This week, USC announced that an undergraduate academic honor, the Academic Achievement Award (AAA), would be discontinued as of fall 2025.
The award, according to USC Academic Honors and Fellowships, was meant to provide a tuition benefit to “highly motivated students with excellent academic records” pursuing multiple undergraduate degrees.
As Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Dean of the Graduate School, Andrew Stott is responsible for advancing and supporting academic achievement across USC’s over 800 programs. Stott explained in an interview with Annenberg Media that with university-wide budget cuts and a $200 million deficit, he and his team had to severely scrutinize the programs being offered to students for the upcoming year.
“[The AAA is] not a really wide-ranging award that impacts an enormous number of students, and those students are already very accomplished, so we’re glad they’re doing so well,” Stott said. “But now, being in a position of having to think more strategically about how we’re using our staffing resources, we’ve made the decision to retire this for new students so that we can focus on programs that have a broader impact across the student body.”
Through AAA, qualifying undergraduate students were able to take up to 21 units while only paying for the standard full-tuition rate. This allowed students pursuing multiple degrees to complete their degree requirements within their 4-year period at USC without accruing any additional tuition costs. In order to qualify for AAA, students had to have completed at least 24 units at USC while maintaining a cumulative GPA of at least 3.75. AAA was awarded on a semester basis, after which a recipient would have to reapply for the following semester.
Since the announcement of the AAA’s sunsetting, the award’s requirements have changed to note that a student can only qualify if enrolled at USC prior to fall 2025.
This is not, however, the first time that the AAA has been dissolved. In March of 2024, USC announced via email that it would discontinue AAA and Exceptional Funding in its entirety starting in the fall of 2024, stating that it was in the best interest of the school in order to support the largest number of students.
In a message to Annenberg Media last year, the Office of Academic Programs wrote a statement that nearly identically echoed what Stott had said.
“We assess our programs on an ongoing basis to ensure we are providing the best support for the largest number of students,” they said. “USC continues to offer an exceptional range of resources to support academics. Students should consult with their advisors to get information about available opportunities.”
A week after the initial announcement last year, formerProvost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Andrew T. Guzman, along with Stott, announced that AAA funding would remain in place for “current students who included this tuition benefit in their academic plans,” as long as they graduated by August 2025.
In response to the 2024 announcement, USC’s Undergraduate Student Government created a form for students and alumni to share their experiences with the AAA. Additionally, a Change.org petition was created among USC undergraduate students calling on the administration to revive the AAA for students who had already factored in the award for their academic careers.
Over a week later, as a result of student response, the Academic Achievement Award was reinstated with the same eligibility criteria.
However, student support for the AAA Program may not have been enough to keep it afloat, as USC announced once again last Thursday that the AAA and Exceptional Funding would be removed once more beginning fall 2025.
Past undergraduate and current law school student Madi Ingrassia states that the AAA program was vital for her career. “Without the AAA, I think I would have felt a lot more pressure to be locked into something early on, for fear of not being able to graduate on time,” she said. “I would not have graduated on time without the AAA, and that’s something invaluable both monetarily and time-wise.”
Stott confirmed that in a given year, around 3% of undergraduates relied on AAA, which translates to over 600 students. Despite this, he states that he had heard very little feedback from the student body in terms of the program’s dissolution.
“We spoke to the undergraduate student government about it, we consulted with them in the summer, we spoke with the academic advisors, we spoke with the university leadership,” said Stott. “And really, with everything going on in the world, we have not had to focus on this at all, if any.”
However, that is not to say that students did not push back against the decision.
Past AAA recipient Abitha Nunis felt like taking away the award would devalue the academic excellence that USC strives for.
“I think the Academic Achievement Award allows for the intersectionality of academia in a way that encourages exploration,” Nunis said. “To take that away would be to make our students less versatile not only in the workforce, but as people and as students that interact with each other on a daily basis.”
Ingrassia agreed, adding that taking away the AAA award would leave many students working towards dual degree programs in deeper financial hardship.
“I think [other financial aid awards] are already very competitive, and USC likes to pride itself on the high academics and prestige of the school,” Ingrassia said. “But if you’re not supporting and rewarding the students who are creating that prestige, it’s a slippery slope, and it sucks.”
While current freshmen and future students of the university will not have access to AAA during their time at USC, Stott did provide insight on how incoming students could manage their upcoming financial realities.
“I would commend them for their ambition, and I would say that they could still meet their academic goals with this program in place or otherwise,” he said. “All you need to do is work with your academic advisor to make sure that you strategise your semesters in order to fit in the units you need. You get 18 units a semester for flat-rate tuition, so that should be plenty to do more than one degree objective.”
While the time may be running out for the Academic Achievement Award, students can apply for other Academic Award programs at USC to support the cost of attendance at the university.