@CADREAMIN @ZoruaUSC Not sure this is correct. D received Leadership Scholarship after admission, and it specifically stated that this provided her eligibility to apply for McCarthy. I’d find it surprising if Dean’s Scholarship, which is for slightly more money, would not provide eligibility to apply for McCarthy.
@CADREAMIN Do you know anything about the post admission Leadership Scholarship? It is worth $10k per year.
@jlarbs and @ZoruaUSC In the past Dean’s did not, but it could be different now, but I have not heard that. Having more housing at USC overall with the addition of the Village could certainly change things up, so if anyone has just the Dean’s, let us know if you are qualifying for McCarthy.
Per the website:
The McCarthy Honors College is a unique living and learning environment for freshman honors students holding either the Mork Family, Stamps Leadership, Trustee or Presidential scholarships.
Assignment to the building is available to qualified scholarship holders on a first-applied basis according to housing configuration preferences. While McCarthy Honors provides a greatly expanded number of spaces to Honors students, assignment to the building is not guaranteed.
I had read this too, and yet, the letter clearly provides that D is eligible. The Leadership Scholarship was a total surprise, since she was not notified during the first round. According to the list of scholarships, only 20 of these post admissions Leadership scholarships are awarded, far less than the “early notice” scholarships (trustee, etc.).
Which is why I think you qualify (small amount) but the Dean’s do not. But always open to new info! Congrats by the way, nice surprise!
Is there an official Facebook group for admitted students?
New here but been following along. My daughter is thrilled to be attending USC next year. She was awarded the Associates Scholarship ($18,000). She received her letter this weekend and it does say she is eligible for McCarthy. She had seen online that Dean’s recipients can get in if there is space (but that isn’t confirmed the way it is written in the Deans letter, just what she read). Her question is if her position is determined by being a higher awarded scholarship than Deans or by the signup time like the other dorms. She’s afraid if she doesn’t get in to McCarthy she won’t get a good selection and she wouldn’t be able to pick a roommate. Since the people who interviewed got to register for housing earlier, they seem to be guaranteed, but that looks to be about 300 or so? And there are over 500 spaces in McCarthy. Does anybody have any insight?
When you submit your app determines housing priority. It is time stamped when submitted.
@CADREAMIN So there is no difference for the honors dorm? She was online immediately for the signup but of course the website was crashing. So her timestamp might be closer to 9:30-9:40 pacific. That morning was very frustrating with all the web site problems!
She has priority for McCarthy, and will get in to McCarthy based on the time stamp compared to all the other qualified for McCarthy and their time stamps. I can’t see there being an issue with room there based on that time stamp at all. If some weird thing happened and McCarthy filled up early (which I just don’t see) but if it did, they would look at next choice.
@CADREAMIN I guess it depends on if all the Deans recipients (another 250) are eligible, or only eligible if space is available.
I haven’t seen it anywhere officially from USC so have to go with that for now. There are a lot of great housing options - each one has positive and negatives (e.g., more social, but no A/C vs. A/C but not as social). I know several scholarship kids that chose not to live in McCarthy this year because of the set up/room styles, so everybody has their own priorities which is good because most everyone ends up happy that way. Best to find the housing with the most positives that are important to the student. Students want very different things in housing, and for freshman, there are a ton of super great choices. imo, the room mate is way bigger influence on being happy there than the walls, AC or the furniture.
Accepted with Deans Scholarship!! But will attend Harvard 
@HarvardGirl2022 Congrats! You obviously picked the right user name.
@ZoruaUSC Ask your friend to check the scholarship award letter – I’d be surprised if the info wasn’t right there. My DS was bumped down from Trustee to Directors and his award letter expressly states: “As a recipient of this award, you are eligible to apply for housing in the McCarthy Honors College.” (I’m looking at it right now.) It doesn’t make sense that they would open up McCarthy to Directors scholars, and not Deans scholars who have a higher ranked scholarship.
It does seem that it’s a change from past practice because per @CADREAMIN in the past, Deans scholars didn’t get honors housing. Could be there’s more room in McCarthy? I recall, though, that they were going to open up McCarthy to sophomore honors students. Is there really that much more room?
@hafamama, It might make sense that students who were nominated for Presidential or Trustee in January, but got a lower award would still be allowed to register to live at McCarthy. I wonder if those who were given the Deans in January would have priority over Deans given in March, or if Deans Scholar recipients in March are allowed to register for McCarthy. It may depend on how many spaces are left after the January students register. Just speculation. Many who received awards after interviewing in Feb/March may not matriculate. Some will choose other universities (ivies, Stanford…) while others unfortunately may not be able to afford the cost to attend USC even after the merit scholarship. So spaces may free up still.
Can someone tell me how good the economics program is at USC?
@netopspin I’ll bet you’re right. Our son’s university scholarship ended up being $2k/yr after processing and including his 1/2 tuition presidential. So, maybe this is a good prediction for most NMF kids.
@ZoruaUSC @CADREAMIN @jlarbs My son has one friend in McCarthy who has a dean’s scholarship. Almost all have presidential or trustee’s, but I know it is possible. I don’t know how rare this is, but your friend can certainly try…
@TreeAlum There are 525 beds in McCarthy.
The number that actually come to USC for Trustree, Stamps and Mork is way less than are offered and interview because those kids do have many other good offers at the elite schools, Pres/NMF are thinned out by it not being enough money for some or deciding to attend another school. (Co-worker is picking UNC CH over USC Pres cause not that enticing for them.) There are so many offered the lower 1/2 tuition between Pres and NMFs so it could be filled with those, but it really doesn’t matter. If you read some blogs out there from the students that lived there this year, it was very closed door and not social, so some will choose not to live there as well. Village didn’t even exist until last year and kids love anywhere they live, it is often the parents that over blow the importance of stuff.
^^^ Indeed. Last year, 9042 were admitted, but only 3,358 (37%) actually enrolled. Of those 9042 admitted, around 1200 were offered merit during Jan 2017, but the final enrolled #s were much less…
USC Mork Family Scholars (full tuition + stipend) 10
Stamps Scholars (full tuition + stipend) 6
USC Trustee Scholars (full tuition) 118
USC Presidential Scholars (half tuition) 398
USC Dean’s Scholars (quarter tuition) 138
Recipients of other USC merit scholarships 59
National Merit Scholars 245
So the yield rate for those admitted with merit is similar to the overall pool admitted.