Come Learn About Scholarships!!

March 11, 2024
by Natalie

Life Hacks

The price tag for attending USC Chan (or honestly, any graduate school program) can be a pretty large stressor. Don’t get me wrong, it pays to be at the top OT school in the nation, but that does not invalidate the stress that tuition can cause. Luckily, the faculty and staff understand this and there are scholarship opportunities for students, both within and outside of the Chan Division listed on the USC Chan website. Here are a few resources that are available to students and are definitely worth checking out:

USC Chan Internal scholarships: This is the link to the internal scholarships available from the Division. For prospective Entry-Level OTD students who are applying to USC Chan, these scholarships typically open around the same time the program application opens and for the largest scholarships, the applications is due at the same time as your program application. There are additional scholarships that you can also apply for in your second and third years of the program. To see the scholarships and the eligibility criteria for each one, select your program and year from the drop down list, select the scholarship you are interested in learning more about or applying for, and read all about it!

External Scholarships that USC Chan shares with students: this is a list of various scholarships that the Division put together in order to share with students. These are external to the Division, meaning students who are interested in applying for them should take a close look at the information available, ensure the information is still current, and apply according to the instructions listed for each one. I have noticed that the external scholarships seem to be more likely to require letters of recommendation than the internal scholarships. Just another great reason to try to make great connections to the faculty!

Financial Aid Office: The Financial Aid Office has their own website (specific to graduate level students at that) with a ton of useful information that students should keep themselves up to date with. Regularly checking this website will be useful to stay on top of different scholarships available to students as well as important information such as when FASFA is due. One of the tabs on this website leads students to be able to filter through scholarships

Scholarship Universe: This is an online tool that is available to students to see the many scholarships available to them. Students can filter through all of the scholarships listed to determine eligibility and easily keep track of the scholarships they are in the process of applying for or have applied for recently once they have signed into their account.

A couple of other notable scholarships directly associated with USC (thought not Chan) include the USC Norman Topping Student Aid Fund and the Town and Gown of USC Scholarship. Both scholarships are merit-based scholarships and they have so much aid available to distribute far and wide!

If all else fails, keep in mind that there are so many different scholarships available in so many different ways. I have learned about a ton of scholarships through social media. It is as simple as finding accounts whose target audience are students, or searching for posts that include “#scholarships”. Some scholarships are shared with students via emails from Chan faculty. There are scholarships available through AOTA that are OT-specific too! Keep an open mind to all the possible places you can use to look for scholarships and never be afraid to apply to as many as you possibly can. There is so much more money out there waiting to be awarded! Best of luck, please feel free to reach out to us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you have any questions!

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