Is financial aid information accessible yet?
@pleaseacceptme99
Go to UCLA. It is only certain kids that really want to go abroad their first year. You don’t have to. Maybe I’m wrong, but since it was offered, can’t you can still accept/apply the TTP without the abroad option? In which case you go to the meeting this summer with an advisor. It is hardly worth the plane fare in terms of information you get, but you have to buy/express interest in USC somehow. It is the game.
You will probably love UCLA then just don’t apply in Feb. Or apply in Feb then accept or turn it down in June or whenever acceptance come out.
You have a back up plan, that’s all. Don’t stress it.
@blueskies2day you’re right. That’s a good way of looking at it.
I might as well just go to UCLA for the first year and if I still want to go to USC after a year I have the option to transfer through the TTP.
For now I’ll just start getting hyped about UCLA 
Congrats!
It is the best of both worlds really, and UCLA is a great school - you should be excited! But if it doesn’t work out you have an option. But do commit to living and loving UCLA - don’t wear the TTP as a cloud there, just know in the back of your mind if something goes incredibly wrong you have a potential way out.
I would only send my student abroad the first year if it was something they always wanted to do, not because it was the only option they had to get into a certain school. But that’s just me…certainly others may feel differently.
My FAST page just now says my application has gone into review. What is life. :-w
Has anyone gotten their financial aid yet?!??! 
Nope…I read somewhere that it’ll be by the end of this week maybe?
I read on their twitter that financial aid summaries start coming out during the first week of April.
@CADREAMIN thanks for the advice ! I’m going to UCLA I’m 100% excited and committed to being there now ! And like you said if something goes terribly wrong and i absolutely hate it, I have an escape route tucked away.
But I think I’ll want to stay after making friends getting familiar with the campus and joining a sorority.
@CADREAMIN I thought you might be able to answer this question. My S applied to USC and was accepted last week. He was not invited to the scholarship interviews in February, but he is an NMF and so we knew he would get the 1/2 NMF if he listed USC as his first choice and then enrolls. We just got a letter in the mail from USC Admissions Office today advising him that he was selected as a Presidential Scholar, with no mention of NMF as the basis. I called the admissions office and they said that they sometimes just offer NMFs who have listed USC as their first choice early in the process the regular Presidential scholarship. I’m trying to wrap my head around what, if anything, this means for him. I know he can’t stack the two, but would there be any reason to decline the USC non-NMF scholarship in lieu of the NMF scholarship? It’s probably six one way half dozen the other and I suspect the $ all comes out of the same pot so maybe this is a recruiting tool – USC knows that it’s going to be on the hook for this $ if my kid goes there so they throw them a bone and offer them a scholarship to try to get them to go there (i.e. flattery)? Just curious what you might know about this. Or anyone else, for that matter.
@tennessee1 calling @“Georgia Girl” who is the pro on scholarship ins and outs - because you may be able to get money added on to one or the other, an extra thousand or two, it seems like I remember her mentioning that - I don’t want to give you incorrect info though, and she knows it really well.
@tennessee1 Same thing happened to me. Since it looks like the Presidential is being offered in lieu of the NMF Presidential, the two are clearly totally equivalent. If you choose not to accept the scholarship, your son would likely lose all his scholarship opportunities as this was awarded IN PLACE of the nmf award. There’s really no difference, at all. It’s just a different means of acquiring the award. (I’m from TN as well, represent!) Accept it, there’s no advantage to do otherwise.
Thanks for the info @wavesthetic . Did you get your letter yesterday?
Does anyone know when the financial aid packages come out?
See post #4147, @angiepie
@choirsandstages I saw the post but I was hoping someone had more specific info or that someone had already received a package.
Oh sorry @angiepie . Well I can tell you that my D hasn’t rec’d anything, and her application is still showing “in review.” 
There may be a change this cycle. I do not recall students being offered a Presidential Scholarship, with that particular name, instead of the NM Scholarship. It is the same amount of money, with an exception. The NM Scholarship includes an added $1000 per year from the NM Foundation. ( A student must name USC as his/her first choice by May 1.) This is in addition to the half tuition NM Scholarship. Some of the schools MAY add smaller named, memorial or alumni scholarships to the National Merit funds. I know an alumna who has donated funds for two NM Scholars who will receive an alumni scholarship of $4000 on top of the NM money, That is just one example, but those extra scholarships should show up soon in notices from individual schools such as Marshall, Viterbi or Annenberg if funds are available.
The “extra” smaller scholarships are dependent upon donations. So amounts and number of recipients can vary from year to year.
If you have more questions, please contact the financial aid office or the admissions office for your particular school. We volunteers are not always informed of policy changes.
Congratulations on your awards!
@jaxson, my son was rejected–no issue. Congrats to all those new Trojans! It just seems strange this year, as my son and his legacy classmate, who was accepted to Stanford, were not accepted at USC. The classmate, a NMS, was accepted to a future class a year later??? Neither would have gone to USC in any case, and I think the admissions office knew it this year. They are doing the numbers. Smart. USC is moneyballing admissions.
Does anyone know what grade we have to maintain as second semester seniors?