<p>Congratulations, GSMom. The kid’s got super stats and should be on the interview list for the Chancellors. It’s good to learn that they’re still choosing their interviewees. A flurry of invites went out a couple weeks ago but not much since that we know of here.</p>
<p>Thanks, all. The waiting is so difficult, especially as awards and invitations are still trickling out. It makes an already stressful and unpredictable process that much harder. Wishing the best for those of you still waiting.</p>
<p>My son got into Swanson engg (from OH): act 32, gpa 3.67, lots of AP courses. Graduating from high school in 3 years. Unfortunately, the letter just sad admit and no scholarship etc.</p>
<p>Is there a different scholarship application to get into Honors or get money? He just filled the standard application with a couple of essays.</p>
<p>time to call the admissions officer, user1001. It could be that mention of merit $ and Honors has dried up since the early acceptances got their letters. It could be some staff member accidentally cut the clause about the merit pool and Honors out of the letters. Could be a lot of things. Call them up and find out whether you’re still in the running for merit, what kind, etc. (Then report back to us :+).) There is no addl Honors app; admissions decides on Honors based on the app you submitted and seems to be sticking pretty closely to their 5% criterion. One could always petition for Honors; people do that.</p>
<p>and for GraniteStateMom and the rest of us that are down to our cuticles, remember that each of your apps have their own strengths (esp. your son’s GSM) and that we’re lucky to be in such a select pool of the top 1-10% of applicants at a very good school. these applicants are going to do just fine in college and in life. Back to chewing my lip. Mail had nothing in it today and won’t until Monday at the earliest (grumble grumble).</p>
<p>DS just got admitted at the Swanson School of Engineering after being initially rejected. He applied this summer after visiting the campus but transcripts were only sent out by his school on November. He has great stats (unweighted GPA 3.9/4.0; SAT I 2190/ 1500 M+CR; ACT 33) so we were surprised that he was rejected because his high school coursework didn’t include Chemistry and Physics. He goes to a magnet school that offers applied science classes instead of traditional Chem and Physics. He wrote an appeal letter indicating that he will be taking Chemistry at a community college and that his SAT 2 Physics score (720) show that he will be adequately prepared in Chem and Physics. He is also graduating high school in 3 years- so taking a class at the community college is challenging with his packed schedule.
Pitt Engineering has become very competitive to get into. We thought that with his stats they would offer him some merit scholarship- instead he almost got rejected. DS got immediate acceptance at Penn State (Engineering) and Univ of Alabama (Engineering).</p>
<p>@tweetymommy, Good job on responding a rejection mistakenly by Pitt admission office. Thanks for posting your son’s experience. Why does he consider Pitt over PennState ?</p>
<p>Hi Dad2013- We were aware that DS not having Physics or Chemistry might be a problem. Pitt is not the only school that told us that this was a deficiency in his application. Pitt joins the ranks of CMU and Cornell Engineering who are very strict about these one year Physics, Biology and Chemistry requirements. Fortunately we were advised that he should take SAT 2 physics and register for chemistry at the community college to fulfill the Physics and Chem requirement. His spring semester is packed taking Biology as well as trying to pass AP Physics and Calculus while taking the college level Chemistry class. I think Penn State asked him about his chemistry course at the community college as well.</p>
<p>Son was not impressed with the Penn State campus and the vibes they were giving that students had to prove themselved before they can declare an engineering major. He knows that Penn State is highly ranked but he felt that it might not be worth staying there for 4 years. Whereas Pitt had a brand new Eng’g building and great research opportunities. But we all decided to make the final decision once he finds out if he is accepted for Schreyer’s honors or not. </p>
<p>I am posting my son’t experience so that other students could ensure they take the one year science requirements in high school if they are interested in applying to Pitt and other highly ranked engineering schools. We hope that CMU and Cornell will respond the same way as Pitt when they evaluate his application.</p>
<p>Good advice. Hard to believe they nearly turned away a kid with a 2190 SAT. Yikes. Engineering or not…</p>
<p>Accepted to A&S. </p>
<p>From New Jersey
GPA: 2.9
SAT: 1890
School does not rank
ECs: Editor in Chief of school paper, Exchange program in Shanghai+Chinese immersion program, lots of drama and community service. </p>
<p>Still waiting on a couple other schools but VERY happy about Pitt</p>
<p>Accepted to the Environmental Geology program at A&S</p>
<p>From Illinois
GPA: 3.93
ACT:30
ECs: football, rugby, boy scouts, environmental service, band
*both my parents are alums</p>
<p>Got accepted to University of Illinois too and still waiting back on others</p>
<p>Has anyone heard about merit scholarships yet? aside from full-tuition i mean</p>
<p>Accepted! Undecided at Arts and Sciences</p>
<p>Stats:</p>
<p>SAT: 1750
SAT IIs: N/A
GPA: 3.83 UW / 3.92 W
Rank: 32/320+
Other stats: 2 on AP World (lol)</p>
<p>Subjective: </p>
<p>Essays: N/A (3 week admission decision, no essay)
Teacher Recs: N/A
Counselor Rec: N/A
Hook (if any): None</p>
<p>Location/Person:</p>
<p>State or Country: Pennsylvania
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male</p>
<p>Other Factors: Nothing I can think of. Didn’t have to submit an essay/personal statement. Just sent in my transcripts with my SAT scores.
General Comments: Good luck to everyone else who is still waiting. Congratulations to those who have been accepted!</p>
<p>tweetmymommy, glad to know that your kid’s admission worked out. MY son, like yours is gradating in 3 years. His gpa (3.67) is less than stellar, but he has the college chem, physics, biol and Calc II, and a bunch of other college classes under his belt which may have helped his case. </p>
<p>Since his admission letter did not mention any merit scholarship, chances are he won’t get any, but will call next week to find out. He has to decide b/w Purdue, Wisconsin, a couple of other schools, and Pitt. But, this thread is pretty positive and informative about Pitt. We will visit during the Christamas holidays, and again a bit later, to scoop out the school.</p>
<p>Hi user1001- congratulations on your son’s admission to Pitt. My son is also unsure of Pitt because of the lack of merit scholarship. He was accepted at Penn State and Univ. of Alabama (with the presidential and eng’g scholarships). He is applying this Dec to other schools known to be generous in meeting 100% need since we are low income. But since these schools are so competitive we won’t rely on him being accepted. He is pragmatic about going to the university with the lowest cost of attendance unless he gets accepted to his dream school (CMU).</p>
<p>I hope if the acceptance letter did not mention merit that it does not mean any will be granted! I thought the merit comes later in the process.</p>
<p>Hi PharmDmom, My son also received the conditional acceptance to the pharmD program. It is high on his list, but we are waiting to hear from some other schools before he makes his decision. Pitt has a great program.</p>
<p>Hi Annettes, yes Pitt’s program is fantastic. Have you visited? What other schools is he waiting to hear from. My daughter got into several other schools- Ohio, Indiana and Purdue. Purdue’s program would be the closest likeness to Pitt’s. We haven’t visited yet, but she loved Pitt and feels if she’s going to be somewhere for 6 years, Pittsburgh would be preferable over being in more of a college town in Indiana. She loved the city, as did myself and my husband. We’re hoping to hear something regarding merit.</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted (A&S/University Honors)</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2120 (CR: 660 Math: 710 Writing: 750)
[</em>] ACT: Didn’t take
[<em>] SAT II: 750 US History 740 World History
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.94/4, 4.41/5 (Two B’s from middle school in high school classes (Alg 1 + Geometry), none in hs)
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 10/475
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): AP World (5), AP Human Geography (4), APUSH (5), AP Euro (5), AP Comp Gov (5), AP Lang (4), AP Calc (3), AP US, AP Lit, AP Psych, AP Macro, AP Micro, AP Stat, AP Environmental Science, AP Comp Sci
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: All the ungraded AP exams (8 AP classes)
[<em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None major, but: Outstanding Delegate Award (MUN/Regional); AP Scholar w/ Distinction; Varsity Letters; Swimming State Meet Qualifier/Competitor
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): National Honor Society (VP), Quiz Bowl (Team Captain), Student 2 Student (Executive Committee), Online Entertainment Organizations (Leader/Founder/Co-leader/Manager/–worked with advertisers; pulled together contracts; sought legal counsel; organized and recuirted content producers, editors, and graphics designers; served as primary liaison to other organizations; all content centered around video games/Call of Duty), Mock Trial Lawyer (Lead for Defense), Model UN Delegate, Tutor, Interact/KenyaVenture volunteer, Varsity swimmer (2 years)
[<em>] Job/Work Experience: Lifeguard Summer (10th, 11th, 12th): 40 hrs/week, Lifeguard Fall/Winter (12th): 18 hrs/week, Online Organizations (it was like a job. I wrote about it in every essay asking for an EC)
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: Through NHS/Interact, couldn’t list all of it on my Common App, but mainly tutoring 5 hrs/week all year, IS and OOS(chool)
[<em>] Summer Activities: Work; study
[</em>] Essays: Pitt Prestige Application
[li] Teacher Recommendation: #1 AP Comp Gov: 10/10 (Excellent), I went in his room during lunch to read from his collection on political theory; my Model UN coach and Interact advisor</p>[/li]
<h1>2 AP Government: 7/10 (Neutral), My Mock Trial coach, nothing else to say besides his recommendation neither hurt nor helped my app</h1>
<p>[<em>] Counselor Rec: #3 GC: 10/10 (Excellent), First day freshman year I went in and expressed interest in going to a top tier school, explaining my career path to him. Been in contact since.<br>
[</em>] Additional Rec: N/A
[li] Interview:</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): MD
[</em>] Country (if international applicant): USA
[<em>] School Type: Public, large, surprisingly competitive for the top 20 (#4’s GPA is 4.42, mine’s a 4.41 and I’m #10)
[</em>] Ethnicity: White
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] Income Bracket: <180,000
[li] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Nothing huge, maybe some small stuff like my father’s job (high in gov’t)</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[<em>] Strengths: EC’s, Leadership, Online organizations and contract experience, GPA, course rigor, essays
[</em>] Weaknesses: SAT scores, SAT scores, SAT scores; unhooked applicant
[<em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
[</em>] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: UPitt (Honors)
Waiting: Brown, Carnegie Mellon, UChicago, Cornell, UDelaware, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, UKentucky, McDaniel, UMD College Park, UMichigan, UNC Chapel Hill, Northwestern, NYU, UPenn, Penn State, UVA, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, William and Mary</p>
<p>[/ul]General Comments:
First acceptance letter! Knowing I’m in University Honors definitely makes UPitt a more viable option; I’ll just wait and see if I get any scholarships and where else I get in. I applied to so many schools so I could “cast a wide net”, and once I start hearing from colleges (hopefully good news!) I’m going to go on some visits and see where I fit best. And, no, I don’t think I’ll get in at a good 3/4ths of the schools I’m waiting on.</p>
<p>Congratulations, Vctory! You’re probably not done.</p>
<p>Thank you very much! :D</p>