Human Biology
USC is a full meet need school meaning there is financial aid available more than Pell Grant unlike at schools that are not meet need. For in-state students, there is Cal Grant, which is more generous than Pell Grant and also has a higher income threshold. Also USC is generous with need-based instutional grants.
Per 2023/2024 CDS, the school gave $375M of need-based grants and scholarships vs $86M of non-need based scholarships for the 2022/2023 academic year (Section H). Of 2,195 full-time, first-year matriculated students who applied for financial aid, 63% were deemed to have financial need and $67,015 was the average amount granted excluding PLUS, unsubsidized, and private loans. There are more financial statistics if you want to peruse them.
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Congratulations! 
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Congratulations!
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USC takes the CSS, so even if you wouldn’t get anything via FAFSA, it’s possible to get aid at USC. The only way to get an idea is to run the net price calculator for USC: MyinTuition
In the most recent CDS, USC had 3418 first year students. 1374 had need and received aid. 909 had no need and received non-need aid. And another 117 received a sports scholarship. This leads to 2400 out of 3418 (70%) receiving some form of aid.
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Best to use the net price calculator, not the MyIntuition calculator: USC Financial Aid : Net Price Calculator
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But USC has been cutting merit for NMF and also those who didn’t get in EA, would have no chance for merit anymore
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We did not fill out both CSS or FAFSA since we would not qualify for any aid. Not sure it this affect merits when nothing filled out. The admission told us no need to fill out if we are not applying for financial aid
are merit scholarships considered as non-need aid?
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Not filling out FAFSA/CSS does not affect merit at USC. USC is need blind so admissions and merit are separate from financial aid.
Will likely get in regular decision!
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Do they consider home equity for need based aid? Also, when are aid offers usually given?
USC does not consider home equity for financial aid. I’m not sure when the offer letter comes out.
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@smittengowan The letter sent on Friday said more info on FA will come out after the merit finalists are announced at the end of the month. (So does that mean FA offers themselves? or just “more information” about when to expect it? no idea.)
The reason I ask is that one of the tuition calculators asks for home equity information. I got vastly different aid estimates from the two calculators.
I’m not sure but I also saw somewhere that aid letters will be sent about a week after admission. I don’t believe it’s tied at all to the merit aid. I believe they function independently.
I remember last year I could check the estimated financial aids showing all the grants and merit scholarships under the login portal in March before the commitment date.
But last year the FAFSA got very delayed. Hopefully this year is much better. You can also contact the FA office for any questions or more info.
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Additionally some scholarship could be also distributed after regular admissions.
My son got associate (very generous) scholarship after regular decisions were already announced and we were pleasantly surprised…..
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Good to know! Had you already committed when this occurred?
No. We were still waiting for UC’s.
But when this email came he was pretty set on USC
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