The interviews were for the merit finalists, not admissions related.
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My daughter has her interview next week as well. Oh the wisdom teeth recovery is hard: looks worse on day 2 than day 1, but by day 5 they are ok. I think they will ask the common Qs: why this major, tell me about yourself. We had to print out the application for a jog down memory lane on what was submitted - Nov seems like a a long time ago!
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We received our financial aid figures and after conversation with financial aid we were told that the Gift Aid amount usually includes any potential scholarships. My son applied for a couple that were due 2/1 and he is in the process of applying for others, like Norman Topping et…
These others aren’t due until 3/12. I’m trying to understand the school justification that even if he will receive these additional scholarships the Gift Aid will be deducted by such amount. What in the world is the purpose of these scholarships then? Him sweating and writing three long essays and they won’t even make a dent??? Is this really that crazy or I misunderstood something?
That is how financial aid works at institutions across the nation.
If your income goes up, need based financial aid will go down.
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My disappointment and big question is the purpose of these scholarships? Is this really misleading kids is at the end they won’t be counted?
Yes. My friend got financial aid but was in NMSQT . They rescinded award of NMSQT finalist scholarship because they said that they couldn’t get both benefits.
It is much easier to get an automatic 50% off tuition than it is to submit the CSS every year.
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That is not true for all universities. I know from personal experience that both UChicago and WashU allow (or did for my kids) stacking outside scholarships. I strongly recommend that prospective students speak directly to financial aid officers at respective universities to see if they allow stacking of scholarships.
After my son committed to USC, we learned that he had been awarded a very generous scholarship from Lockheed Martin. If he had gone to WashU, it would have counted toward our EFC. (I look at is as a blessing that we didn’t learn about the scholarship until after he had committed to USC. It would have been difficult to not factor in the financial benefit of going with WashU, but I think USC was the better choice for him if you take finances out of the picture.)
@Pysia, I understand your frustration. That said, I still think it is a good idea to pursue as many merit scholarships one can. Most scholarships are renewable. You never know what financial aid will be from one year to the next, but you can always count on a scholarship. And, yes, it is frustrating when you think that scholarship isn’t really “helping” if it is just replacing grant aid, but I try to look at it as freeing up USC funds for someone else. 
Fight On!
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USC allowed my student to stack merit scholarships up to full COA. However, if we received more income via merit scholarships, our need (and therefore need-based aid), would be adjusted accordingly.
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Understood. I’m just saying there are universities that do not reduce the need-based aid and allow merit scholarships to go toward EFC. (I have no idea how common that is, but worth exploring if one is on the fence about a school.)
Does anyone know how much time between receiving the financial package and decision day? So excited to be accepted and then so disappointed not to move on for merit consideration.
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He also received outside scholarships and they said they can only offset work study and student loan. But I’m really surprised about inside USC scholarships and why wouldn’t they reduce the bottom line?? Let’s say someone’s aid is 30K and they keep collecting all these in-house scholarships that could very easily add up to 40K, but the school is going to say, no you are capped at 30K period? This is beyond crazy for me to digest.
Not quite. Any merit aid, whether from a USC-related scholarship or outside, will reduce or eliminate work study and direct student loans first and then will cut into whatever need-based grants you get from USC. But if USC gives you a FA package totaling 30K and you have an EFC beyond that, you can absolutely use those outside scholarships toward your EFC. USC is just saying that any scholarship your child gets will FIRST replace work study, loans and grants. IF you still have scholarship funds beyond that, they can be used to cover your family’s expected share.
And that is another reason why I think it still makes sense to pursue merit scholarships, even if that causes your FA to be reduced accordingly. If nothing else, not having to take out a loan is a blessing.
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California law doesn’t allow schools to displace scholarships if the student qualifies for Pell/Cal Grant. If this is the case, then USC will allow students to stack scholarships. Otherwise, outside scholarships will replace any work study or student loans and then it will reduce university need based grants.
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I’m sorry this sounds confusing, but right now I’m only talking about inside scholarship. When school financial aid said they already estimated those into a total GIFT Aid amount on the current letter (30K as sample), which means the final offer COULD look like:
Alumni scholarships 10K
Lambda scholarship 10K
School gift aid 10K
If my son will get Norman Topping, which is due 3/12 then this scholarship will dig further into the remaining of school aid.
Why? Why wouldn’t the school aid stay at 30K and all these scholarships are extra and reducing remaining family contributions???
What is the purpose of him applying for Norman Topping if his school aid remains the same without it???
Out of 300-400 offered Trustee, only 95-105 matriculate?
Some scholarships are strictly merit based while others have a need component. Strictly merit based scholarships are not reduced when the total scholarship amount exceeds demonstrated need. Norman Topping is a merit scholarship awarded to students with financial need. Ask financial aid and/or admissions if scholarships with a need component or financial aid will be reduced if Norman Topping is awarded.
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How many students were invited to interview? I thought the email said approximately 12.5% would be offered Trustee.
Yes, because these students receive great offers from other great schools. Trustees are like the kid on the sport team that really is that much better than everyone else, the one that will go to the top D1 school then pro one day - they stand out above the others and have that x factor. They are recruited by all the tippee tops. Personal preference is often the deciding factor as they get great offers from many places. This figure has been pretty constant for the last twenty years or so.
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So my reading between the line here is USC actually one up their game by dangling a merit scholarship carrot to many students who we now know are not the intended recipients just to boost their application numbers?
Got it.