The USC Dornsife Continuing Student Scholarship application is a single application used to apply for a range of scholarships offered to continuing undergraduate students with a major in USC Dornsife. Scholarships range in amount from $1,000 to $6,000 per year. The total number of scholarships awarded varies. The application opens every spring semester and awards are applied towards the following academic year. Award notifications are sent in June.
To be eligible to apply for a 2026-2027 Dornsife Continuing Student Scholarship, you must:
- Have a declared USC Dornsife major
- Plan to be enrolled as a full-time undergraduate student (12 units or more) in the 2026-2027 academic year (Students graduating in Fall 2026 are eligible to apply.)
- Have a minimum cumulative USC GPA of 3.0
Spring admits starting enrollment at USC in Spring 2026 may apply, but must meet the GPA requirement by the end of the spring semester if selected for an award.
During the 2026-2027 academic year, scholarship recipients must:
- Maintain a USC Dornsife major
- Be enrolled as a full-time undergraduate student during both fall and spring semesters (12 units or more) (or be enrolled as a full-time undergraduate student during Fall 2026 for students graduating in Fall 2026)
- Maintain a minimum cumulative USC GPA of 3.0
These are awards for continuing students only. New undergraduate students starting in Fall 2026 or Spring 2027 and current undergraduate students graduating in Spring 2025 or Summer 2025 are not eligible for consideration.
Scholarships through this application process are one-time awards. You must reapply each year to continue receiving a scholarship award. Receiving (or not receiving) a scholarship a previous year has no bearing on whether or not you will receive a scholarship for the upcoming year.
Dornsife Continuing Student Scholarships are administered consistent with the University’s Notice of Non Discrimination. Recipients are chosen without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited characteristic.
**Please be sure to read and follow all instructions below before completing and submitting your application. The instructions below include the prompt for your personal statement.**
To apply for a USC Dornsife Continuing Student Scholarship, you must:
- Complete and submit the online USC Dornsife Continuing Student Scholarship application. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE APPLICATION.
- You will need to use your myUSC username and password to access the application. Please note that although you can view the application multiple times, you will not be able to save your work before submitting the application. Once you submit the application, you will not be able to edit or resubmit it.
- Ask a USC Dornsife faculty member to submit a recommendation for you, and arrange to meet with the faculty member (either in person or via email, whichever the faculty member prefers) so that they know more about you and your goals prior to writing the recommendation. Visit the Faculty Recommendations page for more details on the process of obtaining a faculty recommendation.
Online Application Instructions:
To complete the USC Dornsife Continuing Student Scholarship application, you must submit the following:
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Basic personal information will be requested on the application.
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Visit the Faculty Recommendations page for more details on the process of obtaining a faculty recommendation and information on which faculty members are eligible to submit a recommendation for you. The faculty member will be asked to submit the recommendation directly to our office.
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You can access your unofficial transcript via ExperienceUSC under My Academics/Academic Records. There is no charge to download an unofficial transcript. Save the document as a PDF file with the file name in the following format: LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME_TRANSCRIPT, and upload it to your online application.
Do NOT submit a STARS report or an official transcript, which requires a fee.
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If you receive need-based financial aid:
If a financial aid summary is available, we would like you to submit the version that looks like this or like this. Log in to your myUSC account and click on “Financial Aid,” then “FAST (Financial Aid Summary and Tasks).” Select Academic Year 2025-26, then click on the tab for Financial Aid Summary. We are looking for your current year (2025-26) financial aid summary. View the entire year summary, then print and save the document as a PDF file with the file name in the following format: LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME_FINANCIALAID, and upload it to your online application. Make sure all information is visible prior to saving the document.
If you do not receive need-based financial aid:
If you do not receive any financial aid from USC (including loans, grants, work-study, or other scholarships) and you do not have a Financial Aid Summary available, please type “I do not receive financial aid from USC” into a Microsoft Word document and save this as a PDF file. Upload this document to your application with the file name in the following format: LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME_FINANCIALAID. You will not be able to submit your application without uploading a document of some sort in this field.
If you only receive merit scholarships (no need-based aid):
If you receive only merit-based scholarships (no need-based grants, loans, or work-study funds), you will not be able to download a USC Financial Aid Summary. If this is the case, please type a list of the scholarships (both USC scholarships and outside scholarships) you received for the 2025-2026 academic year (including scholarship names and amounts received) into a Microsoft Word document and save this as a PDF file. Upload this document to your application with the file name in the following format: LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME_FINANCIALAID.
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Your resume should be no more than one page in length, saved in PDF format. Save the document with the file name in the following format: LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME_RESUME, and upload it to your online application.
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Two personal statements are required for all scholarships. Please respond to the following prompts, each in no more than 3000 characters total (special note about character count below):
Essay 1: “In today’s society, we often define progress in terms of curing diseases, improving technology, building more sustainable energy systems, etc. — and the liberal arts are essential to all of that. They provide the context, ethical grounding and creative thinking that make those breakthroughs possible and impactful. Beyond that, they help us grapple with some of life’s biggest questions — questions about meaning, morality, and our place in the world. So, while we’re inventing new cures and addressing climate change, we’re also cultivating the human spirit. That’s what the liberal arts make possible.” – James Bullock, Dean of USC Dornsife
With the above quote in mind, discuss how your liberal arts and sciences education in Dornsife has cultivated your human spirit. How have your experiences helped you aspire to answer big questions and think about your place in the world?
Essay 2: USC Dornsife encourages collaboration and a sense of community between and among faculty, peers, and society. How has your time at Dornsife demonstrated commitment to a spirit of collaboration and/or concern for the community? If you are a new student, please share how you hope to engage in these ways in the upcoming 2026-2027 academic year.
Please adhere to the character limit and check your personal statements before you submit the application. The application will cut off each essay at 3000 characters (including spaces and paragraph breaks). In previous years, we found that the end of some personal statements were cut off. Our essay writing tool counts the second space after each period as 6 characters, and blank paragraph breaks as 14 characters. If you write your personal statement in another computer program (e.g. Microsoft Word) and paste it into the personal statement box on the application, be sure the original essay is single-spaced and includes only one space after each period. You may also want to consider limiting your original essay content to around 2800 characters to ensure that your entire personal statement is included. The “HTML Character Count” at the bottom of the text box will turn red if you exceed the 3000 character limit.
Optional Items:
The following items are optional parts of the USC Dornsife Continuing Student Scholarship online application:
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Financial need is a requirement for some (but not all) of the USC Dornsife Continuing Student Scholarships. If you would like to be considered for scholarships which require financial need, please submit an additional essay in the box for “Optional Essay” and discuss your financial situation. You may also use the “Optional Essay” section to discuss anything you want to share as part of your application which is not addressed elsewhere.
Please be sure to adhere to the character limit and check your optional essay before you submit the application (as noted with regard to the personal statement), as the application will cut off your essay at 3000 characters.
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Some of the USC Dornsife Continuing Student Scholarships require an additional supplemental essay with a specific special prompt. Many of these scholarships are focused on students with specific majors or specific experiences. The additional essay prompts are listed under the criteria for each scholarship on the Scholarship Descriptions page.
If you would like to be considered for one of these scholarships, you must write the essay for that scholarship in addition to the standard personal statements. You will be able to select the scholarship name and write an additional essay addressing the prompt in the “Additional Essay” box below the selected scholarships. Please be sure to adhere to the character limit and check your additional essay before you submit the application (as noted with regard to the personal statement), as the application will cut off your essay at 3000 characters.
To apply for another scholarship that requires an additional essay, click on the “+” sign in the right corner of the page, below your last essay. You will be able to select a second scholarship name and write a second additional essay. You may submit up to three supplemental essays.
Please note: even if you write one or more additional essays (the optional essay and/or the essay for a specific scholarship with a special prompt), you must still submit the two standard personal statements as detailed above.
Deadlines:
Wednesday, February 18: Deadline to submit to USC Dornsife Student Success the name and contact information of the faculty member who will be completing a recommendation for you.
Friday, March 13, 11:59pm Pacific Time: Deadline to submit the USC Dornsife Continuing Student Scholarship online application. We must also receive your faculty recommendation from your faculty member by this date. This is a strict deadline. Applications received after this date will not be reviewed.
Other Scholarships:
A handful of scholarships for continuing undergraduate students do not utilize the USC Dornsife Continuing Student Scholarship online application. These scholarships each have their own unique scholarship criteria, applications, and application deadlines. Visit the Other Scholarship Applications page for more information on these additional scholarship opportunities for continuing undergraduate USC Dornsife students.
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