Hard stats on Trustee, Presidential and Dean scholarships?

Colleges & Universities University of Southern California
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<p>Haleigh,
There are some possibilities here. Did you use the “trick” described in other posts to determine if you were invited to one of the Explore sessions? Your letter could have been lost in the mail.</p>

<pre><code>Are you a National Merit Finalist? If you become a National Merit Scholar and name SC as your first choice university (this can be done in April) you will automatically be awarded a half tuition scholarship plus $1,000 per year. In addition, if you qualify for financial aid there is the possibility of receiving funds on top of the NMS scholarship. This depends upon SC’s determination of your need.
</code></pre>

<p>Keep in mind there are local scholarships which you should consider such as Kiwanis, Optimist, Rotary, Elks, religious and civic etc. With those grades and scores you might be awarded one of those in addition to the NMS.</p>

<p>Sometimes it is difficult to understand why one student is invited and another is not. A stellar essay can add to a strong application. There are students who have had to overcome family catastrophies, medical challenges and/or financial burdens. Some students have to work in family businesses many hours a week after classes. Individuals may have compelling experiences which are not evident when a senior posts grades and scores.</p>

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<p>Haleigh and hougang,
Your kids WILL receive 1/2 tuition scholarships if they decide to go to USC AND let NMSF know that USC is their first choice by the May deadline. Congratulations!</p>

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<p>One thing to remember is that the Pres. and Trustee scholarships are not only an award they are a bit of a marketing tool. They are a way for USC to get kids to come to USC and be pumped up to want to come to USC. The NMF will get a Presidential award (following the guidelines of put USC as #1 choice as described in previous posts). So the invites are also going to kids that USC is not sure will select USC. IF you are a NMF they know you are getting an award. They don’t really HAVE to pull you in. You should be very happy to know you are admitted to USC already (assuming you are) and that you will get a lot of money to attend. So, some of the invitees might have less stellar stats, are not NMF, but USC would love to have them so they want to get them on campus, show them what USC is all about and hope, with the offer of some money, they will come to round out the student body. You certainly don’t want a whole student population of NMF. Bottom line though…all of the kids who are offered an invite are deserving for some reason. They are all great kids who you will want in the class of 2014.</p>

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<p>These numbers are straight from the 2008-2009 freshmen profile which I happened to copy and have in my file.</p>

<p>This was a slightly smaller class. Number in class was 2766. Applicants: 35,900</p>

<p>For the enrolled 2008-2009 class:</p>

<p>Trustee Scholars 128
Presidential Scholars 332
Dean’s Scholars 117</p>

<p>National Merit 244
National Achievement 14</p>

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<p>Does anyone know whether in the past USC has bumped Dean’s scholars up to the Presidential level due to a lower-than-expected matriculation count? I understand that Dean’s scholars don’t get interviews, but I just thought I’d ask</p>

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<p>I know of no instances in the past where Dean’s Scholars have been bumped up. If you notice in their admissions brochures they mention there will be “about” 100 Trustee Scholars and “about” 200 Presidential. The number that choose to matriculate is consistantly higher than those numbers (132 and 288 for 2009, respectively, and 126 and 332 for 2008), so it does not seem that USC is having a problem getting applicants to accept the scholarships.</p>

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<p>Georgia Girl- I don’t actually know about the “trick.” But if it involves logging on to the RSVP system on USC Connect, that has yet to work for me either.</p>

<p>As for National Merit, I haven’t been told yet if I’m a finalist. But to be honest, I thought I had a decent chance at the Dean scholarship and to not even be asked to interview for either is pretty disappointing. And it’s almost worse that the only reason they’d give any scholarship at all is for a single test I took a year ago.</p>

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<p>Haleigh, You CAN’T receive BOTH the NMerit 1/2 tuition scholarship AND the Deans’ scholarship. You can only receive the scholarship with the highest value . As I said above, unless you did not do the required essay to advance to NM finalist status,or you let your grades sink, or did some other egregious act, you WILL advance to finalist status and get half your tuition paid for by USC! This is something thousands of students would give their eye-teeth for! So get some perspective, ok?</p>

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<p>Did anybody go for the trustee scholarship interview? Any feedback about feel of the campus and programs offered?</p>

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<p>Here are a couple of recent threads about Trustee Explore visits/interviews:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/873065-explore-usc-days-thanks.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/873065-explore-usc-days-thanks.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/869903-usc-explore-session-1-attendees.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/869903-usc-explore-session-1-attendees.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>

</p>

<p>@menloparkmom: its not that easy, ok? I knew a few kids at my school who had somewhat low grades that filled out their application quite seriously as they would any college/scholarship app, and did not recieve Finalist. </p>

<p>The NMSC would not waste students’ time by making them list their activities, get a letter of rec, write an essay, and send in grades if they weren’t going to comprehensively review the NMF applications.</p>

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<p>No, not everyone will advance, but as menloparkmom says, most will. From National Merit themselves:

</p>

<p>So 94% of semifinalists become finalists (15,000/16,000). Those are good odds. For many of the <6% who do not advance, it is because they did not complete the application properly or by the deadline.
[National</a> Merit Scholarship Corporation - NMSP](<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php]National”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php)</p>

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<p>“I knew a few kids at my school who had somewhat low grades, and did not recieve Finalist.”
And probably their “somewhat low grades” is why they did not advance to finalist.</p>

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<p>It is sometimes difficult to understand why one student is selected and another is not. Please reread my post above.
Tests and scores do not tell the entire story. SC uses the holistic method of selection. Keep in mind you have been admitted from a pool of over 35,500+ seniors. Roughly 27,000 seniors will receive a letter of regret. That is a huge number who will not be admitted.
This is not your last opportunity for merit scholarships. Each school at SC such as Thornton, Marshall and others offer scholarships for students who have excelled in the classroom/and or leadership roles at the end of the freshmen year.
A friend attended the Marshall Scholarship Luncheon. She sent me the program. There were three pages of scholarships listed for Marshall students.<br>
In another Daily Trojan article the admissions representative remarked there would be fewer students admitted this year than last. They are really attempting to stay closer to the 2600 target.</p>

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<p>In a previous post I wrote there are scholarships available to enrolled students. Here are scholarships in the School of Theatre for students who have completed their freshmen year in that school. Note there are scholarships also for graduating seniors. Some students already have Trustee, Presidential, Dean’s, civic, alumni or other scholarships.</p>

<p>This information is reported in the School of Theatre website.</p>

<p>John Ritter Memorial Award
Honors the student who has given the most outstanding comic performance during the season.</p>

<p>Jack Nicholson Award
Endowed by the actor to provide two awards to the outstanding actor and actress.</p>

<p>Aileen Stanley Memorial Award
Provides two annual scholarships for undergraduate theatre students.</p>

<p>James Pendleton Award
Annual award to a student who has made an outstanding contribution to the School of Theatre</p>

<p>David Dukes Memorial Scholarship
Presented to a junior BA or BFA acting student who shows exemplary dedication to the craft of acting</p>

<p>James and Nony Doolittle Awards
Endowed by the late James Doolittle–Four or more monetary awards are given to students upon graduation based on cumulative work during their period of study in the school</p>

<p>Ava Greenwald Memorial Award
Annual award for the outstanding graduating actor as selected by a professional panel of judges</p>

<p>Stanley Musgrove Award
An annual performance award to the student who has shown the most outstanding creative talent</p>

<p>Ruth and Albert McKinlay Award
Annual scholarship for the BA student with the highest GPA and to an outstanding BA performer</p>

<p>Student Council Award
Honors a graduating senior who has been recognized by peers for contributions to the
school</p>

<p>Nancy Kehr Reed Memorial Production Fund
Provides financial support for the independent student productions</p>

<p>The university also offers competitive merit scholarships which are open to students in all the various undergraduate schools.</p>