Chance me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pittsburgh
1

<p>Objective:
ACT (breakdown): 26 (27 superscore) </p>

<p>SAT II (subject, score): Math II 600, US History 620
Unweighted/Weighted GPA: 3.4/4.51 (regular classes are 4, honors 5, ap's are 6)</p>

<p>Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 25%</p>

<p>AP/IB scores: Enviro Science 3, US History 3, Psychology 4, World History 4, Human Geo 2, Comparative Gov 2<br>
(self reported scores to those on common app and did not include human geo and comp gov scores. Those not on common app saw all scores)</p>

<p>Senior Year Course Load: AP Gov, AP Stat, Dual Enrollment Communications law (300 level), Dual Enrollment Political Science (300 level), Honors English IV, Honors B. Law, Honors Intro to Law, Honors Med. Science, Honors Microsoft Office, Comp. Engineering I, African Studies, Medieval Studies (8 classes normally offered but taking a total of 12)</p>

<p>Common Awards: AP scholar, Presidential Volunteering Award Qualification, Microsoft Office certifications, Key Club member recognition, NCSU polymer camp certificate</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Economics Club (grades 9,10,11,12. President 10,11,12)
Technology Club (grades 9,10,11,12. President 10,11,12)
Club Basketball (grades 9,10,11,12)</p>

<p>Job/Work Experience:
Algebra tutor at local library (summer 2011,2012,2013)</p>

<p>Volunteer/Community Service: Roughly 250 hours total
Key Club (grades 10,11,12)
Kramden Institute (grades 9,10,11,12) - Computer refurbishing, donation drives, etc.
Habitat for Humanity (grades 10,11,12) - Refurbishing/building household appliances
Town Teen Council (grades 9,10,11,12) - General community service, group events, etc.</p>

<p>Summer Experience:
NCSU polymer chemistry and engineering camp (summer 2013)
NY Fed challenge summer research (summer 2012 + 2013)</p>

<p>Reccomendation: Corporate Investments guy - I shadowed him - wrote a pretty good reccomendation.</p>

<p>Essay: Pretty strong overall. Chose the first prompt about "something interesting to you"</p>

<p>Other:</p>

<p>U.S. State/Territory or Country: North Carolina
School Type:Large Public, Very competitive, Probably one of the best in state.
Ethnicity:Asian
Gender:Male
Income Bracket Range:130k
Hooks: None
Anti-Hooks: Asian
Intended Major: CAS Political Science</p>

2

<p>Sounds good to me. i’m not adcom but assuming i was, i’d want u at Pitt. if there are a lot of kids with better stats, that’s the only thing I see getting in way. i’m not pulling Pitt admission stats to look this up but i think a 26 ACT is in range of what they want.</p>

3

<p>the middle 50 ACT at Pitt is 26-30, so you’re at the bottom end of that. The avg Pitt GPA on a 5.0 scale is 3.91. It’s hard to tell where your GPA would fall on a 5.0 scale, but you’d be close to avg. Nothing else about your app wows me; the number of service hours is strong. I’d say your odds are 40-60 at worst, unless you change to hard sciences or engineering.</p>

4

<p>actually, i like the tutoring younger kids and ur work at Habitat for humanity. Yes, that still goes to community service but those are good ones to have. and if pitt uses a weighted GPA, you’re in good shape. sorry, thought your ACT was more in the middle for pitt so that could hurt since it’s towards the lower end. I think your grades and strength of curriculum will offset the ACT though. does anyone know if it’s harder for OSS kid to get into Pitt?</p>

5

<p>I remember reading somewhere, and no one should quote me on this, that Pitt takes 70-75% in-state. I would imagine it would be better to be from NC than MD since Pitt lists as “considered” geographic residence.</p>

6

<p>Thanks everyone. I havent heard much about OOS students vs. in-state students and their chances of getting in.</p>

7

<p>I just visited Pitt with my daughter yesterday. Since we are out of state (Maryland), I asked the admissions counselor specifically whether the standards used to evaluate OOS applicants are any different than in the case of in state applicants, and was told that they are not.</p>

8

<p>Thanks hipslo. I know some colleges really stress their in-state vs. OOS. I’m assuming Pitt doesn’t put much preference on that.</p>

9

<p>hipslo, that isn’t the same thing as saying that they don’t have a limit on how many oos students they will accept. it’s a state school. they have to serve their state first.</p>

10

<p>Perhaps, but if as a result of that it was significantly more difficult to gain admission as an OOS student because more applicants are applying for fewer slots, it strikes me that the correct answer would have to be yes, different standards are applied when evaluating OOS students, because OOS students would in that case generally need higher stats to get in. They also said that currently approximately 38% of the students are OOS (which is higher than I would have thought). So, unless more than 38% of the applicants are from OOS, it wouldn’t seem to be more difficult to be admitted as an OOS student. I wouldn’t think that more than 38% of the applicants are OOS, but who knows, they don’t seem to publicize that sort of information.</p>

11

<p>bottom line: The standards may not be any different but the students admitted from oos are a more select group.</p>

12

<p>Found this interesting article - [Hurdle</a> rises for in-state students as colleges court out-of-staters | TribLIVE](<a href=“/ccpa/”>/ccpa/)</p>

13

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<p>Pitt has no preference for in-state students. It isn’t a true public school. It is a state-related hybrid of private origins where its administration and ownership remain independent from the state as does its academic policies including those regarding admissions. In fact, the state’s annual appropriations don’t even cover the in-state tuition discounts that Pitt gives to Pennsylvania citizens. Pitt will take the best students, regardless of origin, and in fact, has indicated a desire to expand the number of out-of-state students, which was 36% of fall 2013 freshman, because the demographics of Pennsylvania’s high school age students are declining. Circumstantial evidence on these types of boards suggest Pitt will actually give preference to students from under-represented geographic origins if they are otherwise qualified students.</p>

14

<p>wgm: so what is it then that is responsible for Pitt’s having only 36% of its students from outside of PA?</p>

15

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<p>For the longest time it just wasn’t well known outside of the area. I grew up in the DC Metro area and had never heard of Pitt (or even been to Pittsburgh) until I was looking at colleges, saw CMU, and decided that I might as well apply to Pitt too. You’ll notice a trend lately of more people from OOS applying to Pitt- it’s getting a bigger/better reputation and the word-of-mouth is spreading that it gives some serious love (i.e. scholarships) to good OOS students who might not get anything from their own state school or from a “better” school (i.e. Ivy league). A lot of those things combined with how far Pittsburgh as a city has come lately (ex. Google offices, cleaning up the surrounding neighborhoods, rising music/food scene) help to attract out-of-towners who would otherwise have passed up the school.</p>

16

<p>Pitt’s been on my radar since high school, but I grew up in PA and had family in western PA. I thought everyone knew about Pitt. Jonas Salk, Tony Dorsett, transplant ground zero, etc.</p>

17

<p>Here in ACC land, people are only just now learning about Pitt. I’ve lived in NC for 20 years, and only in the last few months do I get strangers commenting on my Pitt t-shirt because of their play in the ACC. It’s also great that I finally get to see the team on TV!</p>