<p>Merit scholarships are not based on financial need, so no CCS is required. Trustee & the non-NMF Presidential finalists are selected from applications received before the first deadline based on merit only (including scores, gpa, rec letters, ECs, awards, special circumstances, achievements outside of school, leadership, etc), must attend Explore and interview for the scholarship, and be selected by the panel. Some may be bumped up to a higher award (great!), while others may be offered a lesser award (so all is not lost!). </p>
<p>In addition to this process, USC offers Presidential level merit scholarships (1/2 tuition- plus extra $1000/year for 4 years) to all admitted students who are NMF and report USC as their first choice school. This is an automatic award that appears when student submits their enrollment agreement. (But it is not guaranteed that every NMF will be offered admission to USC–alas, we’ve seen CC members here each year who report disappointment and surprise at this.)</p>
<p>It is not guaranteed that every NMF will be offered a chance to interview for the Trustee scholarship, since NMF is based mostly on PSAT, while Trustee/regular Presidential are based on a deep review of each student’s full application. It’s also realistic to remember that LESS than 1% of all students who apply to USC each year are invited to interview for Trustee. We see a lot of very high achievers here on CC, so the numbers may seem skewed. But it’s still very very rare.</p>
<p>Hope that clears up some questions.</p>