That’s still a great time! Note that you’re still ahead of EVERY student who gets accepted RD in March and can’t submit their housing app until 4/1. That includes all the RD accepted NMF students who are guaranteed Presidential Scholarships and are eligible for McCarthy.
This is a huge benefit of getting accepted EA. Even if your student doesn’t receive a merit scholarship, they still have first dibs on the non-McCarthy housing!
Great. I like that optimistic response!!
I have yet to hear of a Presidential or Trustee Scholar who put a deposit down on the first day, requested McCarthy, and did not receive it.
Remember, many Presidential Scholars are NMF who were not accepted in the EA round. Most of those Presidential Scholars will live in McCarthy as well.
I have seen several posts (on another site) of students accepted EA having been notified they are being awarded the Dean’s Scholarship. My understanding was that Trustee, President and Dean Scholars were all named in Mid-March after the interview process. Can anyone clarify? Thank you!
That is how it has been done in the past.
In the email that went out to notify students that they were in the running for a merit scholarship, did it list which scholarships they were interviewing for? And did it state what percentage they expect to award?
Oh that Dean’s scholarship - being a little stinker again. In past years, Dean’s were given out in late Jan with some also given out in March. So you could find out that you were interviewing for Pres/Trustee (which could be bumped down to Dean’s or even Director’s ($4k), although that didn’t happen too often), or straight up be given notice that you received the Deans with no interview to bump up. The amount of Dean’s given in March seemed to be tied to funds remaining to do so, some years a lot, other years not so many.
Then recently, they tried giving all Dean’s out in March, which could be causing the confusion now…so this year the drill was per USC:
We considered EA applicants for merit scholarships. Unfortunately, those we ask to defer are also notified they will not move forward in the competition for the Trustee (full tuition), Presidential (half tuition), and Leadership ($10,000 per year) scholarships (see the exception below for National Merit).
On January 30, the 2,950 admitted students will receive one of three updates about their scholarship status.
Roughly 800 students will proceed to the next phase of consideration for the Trustee and Presidential Scholarships, our top awards. Their next step will be to schedule their scholarship interview via their applicant portal. After interviews, final scholarship decisions will be released in late March.
200 students will be notified of the receipt of a smaller scholarship, such as our Deans Scholarship (quarter tuition) and Leadership Scholarship ($10,000 per year).
The remaining admitted students will be notified that they are no longer being considered for the above-mentioned awards. Students can still be considered for other scholarships found on our Scholarships page.
Any applicant who is named a National Merit Finalist, offered admission, and selects USC as their first-choice institution, will receive a USC Presidential Scholarship.
Thank you! This is definitely confusing. The email sent to merit finalists on January 30th only mentioned the President, Trustee and Dean scholarship as options which is why I was confused about Dean’s already having been awarded this year.
From the email:
I haven’t been dm’d by anyone saying they got the Dean’s with the wording from their letter - that is how I typically verify if they were given or not. But they are saying the 2900 should have got one of three responses: 1) interview or. 2) Deans/Leaderships or 3) nada (but accepted!)
If anyone has the Dean’s and wants to PM me rather than post out here, I’d love to see the wording thanks! TIA.
Has anyone received a notification that they have been selected to continue in the process for the Dean’s scholar?
Those were emailed on 1/30.
There’s no process for Dean’s, you just get it or you don’t.
A student interviewing for Pres or Trustee can get bumped down to Dean’s, but otherwise, they are just given out.
The wording is confusing, I also thought so and had to re-read a few times
Right? I included that part of the email above where it definitely seems like the interviews are for Trustee, President AND Dean’s. So, I still can’t figure out if some people were already notified of Dean’s. I guess we will find out! 
So out of the 800 kids who interview 1/4 walk away with no merit?
No that is not how to read that (although they do word it to make it confusing)!
Most all interviewing will receive merit, around 300-400 of the 800 will be offered Trustee, and around 400 or a bit less will be offered Pres. A small amount are bumped down to Dean’s or Director’s (4k). Haven’t heard of someone getting zippo. Did know of those going to Director’s but those students weren’t really interested in attending and just went through the motion of interviewing per the parent - they had better offers elsewhere.
Of those offered, about 100 Trustees will matriculate and about 200-250 Pres come in through merit round. Another 100-150 Pres will come in through regular admission cycle making the Presidential figure around 350-400. Sometimes the Pres figure is about higher by 40-50 depending on how many come in during RD cycle.
Figures are ballpark-ish. But Trustees attending have always been in 95-105 range. Presidential’s in the 350-440 range (including NMFs admitted in March).
Hope this helps.
Oof, broken down like that, it is so apparent what a tough road it will be for all those NMFs who were deferred.
I wonder how many students who are NMSF apply.
Excellent question! Maybe our experts have an inkling. My guess is…a lot, lol!
