<p>hsmom6: We exchanged posts in the “show me the money thread”. As I mentioned there, my d did not get much in merit from Pitt (1540/4.0 uw) and she also applied as a BME major. We told them no thanks in January, and since then she had had great acceptances, all with packages that equal or surpass instate. She was fortunate to be accepted to Duke for BME and the $ it will cost us is similar to or less than Pitt and PSU, and she was accepted into Schreyers. For us, unfortunately instate is definitely not a bargain. Cornell was actually the most generous of all, but I don’t know if that really will be a viable option. This experience has been a real eye opener. Your son has great choices also, good luck!</p>
<p>popcon and hsmom - was the same here for my DS with NY State schools. SUNY Binghampton (the top SUNY) accepted him but no aid. It would have cost us 2x what Pitt is going to cost us.</p>
<p>It appears to be all state schools try to attract OOS students for whatever reason.</p>
<p>I wish you both the best of luck!</p>
<p>Thank you DonnaMom. We attended a Penn State Society of Women Engineers stayover recently and they mentioned that some engineering scholarship offers were in the mail. We did not receive one and that was ok. PSU is nowhere near as generous as Pitt. But there were so many out-of-staters there, and I hoped that OOS students were rewarded. If we were OOS, there is no way PSU or Pitt would even be on our list!</p>
<p>Popcon, congrats to your daughter on getting into Duke and Cornell! Is she going to Duke? What a great opportunity! My son also ended up with very little money at Penn State. It is ironic because Pitt and Penn State were his two of his “safeties” and it is cheaper to go elsewhere! (Although he really liked both schools, so they were safeties academically only.) I understand that the universities want a more diverse class and so give money to OOS students but I think that might be short sighted. These great IS kids may end up moving out of the area permanently and not coming back to PA to contribute after they have finished their education. But as DonnaMom mentioned, all the state schools seems to be doing this and our society is much more transient than it used to be.</p>
<p>Son is also instate and received only Stafford loans as aid. He was admitted to 8 other schools, 6 of which are now more affordable than Pitt. So I guess we’re also going out of state, although I agree Pitt is a terrific school.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of a public that gives crappy merit to in-state, while giving more value to OOS. I’ve seen publics where they have to give more to OOS to cover the OOS cost, but not to the point that the in-state’s have to pay more for the same stats.</p>
<p>For instance…at our flagship</p>
<p>ACT 30 instate = free tuition
ACT 32 OOS = free tuition (this is a higher amount of money, but still only covers tuition - so it’s not “better” than the instate scholarship).</p>
<p>Are UPitt’s merit scholarships by major? or are they university wide?</p>
<p>It appears that UPitt has a very odd way of giving merit. Possibly based on getting students from specific states and/or kids into certain majors.</p>
<p>As a taxpayer, I would be annoyed if my in-state child had X stats and got no merit, while an OOS child with the same stats got free tuition.</p>
<p>Pitt doesn’t say at any point what the cutoff is. So it’s impossible for us to evaluate whether OOS kids are getting scholarships with lower scores than the in-state kids.</p>
<p>We are OOS and S got a full-tuition scholarship at Pitt. He had a 2300+ SAT, 3.9+ unweighted GPA, etc. He applied in early October, then received his acceptance in early November and his scholarship letter about a week or two later. A friend of his who had slightly lower–but still very competitive–stats, along with comparable ECs didn’t apply until months later. When he finally heard back from Pitt–I would say sometime in early February–he was only offered a half-tuition scholarship. Still pretty generous, but what I’m trying to say is that Pitt is a rolling-admissions school, and therefore the earlier one applies, the better off he/she is likely to be. Not sure if timing would explain why some of the qualified applicants didn’t get merit awards, but just another factor to keep in mind.</p>
<p>LurkNessMonster: I believe Pitt (and PSU) have a different status than state supported school that allows them to accept taxpayer money from Pennsylvania but also does NOT REQUIRE them to open their books for inspection / review by the public. Typical BS PA politics.</p>
<p>I think with the economy last year many, many students followed the money; that could make this year more difficult.</p>
<p>Pitt’s merit scholarships can be both general and departmental. It seems as though OOS students get full tuition, half tuition, or $10K. Plus, engineering students can get an additional $4K; I do not know if the $4K is for in state too.</p>
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<p>Correct. Pitt is a so-called state-related school, meaning they are free to make their own decisions, but get state funding for operational expenses. If you ask me, they seem to be getting the best of both worlds…</p>