Major awards given to students in 12 states, 11 SC counties
The 49 newest top scholars at USC have been chosen.
The university has awarded the annually given Carolina, McNair, Horseshoe and Hamilton scholarships to 44 incoming freshmen, and five new students have received Stamps Carolina Scholarships, established this year through a gift from the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation.
The scholars were chosen from an initial pool of more than 2,200 South Carolina Honors College applicants, the largest in USC’s history. In order to be considered for top awards, prospective students must apply to the Honors College.
“[Undergraduate Admissions] is very lucky to have a good working relationship with the Honors College,” said Director of Undergraduate Admissions Mary Wagner. “It’s a huge draw for top tier students.”
Scholarship winners were evaluated on their academic strengths, leadership qualities and “inquisitiveness,” Wagner said.
“We want to see that they’ve done research outside of the classroom and have a certain curiosity,” Wagner said.
If this group of scholars is anything like those who enrolled in Fall 2012, they are an impressive bunch. The scholars that just completed their first year at USC had average high school GPAs of 4.65, average SAT scores of 1476 for Carolina Scholars and 1486 for McNair Scholars and ACT scores of 32.7 for Carolina Scholars and 33.3 for McNair scholars. Nearly all of 2012’s scholars were in the top 1 percent of their graduating class.
These top scholarships have also made USC more popular for high-achieving high school students from outside of South Carolina.
“It’s become a bigger destination of choice,” Wagner said.
The Stamps Carolina, Carolina and Hamilton scholarships are awarded to applicants from South Carolina. McNair and Horseshoe scholarships are given to out-of-state applicants. This year’s class of scholars includes students from 12 different states — as close as North Carolina and Georgia and as far as Illinois and Massachusetts — and 11 different South Carolina counties. Eight of the in-state scholars are from Columbia and four are from other Richland County towns.
The McNair Scholars Award is valued at $15,000 per year for four years and includes a tuition reduction to in-state rates, meaning recipients would only have to provide less than $4,000 for tuition, fees and housing out of their own pocket at current tuition rates. Twenty of these awards were given.
Carolina and Stamps Carolina Scholars receive awards of $10,000 per year, leaving their bill at less than $9,000. Stamps Carolina Scholars also receive $8,000 to go towards undergraduate research, study abroad, service trips and projects or unpaid internships over the course of their time at USC. Twenty Carolina Scholars and five Stamps Carolina Scholars were named this year.
Horseshoe Scholars receive $11,000 per year and a tuition reduction to in-state rates, leaving a balance of less than $8,000. Hamilton Scholars receive yearly awards of $7,000, making their bill for tuition, fees and housing less than $12,000. Each award was given to two incoming students.