<p>I hope your son applied to the honors program as well as it sounds as if he would meet their criteria. In several places on the USC website there is a chart showing probability of receiving a merit scholarship. If your son has a 26+ ACT or 1200+ SAT look for it. Obviously, scholarship awards will depend of the acceptance pool, so the higher scores the better. Most scholarships awarded to OOS students come with an additional bonus reduction in tuition to in-state rates (which almost always is worth more than the scholarship itself).</p>