USC COA $95,225 for the 2024-25 school year

No. You have to pay the full 4 years of tuition upfront with the Prepayment Plan. Once the student graduates (or the term of the prepayment plan ends), then the scholarship amount will be refunded.

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Crazy world. People who have that kind of money sitting around are typically earning more than 5% per year on that money. It does not make sense to prepay unless you have FU money and that person does not usually care about tuition increases each year.

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Oh there are a few other reasons I can suggest. Impending divorce. possible IRS lien. Civil or criminal judgment against the parents ’ assets.

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Trustee’s is an absolute no brainer in my opinion, USC for free !!! Can’t beat that unless the student other near free rides like the Jefferson Scholarship at UVA or they receive need based merit aid from the Ivys

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S21 received USC presidential scholarship but ended up at Harvard paying full tuition. In this 23-24 academic year, Harvard tuition is $54,269, USC half tuition is $33,320. So the difference is about 20k which he can earn from summer internship.

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UCSD list price is about $40k in-state, $72k out-of-state for comparison.

As a Bruin alum, I never thought I’d find myself defending SC but here we go. I think most of the criticisms to the skyrocketing costs are valid - but that applies to most of these private schools, whether Yale, SC, Boston U, Amherst, etc. All these schools tout their true cost of attendance or EFC as being a lot less than sticker price but we all hear horror stories of the numbers not adding up after admission. To me, it’s pretty clear the game is to charge a lot of money, give many families quite a lot of aid at the expense of the families paying full price - which for many of these schools is a large segment. So there’s a lot of pretty wealthy families that can afford $350-400k per kid - it doesn’t seem like there’s a shortage.

The problem is for a large segment of the people applying (usually people on CC) fall into the sort-of-wealthy category. We are affluent to most people but not enough to get significant aid and cannot afford to be full pay. It’s also difficult to predict what the true cost will be until after we get in.

In SC’s defense, I’ve met several people who pay very little to attend because their families earn less than $100k. I’ve also met others who earn in the $125-$180k range who got significant aid (I have no idea what their assets are). I’ve met a lot more in the merely affluent category who chose not to attend SC because they didn’t have $85k per year in extra money. But in comparison to many other private schools, I get the sense SC does a better job of providing aid to the less fortunate and definitionally middle class families. But most of the families I know whose kids attend SC are probably on the wealthier side and can afford $90k+ per year.

11 years ago, SC was about $62k per year. It’s way outpaced inflation because with a 9% admit rate and 45% yield rate, there’s no shortage of wealthy families willing to subsidize others. If you really want to see how SC is not fair and charges exorbitant tuition, read about their grad students and especially their school of social welfare. Those are the folks who really get the short end of the stick.

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Frankly, it’s always been high like many private schools, when we see $95k we are rounding up to $100k and it’s shocking (not that $95k isn’t). As with every year, there will be plenty that can/will pay it and others that can’t or choose not to. I’ve had a student (or two) there for 10+ years and I believe that 4-5% has been every single year, and it’s 4-5% of a bigger number every year. So plan on that.

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If I had those choices I would do the same as you. Such fantastic choices

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Trustee is not a full ride. It is a full-tuition scholarship. It does not cover fees (mandatory health, transportation, event fees, etc), housing or dining.

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Yes, it is tuition only. But a student could work towards earning other scholarships to cover room, board, fees and other COA considerations.

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A student would need to earn more than $25k annually to cover those extra costs. Some might, but not many.

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I agree. And if they decided to take out loans, they are much smaller loans. Something you can work to pay off with summer employment, and right out of school. It isn’t perfect, but it is so much better.

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And I don’t mean you could pay it off in one summer of working, not at all. But you could start making a dent.

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True. I was just making sure people realized that the Trustee scholarship did not make USC free. In the past, students have posted that they received a “full-ride” to USC when it was a Trustee scholarship.

Some NMF receive a NMS scholarship on top of a Trustee scholarship. That $500/semester leaves about $200/semester in fees, along with housing and dining.

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The only people who could prepay are the same people that can afford the 97K a year in the first place…

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Also, isn’t it kind of … Machiavellian for USC to take the money early and earn interest/invest it themselves a year in advance?

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What happens if your student is unhappy and wants to transfer?

Forgot that even. University of Florida is the bargain, also tied at 28 national and #6 public university. Out of state tuition at UF 28.5K! We are in Northern Nevada and my D24 decided early that she wanted to go east for school. She got in to UF and even got some merit, so that number is cheaper. I’m just hiding in the corner hoping she picks UF….

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I suspected this… the parent loan, but didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole yet…sigh. Guess it’s TIME! lol