Chance me while I anxiously anticipate acceptance...

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pittsburgh
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<p>Finally got around to joining this forum after lurking for many months. I go through pages right before bed at night, and now here I am.
Back Story:</p>

<p>So I applied to the University of Pittsburgh and I am not sure where I stand. I am a current senior in Eastern PA, and I have applied to Temple, Rutgers NB, Penn State, North Carolina @ Chapel Hill, and of course the University of Pittsburgh. I was accepted into Rutgers New Brunswick, and that is all I have heard from so far.
University of Pittsburgh was kinda off the radar, and I only really applied because my best friend applied and was raving about it. I'm pretty disappointed with Rutgers. Its a nice area, but the cost for an OOS is... ridiculous. I'm not willing to take on that debt unless I get some decent financial aid. I talked to them and I don't qualify for scholarships.</p>

<p>Back to Pitt: Last week I received in the mail an invitation to "The World of Possibilities Program." Its basically an all day tour of Pitt. What caught my attention is that the university is going to pay for all the traveling expenses up to $250, and a hotel. This naturally instilled interest in me in regards to Pitt. I talked to an admissions counselor asking if this signified that Pitt was still interested in me, and she said "This invitation means that Pitt is still very interested in you." Other than that she just explained that the application was still in review. This happened on February 25th, and my application was submitted late January albeit wasn't considered complete until February 4th. Here are my stats:</p>

<p>Stats:
SAT: 1790/2400
CR: 640
Math: 570
Writing 580 (10 on essay)</p>

<p>Only took it once.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.7 Weighted. School doesn't report unweighted.
Upward trend:
9th grade: 3.2
10th grade: 3.6
11th grade: 4.1</p>

<p>Class rank: 112/476
Top 25th Percentile</p>

<p>All honors courses up until this year, where I decided to take 2 APs and am taking Intro to Philosophy and Intro to Psychology up at the local community college.
All of my electives have been science related, nothing really "fun" and slacker-ish.</p>

<p>Personal Info:
Double Minority: African American and Hispanic
2 jobs, single mother
Extracurricular:
JV Tennis Team for 3 years
Astronomy Club for 1,
Photography Club for 1,<br>
Young Democrats Club for 1 year,
Boy Scouts of America: Life Scout/Assistant Senior Patrol Leader
Promise of the Rainbow Program: Exemplary Minority Student (Invitation Only)
40 Hours Community Service</p>

<p>I have 2 strong recommendations in. I would have had 3 but my the third guy is the ultimate procrastinator. I asked him in the beginning of January, and it is March and he still doesn't have it in. In my opinion, my essay is phenomenal. I'm a great writer and it is one of my better works. </p>

<p>I guess I should be expecting a letter in the mail any day now. What are my chances of acceptance? Deep down, I am really looking forward to opening an acceptance letter.
Hume has shown me that there is no correlation between past and future events due to the chaotic and uncertain nature of our reality, but it would still be nice to know what you people think.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

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<p>Edit: I applied to the School of Business at first, but I want to major in Ecology and Evolution, Environmental Science, Biological Sciences, Environmental Geology or possibly Microbiology so I asked the admissions officer to change my preferred school to Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences</p>

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<p>Update: I called up the admissions officer today and she said don’t stress it looks pretty good. They are going over it today. That little reassurance makes me feel a tad better B-) </p>

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<p>Your math, writing, and GPA are on the low side, esp. for the sciences. Rigor is also on the low side. Pitt says it considers very important GPA, SAT, and rigor. The essay is only important. Everything else is only considered. It could come down to the number of African American applicants with better scores than you. I’d put you at no better than 45-55, but I’m saying this with no sense of how important diversity is to Pitt under this new administration. One set of stats says that the Pitt student body is 7% African American, 2% Hispanic, and 77% White. Another set of stats is slightly worse. Of course, my prediction has to be tempered by what you’ve heard from the AO. I wish you luck. Pitt is so good in the biosciences.</p>

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<p>Accepted to Dietrich :)</p>

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<p>Congratulations! Happy for you- you must be thrilled!</p>

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<p>hey, that’s great news, Roflspammer! congratulations. how likely is it that you will go?</p>

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<p>To be honest, I don’t know how to feel. I am stoked that I have been accepted; it just stunned me a little. I’ll be in college in 5 months.
I’m excited but I’m also scared and sad to be leaving. </p>

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<p>It’s good that you know you feel confused, stoked, stunned, excited, and scared. Sounds like The Realization is hitting pretty hard. It will get better. You’ll see that your friends who are going off to college are going thru the same process to varying degrees. The ones who aren’t going to college have their own realizations to deal with. Your graduation from high school is just the beginning for all of you, and nothing is so terrifying as entering into a new world for the first time. It gets less terrifying as you start to feel your way around this new world and learn that it bears some similarities to your world pre-graduation/college. I’ll leave you with the last stanzas of “Spring and All,” a poem by William Carlos Williams. Williams writes of birth (of spring, of child), a subject the obstetrician/observer of nature was intimately familiar with:</p>

<p>They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind- </p>

<p>Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf
One by one objects are defined-
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf </p>

<p>But now the stark dignity of entrance-Still,
the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken - </p>

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<p>Congrats on the good news. Always nice to receive the big “Congratulations” envelope from Pitt.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the support.
I was granted a 7k… grant. And 3 work study. 5500 subsidized/unsubsidized loan. This will definitely weigh in in my decision making.
I was also accepted to Penn State Main and Temple. It seems as though it will end up being between Penn State and Pitt. </p>

<p>Or community college…</p>

<p>The days are ticking away and I am more unsure than ever. I dont even know if I really want to go to college or if I am only going because that is what society tells us we must do. I don’t think I’m ready for it. I’m going to try to make a decision on April 20th or maybe the 21st. Is that alright or am I losing out by waiting longer?</p>

<p>Ugh</p>