Andrew McConnell Stott, USC’s vice provost for academic programs and the dean of the graduate school, said Friday the Academic Achievement Award (AAA) program won’t fully end as previously suggested.
In an interview with Annenberg Media and the Daily Trojan, Stott provided an update to students left confused following the March 7 news that USC was shuttering the AAA.
“I have heard from a lot of students obviously and I understand, I’m sympathetic,” Stott said.
On the Academic Achievement Award, it will only be available through the academic year 2024-2025 for students who plan to graduate in December 2024, May 2025 or August 2025, he said.
The AAA is a program that provides a tuition benefit for students to “register for up to 21 units at the standard full-time tuition rate” given that they meet GPA requirements of 3.75, that they are doing a multiple major or minor degree plan and that all the courses fulfill those major, minor or general elective requirements, according to the internet archive of the old AAA application link which now directs students to a mostly blank page.
In the same AAA announcement, which landed just two days before spring break, USC said new students would also no longer have access to Exceptional Funding under the Presidential and Trustee Scholarship programs.
“We’ve made a commitment to those students so they will be able to access that fund until the time they graduate,” Stott said Friday about the Exceptional Funding Program.
The Exceptional Funding program, which is used to fund students who take more than 18 units during the respective fall and spring semesters and/or eight units max for summer is applicable to USC Presidential or Trustee Scholarship recipients with a minimum GPA of 3.0 who have taken at least 30 units the previous academic year. “No new incoming students with Presidential or Trustee scholarships will be able to access Exceptional Funding moving forward, but current students who have that as part of their admission letter, they can still access it until they graduate,” Stott said.
As for the AAA, it won’t be available to students who will not graduate within that time frame, even if they would only need to go over the base 12- to 18-unit semesters during the next fall, spring or summer semester.
“The extension is for students who are graduating in that period… students with a later graduation date, so December ‘25 and onwards, they are no longer eligible [to receive AAA funding],” Stott said.
The decisions were made in the Office of Academic Programs and discussed with President Carol Folt and the provost, according to Stott.
“The academic advising community was obviously informed, but we didn’t discuss it with them in advance,” he said.
Students should expect advisors to reach out if they are still eligible for the program and if the student has communicated their desire to graduate in the aforementioned time frame. “I’ve asked [advisors] specifically to reach out to any student who is thinking of graduating in December ‘24, May ‘25 or August ‘25, and utilizing [the] Academic Achievement Award and to reach out to them ASAP and let them know that they’re still eligible to apply,” Stott said. The application will open in late May.
Stott said USC’s change to the AAA policy is based on the idea that “[students] should still be able to meet multiple academic objectives without the Academic Achievement Award.”
“I think it is important to know that given the eligibility criteria, given the fact that you have to maintain a very high GPA [and] given the fact that student plans change frequently, the Academic Achievement Award was never a guarantee,” Stott said.
The discontinuing of the program, in use for over a decade, was a shock and disappointment to students.
USG created a feedback form where students could give testimonies related to the AAA scholarship and Exceptional Funding. Over 350 students and alumni across graduating classes responded. USG brought these testimonies to Stott’s attention in their meeting with his office on Friday, according to USG Chief of Staff David Martinez. “[USG] will be providing more information at the USG Senate meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m.,” Martinez said.
Before his meeting with USG, Stott reiterated that this change would not affect many students.
“I have responded to every message that I have received or which has gone to the president’s office, the provost’s office or the Board of Trustees,” Stott said. “I can tell you that’s not a large number of emails.”
On the other hand, there does seem to be recognized continued growth of the program according to USC’s 2022-2023 Annual Report for Academic Honors and Fellowships. The report bragged, “AAA applications continue to grow annually. This year, 830 undergraduates across a variety of disciplines were awarded more than $3.6 million dollars in tuition credit to support their ambitious academic pursuits.”