Scholarship Application: Fill & Download for Free

I love this question! I attended USC both as an undergraduate from 1st year to 5th year as an Architecture major (it is a 5-year minimum program) and then 11 years later as a Graduate student to get a Masters of RealEstate Development (MRED) for two more years. Thus I only have a few answers for this simple question…USC Trojan Alumni AssociationThe USC Alumni Association official motto is “Lifelong and Worldwide” and with 66 total alumni clubs and 22 of which are overseas this is very true. I have also enjoyed the company of several international clubs.Trojan for LifeWe don’t accept part-time Trojans or fans. If you don’t like it here, please leave and give up your seat for someone else. People say that we are like a cult or a mafia and we seldom disagree with that idea.Trojans Take Care of our OwnLove us or hate us, everyone one knows that Trojans take care of Trojans. This big idea is pushed into our skulls as freshman students once on campus that once a Trojan looks after you,you too, must take care of a future Trojan and pass it forward whatever that might be.Trojans Only Hire TrojansThis is completely false but it is so close to being true that I listed it. USC Alumni love to hire other USC Alumni, as that was how we were taught. The reality is that we will always give the USC applicant a look, shot or an interview when looking for a job but there is simply no guarantee that you will get an employment offer.USC Trojan PrideFor whatever reason, USC alumni and fans have tons of pride in their university and athletic programs. Not only can you see USC apparel being worn with pride around Southern California but also internationally as I have experienced. I dare you to try to count the crazy number of USC license plate frames driven around Southern California, which is second to none!City of Los AngelesUSC was established in 1880 at our very same location and unlike UCLA or Pepperdine, we are not moving, just making our location, neighborhood and community better.Location along the Pacific RimThis is very significant to USC as early on when the prestigious universities in the US along the Pacific Ocean and in all parts of Asia organized, USC took a commanding role as leader of these united academic institutions under the former leadership of past USC President Dr. Steven Sample. This was a more powerful alliance than anything that was created in Europe, for example.Strong Study Aboard ProgramsFrom personal experience via USC, I lived in Italy as part of USC's very first semester aboard program in Lake Como and then backpacked around the rest of Europe for a total of half of a year. During my graduate studies I went to the continent of Asia to Seoul, South Korea then to Shanghai, China and then to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for three crazy weeks that changed my life. I know that all first year MBAs are sent to Asia for at least a week for another example.Southern California WeatherReally? You would rather attend Notre Dame, Michigan, Colorado, or even NYU? What is wrong with you?How USC Was CreatedFirst off, I love the fact that USC was created by three local landowners donating their land and it actually sounds like a bar joke. History shares with us that a Methodist, a Jew and anIrish-Catholic came together to donate the various parcels of land outside of the boundaries of what was the city of Los Angeles to be called the University of Southern California.Tommy TrojanMaybe it starts with our beloved statue of Tommy Trojan showcased in the center of our campus. Every building on campus is referenced from where it is located from Tommy Trojan and if you don’t know where Tommy is located you are clearly new to campus so just ask anyone on campus as we are all very friendly. This statue is secured 24 hours a day the week prior to the UCLA Football game by the Trojan Knights on campus thus no harm will be done to it, guaranteed. We cannot say that for that ugly little magnet bear across town.USC Historical TraditionsWhen you start your life as USC in 1880 and you have such a passionate group of students and alumni everywhere, you never want to be the class that let USC down. We have Traveler the white horse racing down the sidelines of each home game touchdown! We have the kicking of the flagpoles before you crossExposition Blvd to attend a home game. Another tradition is the annual, never to fail, USC Beat UCLA Bonfire rally. And yes, we send busloads of freshmen during orientation to the Original Tommy Burgers on Rampart Blvd.The Spirit of Troy, Trojan Marching BandThey are simply referred to as "The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe"! I was never qualified to be a member but I don’t know of any university in the world where members of the Marching Band are held in such high esteem. It is simply crazy as to what it takes to become and stay a member of the Spirit of Troy Marching Band at USC. They are treated like individual Rock Stars on campus during game day when in uniform. USC is the only university that sends its band to each and every away game no matter how far away. The Spirit of Troy always represents USC no matter where.Private Research UniversityI would have a much stronger answer to this if I personally was a scientist myself but the fact that I know this to be true is significant. Much has been made about the fact that USC does a ton of Federally funded scientific research on many fronts including the US Military thus USC has been a leader as a Private Research University for many decades.Prestigious ReputationIn the past two decades USC has officially become the highly selective university that it was always meant to be. In 2016, USC only accepted 16% of its applicants, sorry UCLA, Berkeley and one or two Ivy League colleges. That also means that over 31% of the students that were accepted had to at least have a 4.0 GPA.Truly International Student BodyUSC has for many decades had the most international students of any US University and it clearly shows if you take a look at the diversity of the USC student body. It was personally very interesting to have the huge diversity of international roommates that I had while at USC.Large Financial EndowmentUSC does not have the largest university endowment by any means but it is very highly ranked in the top-10. Huge money gives the University many options.National Leader in offering Financial Aid programsUSC has traditionally offered the most amount of financial aid compared to any other university and that amounts to over $300 Million annually.70% of students qualify for Financial AidI personally love this reason as my family and I could never afford full tuition at USC thus to learn that a clear majority of students that attend each year have some typeof financial aid package helps defy a lot of myths that only rich people attend USC. A lot of our people from middle to poor families also attend USC.Trustee scholarshipsUSC awards250 Trustee scholarships to incoming Freshmen every year. Trustee Scholarships are full tuition scholarships that are renewable for 4 years, as long as the student maintains a 3.0 average. Students must apply to USC very early, in November. The scholarships are then awarded in December. I am hold that we are taking away students from the Ivy Leagues and Stanford!100% of your Financial Need will be metUSC full tuition always costs a lot of money in their private school tuition model but what most outsiders fail to learn is that USC has been committed to meet each accepted students financial need which is the delta between what USC costs and what the state of California states that you and your parents based on your income and assets and your parents income and assets can afford. In my case and in the case of quite a lot of my USC peers, this was a HUGE hole to fill and USC financial aid made this possible for a non-rich student and family like mine! Fight On!Leader in the Recruitment of Minority StudentsAt 23%, USC has the most students of any Private University that are awarded federal Pell Grants according the Department of Education. 22% of all USC undergraduates are underrepresented minorities, due to very active and targeted recruitment of these students.USC Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI) programDecades ago,this was community program was established to give local minority students an opportunity to get a full-ride scholarship to USC. 7th graders start the program where they come to campus each Saturday for specialized tutoring for 5 hours each weekend. Parental involvement is a must and both have to sign contracts to entry into the NAI program. Six years later the program annually graduates 75 to 90 kids and one-third qualify to attend USC where they are given full scholarships for four years. Pretty Great!Celebrity GraduatesPersonally I am not a fan of celebrity because I was born and raised in LA but I get that it is a bigger deal to most people outside of Hollywood. Since USC has the history and prestige and is located in the middle of LA a lot of famous people are attracted to USC and thus attend or send their children to USC. You can easily find that list of famous USC Alumni somewhere else. Here is a hint: both John Wayne and Neal Armstrong are USC Alumni and if you don’t know who they are, then you just flunked your US history quiz.Olympic GloryUSC has a reputation and long tradition of nurturing Olympic athletes. From the 1904Summer Olympics through the 2014 winter games, 422 Trojan athletes have competed in the Games, taking home 135 gold medals (with at least 1 gold in every summer Olympics since 1912), 88 silver and 65 bronze. There have been more Trojans in the Olympics than from any other university in the world – if USC were its own nation in the Olympics, it would rank tied for 8th in the world in total gold medals earned. – Wikipedia.USC National ChampionshipsThe Trojans have won 123 team national championships, 100 of which are NCAA National Championships. This is the third highest NCAA count of all universities behind Stanford with 105, and UCLA with 113. Note that the NCAA does not award Football Championships, which USC has 11, thus we are actually neck and neck with the Bruins.The Trojan men have won 97 national championships (84 NCAA titles), more than any other University. USC was established for 41 years before the NCAA granted it’s first championship thus the difference in numbers.The Women of Troy have earned 26 national championships (16 NCAA titles), third in the nation.The Trojans won at least 1 national team title in 26 consecutive years (1959–60 to 1984–85). – Wikipedia.USC Football plays in the historic LA ColiseumThere are a lot of college football teams that play on campus or in our case across the street but if your college happens to be in Westwood Village, then your team plays all the way across town in Pasadena, about 30 miles from your actual campus. You can tell me how pretty the Rose Bowl is but you cannot convince me that many UCLA students want to spend hours on a bus to get there each game day because that is not happening.Most Beautiful Campus in Los AngelesGiven that UCLA is in a better part of town, it might be controversial and bias to state that as an Architect myself and past student at both campuses, USC has a better, more attractive overall campus. It has been very difficult to keep track of all of the new buildings and great architecture that has been created on campus in the past few decades. The great examples of architecture are not limited to one quadrant of the campus which is the case across town in Westwood. The amount of new buildings that were torn down and demolished to make way for better, more modern educational facilities is amazing. This opinion will only become more clearly apparent next year once the 15-acre $700 Million USC Village is completed across Jefferson Blvd. This will be the largest development project ever in South Los Angeles and add about 10% more acreage to the campus and almost 20% more campus space.Tailgate SaturdaysMany wonderful universities throughout the United States, outside of UCLA, have a glorious tradition of tailgating on their very own campus. USC’s ability to party on campus during home game days as well as those that tailgate around the LA Coliseum make those 6-7 Saturdays in the fall each year very special.Happiest Place on Earth?Okay this might feel that this is far fetched but honestly there are many of us USC Alumni, like myself, who are the happiest when coming back to campus. Unreal? No Way? I actually designed and built theme parks for Walt Disney Imagineering around the world and I also happened to be married to a Maui, Hawaii wife thus we go every year to that wonderful island. I will promise you that I am still much more happy on the USC campus during each home football game day since I have met so many friends over the decades than both of those wonderful places.OCTOBER 2016 UPDATE:The initial Wall Street Journal / Higher Times Education ranked over a 1,000 US Universities and they claimed that USC is the #15 best university in America. Sadly Cal Berkeley and UCLA did not make the top-25…

LTU is a fantastic university for studying physics, chemistry, engineering, architecture, computer science, mathematics to name just a few of the colleges of study. The staff/student ratio is very low, meaning that your profs are readily available to help you out. Most instructors are actually working in the field that they teach. This is great because they know what you need to know to be successful in your field of study, and generally want you to pick their brains, color outside the lines (as long as you can prove you're right), can help you land an internship down the road, etc.On the lighter side, its a great place to learn. I wouldn't call Southfield, MI a college town, but you're near U of M, Eastern MI, Michigan St. and many other small, liberal arts schools-- all within an hour's drive from LTU.That said, there's always come thing to get involved in on campus. Intercollegiate sports, intermurals, pick up games, cutthroat ultimate frisbee and other outdoor- as well as many indoor games, theater, concerts, study groups, lectures, tours, Detroit's great culture and food, music, armchair quarterbacking, college game day tailgating, Great Lakes, canoeing/water sports, ecology, zoo, jobs galore, coffee shops up the wazoo…Dorm life… see above. Food… cafeteria has a decent menu for a university its size. The delivery menues are never ending.Student union… It's grown tremendously since my days full time on campus! Bright, partially student designed building, many gathering places indoors, and in nice weather, outdoors in the “quad” if you will.Have a scholarship(s) in place! Remember that your high school guidance counselors are your biggest asset during your junior and senior years of high school. They can help you win scholarships for just about any and every special talent(baton twirling…yep) that you have. Don't forget that places where you've worked in h.s., clubs you've belonged to, community groups you're involved in, your church/synagogue/mosque are all places to go for possible scholarship or grant dollars. Check with where mom and dad work. Check with companies you'd like to work for in the future. Sometines they have grant money available too. Don't forget about Congressional grants. It's easy to ask, and nobody is harmed if dollars aren't available.Write one general paper that you can quickly revise to fit the requirements for every application you're filling out so that you can easily print out those puppies as needed with as little pain as possible!The reason I mention having scholarship dollars available is because LTU is a fantastic school! The only drawback is that each year of study, your credits become more expensive. (This is on top of the adjustment for inflation that every college/university faces annually.) I believe the reasoning behind that is that your prof’s level of expertise goes up every year too. You're not going to have a 1st year engineer teaching your senior level engineering courses at LTU. Their expertise costs more. That cost is passed on to you -the student.Two brackets exist. Undergraduate and graduate level. Undergraduate courses increases in price by year if study… freshman-senior years. Graduate level coursework increases every semester. Save your pennies!!LTU is a great place to learn and live while studying for your degree(s)! You won't find a more dedicated teaching staff anywhere that I can think of with this caliber of education!! Seriously consider LTU if you want a degree in applied sciences in just about any of the science disciplines!Good luck on the adventure you're about to begin!

EDIT- It has been one and a half year since I wrote this answer and I realized that I have overdone it and also forgot to mention some points. So I have made it shorter and more accurate while being trying to be completely impartial.It is the prolonged sore outrageous tyranny of this college which have made me write this to spread my concern among fellow and non-fellow mates. Tbqh, I seriously think taking a drop would have been a much better option than to take up engineering in this institute. I don't remember how many times I have banged my own head for not considering the former. This is in regards to all of my friends, colleagues who are in the same critical state as mine.1) Nirma University is hypo critic. Yeah, I am always taken aback when I hear reviews about Nirma from outsiders. They consider Nirma as the best college in Gujarat. Hell NO! I’ll give you one good example, we have seen the fountain only working on admission days. I once read a newspaper clipping about the Nirma lake where nobody even bothers to look at (That was some hard fact for you).2) Attendance. I would like to refrain myself over talking much about this because almost everyone of us would have at least days of debate on this already. They should realize that attendance do not make us a good engineer. It simply makes you a good student which doesn’t usually gets extended to a good engineer. Nirma doesn’t want to accept this simple fact. Either you are ill, got hit in an accident, or anything else, you have to manage all that in just 15%. That’s ridiculous. But, the good part is they allow upto 65% to not detain you. There is a provision of punishment for those who have attendance in between this zone which is liberal overall and somewhat depends on the respective faculty of the subject. They do consider medical certis in most cases.My point is Nirma or in general any University with strict attendance rule hasn’t been able to put forward substantial proofs of the compulsory attendance having made a significant improvement in one’s performance. It’s just a hollow law imposed upon us, and we are here twisting into its wild clutches. If Nirma is thinking that the learning atmosphere is pretty good and attendance is justifiable, they should come and have a look at the classes after the attendance being frozen. There are just handful number of students, though I have no intention to pin-point at them and I seriously respect their sincerity. But what about others? Why they have to come everyday, attend every lab and tut(Because, Hey! You are allowed to bunk only one lab or tut to make you fall in the above 85 bracket. Compulsory 85 in every component rather than average is yet another completely stupid rule) While, the sincere students still remain sincere, the careless student doesn’t even care anyway. That sums it up why this rule is ineffective. Adding more to it, great professors don’t need the compulsory attendance to attract students in their classes, people will still flock to them if they are providing quality education. Come on, man.. we have come with a decent Jee score, we are at least responsible enough and adequately concerned about our own future. So, Please!3) Exams- Honestly, their exams are substandard. Logical approach in framing questions is very less. They never go beyond the solved examples given in the textbooks written by the professors in Nirma and again those books are exclusively available in the “Mahajan store” in the campus. Another way, to generate revenue. I have found one or two professors in my branch who genuinely want to test students' intellect in the later years though, but overall it's not that impressive.4) Their archaic standards to compare students. They will judge you upon your pointers, if not your “class-room performance”. I had this bitter experience from one of my professors where he didn’t give me marks in all the assignments which I wrote with my bleeding hands (pun intended and I know you can relate) and he gave me 19 out of 30, the reason being explained by him was “I had warned you three times in the class but you showed no improvement in your class room performance." WOW. That’s where your insecurity kicks in, you don’t trust the assignments given by you henceforth you resort to other measures to give us marks. Nicely done, Sir! Some faculties are really very narrow minded.5) NU-Wifi- We dont' get enough speed everywhere Why we cannot use it on our mobile phones?(Yes, we have to rely on our mobile data packs for our daily mobile internet uses because wifi cannot be accessed on phones. A “technical” institution for you, folks!) Strict vigilance, banned popular sites, banned social sites. Phew phew! Although you do get awesome downloading speeds when the usage is less.6)Some totally not properly planned crazy rules-(i) Want to experience a tour of Mumbai locals in Nirma? Come to K block during breaks. Because, everyone has a break at the same time leaving our canteen not less than a fish market.(ii) The inflation rate(as mentioned by Doyal Shaji) here is 200% of the national average. They straight away increase prices of nearly everything without asking to anyone. The major reason is the lack of, in any kind, competition. You cannot celebrate birthdays, cannot make announcements and you cannot find food all the time!(iii) I once heard of a rule which they were thinking to implement this semester was to “not allow students enter the block before 08:45 am.” Reason being, as told by a senior, was to prevent students from stealing anything from the laboratories. Ha! Thank God, it never happened, but let’s still keep our fingers crossed, coz, here anything can happen!(iv) The timings of bus, attitude of drivers. The bus in which I come, lands everyone of us like 30 minutes before the time, and, every other day, we are like “what are we supposed to do now?”. And attitude of drivers, well let’s not discuss it anyway. We all know that they(again, not all but many)are absolute jerks and perverts. (I might drown into the mighty ocean of their unadulterated hollow pride, someday!)(v) Branch change is not allowed. This is where it actually proves how insecure the institute is regarding its seats. But, I still don’t understand the reason behind. I mean, it is really difficult for a 12th pass student to decide which career he should pursue in, one mistake and you are gone forever.(vi) Permission required to play in the courts, playgrounds. (Hypocritic, remember?) That’s not only the end of it. You can only play in the time span specified by them.(vii) The pathetic condition of Robocon members. First of all! One big, big and really big salute to our Robobcon members, who regardless of such a ruthless behaviour, have won 6 times the national championship. The budget for building the robot is around 10 lakhs, but the budget of providing facilities to members(food, accommodation) is apparently zero. If you go out for a morning walk towards the playgrounds, you will find some of the members laying on a grass, or brushing their teeth in open with water gushing out of the tap meant for supplying water to the greenery. I had a privilege to talk to many of the members and I have confirmed this much.(viii) Scholarships- This is in regards that, some of the really brilliant minds and needy ones have already got scholarships but many more are still beyond reach. The SC/ST scholarships are something worth notifying here. They directly contradict from the statement they have hung in the Management building which states “There is no pleasure earned, without much pain”(Though, I don’t accurately remember the sentence, but it was something that sounds similar to this) because SC/ST’s are living a quite luxurious life. Right from the admission relaxement to scholarships, they get through it like a smooth breeze. One of my friends from the criteria had bagged the scholarship, about what he will do with the money to which he posited “I will buy a heavy bike”. Later, on he got detained as he had four blocks in the same year, but hey, his scholarship was still adamant! So, basically Nirma detained him and the fees for the extra year which was supposed to be paid by him while staying at home was too paid by Nirma! Viscous circle, huh :p I am not, in anyway, accusing him nor doubting any of the scholarship winners from any caste. I am highly esteemed that many of the deserving candidates got it. But, what concerns me is the authenticity of the application which should be rigorously checked whether the applicant is really in need of money or indeed, the scrutiny must be done on the basis of the financial income of their family.And there are many more! From compulsory “Nirma file” in submissions to shithole water quality in various blocks, to no separate “lost and found section” to centralized kingdom(yes, because they are actually ruling on us, curbing our desires, creativity and innovations!) so that we have to rush to atleast four blocks(including the Management block which is really tiring, duh!) to get a small task done, from no hostel for UG students to only one offer allowed for one individual in placements, to being allowed to access computers in your respective departments ONLY and many more! It is very irritating when you cannot use a computer for some of college related purposes. The so called lab faculties would always shoo you away.Also, adding to the endless agony, I will share three more experiences of my friends(I will rewrite one of the experiences as I simply couldn't ignore) which goes by-1)“Some companies’ viz. ARM, STM, Motorola and other companies did come for internships and they set criteria for people those who have more than 7.5 pointers.As luck would have its game, I had 7.43 (at that point of time) and number game support my argument as to why should I be allowed to support my argument in that particular incident. The conversation goes as Follows.Me: Sir please allow me to appear, I know I am very good at VLSI, I want to work for STM, they are working in my field and I want to stick to VLSI.Professor: What are your pointers?Me: 7.43Professor: No, I cannot allow you to appear. I am sorry. (Picks up a phone that was ringing.)I wait there hopelessly waiting for him to finish his Top Premium Domain!: Sir please, I know I will not let you down in this.Professor: Do you not understand English? You have 7.43, which is clearly less than that of the Page on cut-off.me: Sir, marks don't really matter, you know. I spoke to ***** (A fellow classmate of mine, she was applying for STM just because she wanted to be offshore) and she is not even interested in VLSI, in fact she didn't even choose VLSI in her elective. I don't have a single backlog in my history, whereas she flunked Engineering Drawing in the second semester.Professor: That is no concern of yours. Look, I don't have time for all this. How much does ***** have?Me: Sir, 7.52Professor: Clearly, she is more intelligent than you. She deserves to be there more than you do. Why is it so hard for you to understand? Now, get out of my office and don't come to me for such nonsensical Page on arguments.me: I am sorry sir. (I left.)”2)One of my friends had to go to Pune to attend Baha workshop at the time of our class tests. Hence he, wasn’t able to come in time and got around 1 hour late as his bus has met with some unexpected issues. He wasn’t allowed to sit in the test. FYI, it was just an online test. The admin of the particular lab just had to allow access to his pc, that’s it. But no, our respected madam sent him to several departments, made him to write applications and applications, circulating them among concerned senior faculties and getting it signed after the strenuous repeated explanation to each and everyone, he gets a simple forwarded message from our director “No”. And the matter was zipped. One question that arises here is, that why such a prominent technical institution which boasts of promoting its students in the various technical fields have such a hostile attitude towards the really hardworking tech-guys? Why?3) There is thing which is called as “library feedback”. Students are required to provide an online feedback of their teachers (We all know that nobody gives a chris to them, although it will only worsen your matter and the concerned faculty can even have a “lucrative” effect on your final exams after you give your feedback about them. The library feedback has two parts, one online which we all fill it with the least care and an offline part. In offline feedback, one student is selected from every class to share their views about the library in the seminar hall. You might want to think that they must be selected on the basis of how many times they paid a visit to it, but sadly you are wrong. They select any one student who wasn’t short of attendance in any subject. Hahaha! The guy who was selected asked me for help, as he didn’t even know how to access the OPAC. I don’t blame him. After all, how could you expect a student maintaining an attendance of more than 85%, get time to actually go to the library? Instead, if it is compulsory for a student to scan their id-cards before entering, can’t they just count how many times a particular student from a class is coming to library? Because No! Your brain won’t work in genuine matters like these, instead you might want to devise another measure on how to earn the shit out of from these stupid students.I would love to mock at all those creepy fantasy lovers who have made the nickname “Nirmaland” viral. I mean, seriously let alone be it to be called a “land” of its own, being here will make you feel like in any local institution(Sometimes, you must be tempted to feel that even the other local colleges would have been a better option than Nirma). Student section is open to work only during breaks(no proper response is something which I won’t mention, because that will already look monotonous by now.), canteen and library, only during college time, Faculties being hardly available to your personal help or pleas(because they are always roaming around the campus or might be busy on their laptops, doing something I seriously don’t know WHAT.), you can get a feel of it being a government office than a college.As you can hereby see the facilities provided in Nirma are purely exploitive in nature, the management and course structure slowly turning us all into nocturnal beings. But nobody gives a shit, nobody actually cares, we all would like to remain inside the system just silently following the direction this insti is showing to us.After all this, let me add where Nirma actually scores since I desire this article to remain balanced. It has got a very good library. By very good, I sincerely mean very good. You will find, almost all of the books you will ever require in your college life. Some of the faculties are really great (which are still here ,as many good professors have already left), who don’t require the attendance rule to fill up their class.Some good concepts also include the Idea lab, book bank, properly maintained campus and classrooms and labs, etc.Concluding to this, I really feel sorry for my parents to have them completely drained out of money for this piece of shit. But from now onwards, I will refuse to bow down, I will work hard and fight back and let not this stupid insti ruin my talent and creativity, be it in any sphere. What will you do?EDIT- Here are some cool tips by a blogger how to survive the place - The Nirma-Shastra