<p>For those of you who were admitted to U pf Pitt and also got merit scholarship, congratulations! We wonder if there is anything students need to do (ie. respond to acceptance and/or scholarship etc.) between now and May 1st? Thanks!</p>
<p>Parent of admitted student here. Congratulations to your son, midwestDad2. As far as I know, other than applying for the Chancellor’s Scholarship, if he chooses to do so, and applying for the Honors housing(just checked online and, for this past year, the application deadline for Honors housing was 5/11), I don’t think there’s anything that your son needs to do before 5/1. (However, I do understand that if an admitted student is seeking FA, the appropriate form(s) need to be submitted by 3/1…?) If anyone has any corrections or additional information to add to this, I’d like to know, as well.</p>
<p>One issue that concerned me after my D received notice of her acceptance was when to submit the enrollment (and subsequently, the housing) deposit, and I raised this issue in the “Pitt 2014 Decisions” thread. I was concerned about it because many large public universities assign housing in the order that the enrollment/housing deposit are received. This can become a problem when there is a shortage of housing space for incoming Freshmen: One poster, MTnest I think, mentioned that Pitt had to house at least a few hundred first-year students in study lounges this year…? I just wanted to know how early I needed to submit the deposit for D, esp. given that there are still other schools that she’s considering. To resolve the question, I contacted the Pitt admissions office, who then transferred me to the Housing Dept./Panther Central. </p>
<p>According to Panther Central, housing for incoming Pitt students is assigned after 5/1 in order of numbers randomly assigned to each incoming student, **regardless of when their deposit was received,**in a lottery by housing. </p>
<p>So, based upon that info, there appears to be no need to submit an enrollment deposit early to avoid being shut out of housing(and then possibly lose the enrollment deposit should your child ultimately enroll elsewhere).</p>
<p>However, I would caution you, and any other (parents of) prospective students: If you (or your child) is accepted to, and even considering enrolling at, a large public university, you should inquire at the particular school, or the school’s CC forum, about 1) housing availability for incoming students, and 2)the order in which housing is assigned(whether by date of submitted deposit, or date of submitted application, or randomly by lottery, etc.)</p>
<p>Once again, congratulations to your S and sorry for the rambling post. :)</p>
<p>Here is the newspaper article about the dorming situation. Please note that they mention that the university gives preference to those who send in their deposit first!!! </p>
<p>[The</a> Pitt News](<a href=“http://www.pittnews.com/node/19772]The”>http://www.pittnews.com/node/19772)</p>
<p>For the scholarships, I don’t recall having to do anything about them. They were automatically credited to his account once he registered for classes.</p>
<p>From the Pitt News:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Okay, that pretty much flies in the face of what I was told when I called Housing, so it looks likes we’re back to square one. Since D has also received a scholarship with her acceptance, the chances of her attending have increased significantly, so this is, once again, a concern. D also intends to apply for the Honors housing in Forbes, so I wonder how that will impact her housing chances.</p>
<p>MTnest, thank you for posting that link.</p>
<p>I don’t believe they had an issue with the honors housing this year. However not every honor student applies for the honors housing. If all the honors students applied then I don’t believe they would have enough rooms for all the students. DS chose to reside in SPACE in Towers and there were quite a few honors students living in Towers.</p>
<p>Momonthehill: congratulations to you as well and thanks for your reply! I have one more question though - when you make an enrollment deposit, does it mean you are committed to enroll into U of Pitt?</p>
<p>Perhaps more questions (lol)
- Does U of Pitt guarantee freshmen to live on campus?
- How does the Honors housing work?
- For National Merit Scholarship finalist, does it have any advantage of choosing U of Pitt as first choice or it does not really matter as U of Pitt technically does not sponsor NMF?</p>
<p>We are very pleased to see U of Pitt forum is one of the most active ones on CC which provides tons of useful info to parents who are sending our very first kids to college, THANKS and hats off to all!!</p>
<ol>
<li>Housing is guaranteed for three years provided deadlines are met. </li>
<li>I don’t know about what kind of honors housing there is for sophs and up, but for freshmen there’s Forbes and you have to write a short essay for it. </li>
<li>Don’t really know much about NMF</li>
</ol>
<p>And about the enrollment deposit: Well, in a way it is a commitment to attend but no one can force you to go if all of a sudden you don’t want to.</p>
<p>The amount of traffic on the Pitt forum has increased tremendously especially since Pitt awards a good amount of merit scholarships. It is a good thing :)</p>
<p>Well, an enrollment deposit tells the school that you are planning to enroll at Pitt. You can’t make your housing deposit until you pay your enrollment deposit. However, I have heard of kids “double enrolling” but that is considered to be unethical. No school can make you attend if you don’t want to go – you would lose your enrollment deposit as it is not refundable.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Pitt guarantees three years of on-campus housing as long as you pay your deposit on time. And the due date of the deposit can be different – it is dependent upon the date of your enrollment deposit so check the date on your housing agreement.</p></li>
<li><p>You have to apply for honors housing. There is an essay you have to submit with your application. </p></li>
<li><p>No. If your child is a NMF, have you checked all the schools that offer automatic full rides/full tuition scholarships? There is an entire list on the Scholarship forum.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Actually, although Pitt does not automatically award students scholarships based on their NMF status, it does offer a limited amount of national merit scholarship awards (3 scholarships, I believe) so it is part of the NMS program and there is still a small advantage to declaring your “top choice” as pitt if this school is definitely where you wish to attend. If you are familiar with the NMS program, then you know that their are 3 types of awards- corporate, the NM program, and university awards- so pitt’s scholarships fall under the latter, even though most of the NMS that attend Pitt are sponsored by the former two, does this make sense?</p>
<p>midwestDad2: To somewhat echo MTnest & schrizto, the deposit does signal your child’s intent to enroll at a school, but should your child subsequently choose to enroll elsewhere, the only real risk is that you’ll lose your enrollment deposit which, as you know, at Pitt is $300. (BTW, I’m referring to either EA, rolling or RD admission scenarios, NOT Early Decision, which is binding)<br>
This happens often with students who are initially waitlisted at their first choice school and deposit with one of their “accepted schools” out of necessity, but then choose to enroll by their first choice schools once a spot opens up there, thus withdrawing at the school where they originally sent their deposit. Where I think that this can become a problem is when a student is applying to, and gets accepted at, multiple rolling-admission public universities. </p>
<p>Regarding Honors Housing: Here is a link to the Pitt website about UHC housing, and it contains further links that more specifically deal with first year housing: [Honors</a> Housing](<a href=“http://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/housing/index.html]Honors”>http://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/housing/index.html)</p>
<p>I also can’t address the NMF issue.</p>
<p>MTnest: I think that you’re right about the demand for first-year Honors housing. Based on past threads that I’ve read, it seems like about as many incoming UHC students opt out of applying for Forbes, as the number who choose to apply for housing there. Given her preferences, hopefully this will work in D’s favor if she does end up enrolling at Pitt. Thanks, again, for sharing the information.</p>
<p>I also really appreciate how active the Pitt CC forum is. It’s been a great resource.:)</p>
<p>Honors housing is also available for sophomores (and I thnk juniors on a space available basis). The sophomore dorm is at the other end of Forbes past the Cathedral and closer to CMU.</p>
<p>If a student is interested in some of the more challenging curricula, honors housing is a plus because more students are available for studying and discussing assignments.</p>