<p>I’m frankly going to have a rough time paying for college. USC has my dream major, in my dream state. What kind of stats to you need for a scholarship (preferably half or full tuition, which I realize are very competitive). I’m in the top 10% and have a 2200 (770CR, 720M, 710W). I want to know what to at least aim for.</p>
<p>Honestly, it fluctuates so much from year to year that it’s hard to make a firm guess. I’m sure GPA matters; get it as close to 4.0 as possible. And make sure to write killer essays!</p>
<p>If you are a national merit finalist and name USC as your first choice college, you automatically get a presidential scholarship (1/2 tuition)</p>
<p>You have a good shot. I got 1/2 with 2160 sat, 4.0uw, full IB, and solid ec’s. They seem to like 4.0uw and full ib…</p>
<p>They seemed to like that I’m into aviation and business. I think which school you apply to has some bearing.</p>
<p>go to fastweb.com and search scholarships that cater to your interests/activities. fast web really compiles a great list of scholarships, with amounts, deadlines, and details for you.
if you write good essays, have alot of ec’s, and shine academically, you should be able to find some scholarships. don’t give up hope !</p>
<p>Yeah, if you’re a NMF & name USC as your #1, they will give you 1/2 tuition merit aid scholarship. If you’re not a NMF, you will compete with everyone else but need to be sure to apply by the deadline for merit aid. More info at the site below: <a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/fa/sg/entering_undergrad_meritbased/[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/fa/sg/entering_undergrad_meritbased/</a></p>
<p>I 2nd the OP cept I have a 2180 SAT :(</p>
<p>I think you have a good shot at presidential. Trustee, I’m not sure. I know two people who got trustee (myself and a friend) and our SAT scores are a bit higher than yours, and we are both in the top 4% rank-wise. However, with killer essays and EC’s, I’d say it’s possible. Good luck!</p>
<p>I got trustee’s with a 2290, full IB, and a 3.8 uw. My EC’s were merely okay, but they tied in perfectly with the personal characteristics that I discussed in my essay and my major.I think I got the trustee, because I presented myself as a very motivated and focused, yet well-rounded person. Make sure that you can explain why you did each EC, and if possible, do so in your essay. Oh, and being an immigrant in an underrepresented state with an awesome interview certainly helped :)</p>
<p>hmm, it does sound like they like ib. i got trustee with 3.8uw gpa, full ib, 2390 sat. it also sounds like they like high sat scores. and im really involved in sports, that might have helped…</p>
<p>My GPA is only 3.73, but I’ll try to raise my SAT some more. I think I might be able to pull pretty good essays. Thanks for the productive replies, are there other opinions?</p>
<p>They do love IB. Everyone who applied from my school in Full IB got in regardless of test scores or gpa (like 1700, 3.7w, etc)</p>
<p>To be honest I have no idea how I got my Trustee scholarship considering how many more talented people were in the applicant pool. I’m convinced that like just about everything else in the college app process, there are so many random unknowns that you can’t make any certain assumptions about getting accepted, with or without scholarships. But I do think you have a good chance, a lot of which rests on your essays and ECs. Good recs certainly don’t hurt.</p>
<p>I have a 4.2-4.3 GPA including 3rd quarter senior year (no idea what it is unweighted, sorry!), 2280 on SA’Ts (680 M, 800 CR, 800 WR), 3 5’s on AP’s and pretty good SAT II scores. But academics alone aren’t enough. I think that USC also looks at how well-rounded you are; the more interdisciplinary your interests, the better. It really helps if your ECs match USC’s academic strengths. I honestly think that the reason why I was considered was due to my film music reviewing, which matches up nicely with USC’s awesome music, cinema-television and communications schools even though I applied to the CoLAS. And USC has the best film scoring program in the country 
Seriously, USC’s really big on the concept of interdisciplinary studies so the more activities you have that blend different fields the better.</p>
<p>my little brother wants to go to sc too…what sat2 scores are considered “good”</p>
<p>I think he should aim for getting as many 800’s/near-800’s as he can. Mine were 750, 780, 790, 800 (though the 800 was the SAT II Writing before they got rid of it :))</p>
<p>i’m confident that if my SAT scores were higher, i could have gotten at least a President’s Scholarship. i got a 2140 with a 4.58 weighted GPA and got Deans’. seeing as i couldn’t do anything (sane) to improve my GPA, and that people with 2200+ SATs were getting Presidents’, i think that was the deciding factor.</p>
<p>what sucked was that my parents were starting to get tired of all the testing fees, so being the “frugal” asian parents they are, they said flat out: “We’re not paying for more tests. You better do good the first time.” on top of that, because i signed up so late for my SAT, i had to take my test about 40 miles away from my home…and just to add the cherry on top, our proctor was about 45 minutes late and we had to stand outside of the classroom the whole time. so pretty much, the circumstances of my SAT testing sucked haha. don’t hesitate to take the SAT again if you feel like you need a higher score.</p>
<p>I made a list of kids on CC who reported their USC scholarships, to look for patterns, in order to assess what happened to my kid (who has a sort of fluky situation). What I learned is is that there isn’t a strong correlation between SAT score and merit scholarship. Instead, if your scores are high, I think that you get considered, but that the other factors in your application are largely the things that determine which scholarship you might get.</p>
<p>For example, USC says that they aim to provide Trustee Scholarships to some of the applicants who score in the top 1% on the SAT I. What does this mean? It means a score of approximately 1510 on the combined math and verbal portion (2004 CB data). Probably this should equate to about 2200 on the new SAT I. And sure enough, out of 27 kids who report on CC that they were offerred a Trustee scholarship this year, 23 scored 2200 or above, and only four scored below this (one with a 2190).</p>
<p>But this kind of misses the point. If you want to make the assumption that the profile of the applicants to USC is similar to the profile of the Berkeley applicants (to make up for data USC does not publish), then there could have been over 3,600 applicants in this year’s pool who were in the top 1% (2200 and up). Even is this number is a bit off, it shows that out of the several thousand possibles, only a few hundred (200? 150?) were offerred Trustee scholarships.</p>
<p>It’s tempting for the brilliant kids on CC to rank themselves by SAT score and to see who gets what scholarship as if there was causality there, but the vast majority of kids who “qualify” on the basis of SAT scores do not even make the interview (my son’s 2350 SAT 1 score got him no scholarship interview at all, and he had a lot of other things going for him…he will still attend in the Fall).</p>
<p>I have no special personal knowledge of what gets you an interview (the first stage of getting a trustee scholarship), but I would say it goes like this:</p>
<ol>
<li>Get a high SAT if you can, to get into the starting pool.</li>
<li>Make sure admissions knows that USC is your number one choice, and that you need the scholarship money to attend. Don’t be coy.</li>
<li>Impress the admissions office with your grades.</li>
<li>Find and promote your special qualifications/ awards/ achievements.</li>
<li>Get lucky.</li>
</ol>
<p>It’s tough to say. Admissions was a slaughter this year with lots of really qualified people (some of whom I thought would get scholarships even!) turned down completely.</p>
<p>Fact is, for each trustee or presidential they handed out there were probably 5 more students similarly qualified for SAT/grades and they just couldn’t give it to everyone, so they just had to decide who was best qualifed for it.</p>
<p>That’s true–one of my son’s buddies was admitted to UPenn but denied at USC. He’ll be going to BostonU, which gave him merit $$$ (of course UPenn gave no merit $$$). My son was admitted to BU with NO merit $$$, but USC with merit $$$. We’re confused but happy for both boys.</p>
<p>Do they love AP classes also? What about AP’s with 4’s on the tests, not 5’s?</p>