@menloparkmom The point is letting USC know your NMSF status before admissions decision actually hurt your chances of getting admitted because there is simply not enough scholarships to be given to all the NMSF applying. The ones letting USC know that they are NMSF before admissions decisions get weeded out. As you have pointed out on USC decision thread that as long as you designate USC as your first choice by May1, you can get the 1/2. So there is no advantage to let USC know before admissions decision. People can go read the USC decision 2016, 2017 and judge for themselves. By attracting all these NMSF to apply is USC’s strategy of getting high stat students to apply and getting their application pool stat to look good and lower their admission rate.