or the school being harder to get into and having even better rankings would be great too.
Acceptance ; Chemistry. OOS Offered in state tuition and will need await Honors college and additional merit if available. Happy to be accepted. Been good week also received acceptance early action to Harvard on Thursday. A full merit award from U of SC will certainly be a potential game changing decision for us. 1550 SAT 1/410 class rank National AP scholar award recipient.